[TR] Forbidden Love - North Ridge 8/12/2008

[kevino]

Trip: Forbidden Love - North Ridge

 

Date: 8/12/2008

 

Trip Report:

*After writing this out, I realize its longer than I expected, but I find that fitting since that was true with this trip as well. Enjoy.

 

So...where to start? Bala (pup on the mountain), was kind enough to respond to me plea for mid-week alpine clilmbing partners. After throwing around some ideas, we landed on the complete (not using the snowramp or whatever was described in Nelson's) North Ridge of Forbidden. Forbidden was one of the first peaks that caught my eye when I started alpine climbing last year, and as it turns out, Bala had been turned back once from Forbidden - thus adding to the ambition to climb this peak. Finally my friend David joined us, making the party a total of three ready for some good adventure - and that is exactly what we got.

 

Day One: August 11

For various reasons, we got a later start than we originally planned. Not leaving the car til 2ish made for a short day. But hey, the weather and views were great, with Bala visible in the lower right corner:

We planned on taking the alternate gulley instead of the true Sharkfin Col, however we forget to hang a left at the notch after in the gulley. We reached the top of the gulley, so no rap slings and realized our mistake. After some down climbing and kicking loose rock at each other, we found the proper rap station.

 

The moon rising over Sahalee Peak?

 

Sunset on J'berg:

 

The rappel was fine, you just have to make a little leap over the moat to get onto the snow, which thankfully held our weight. We roped up for the glacier and started moving, however darkness moved in quickly and after finding a flat, crevasse free spot, we opted to bivy there and finish the glacier tomorrow. While, not nearly as far as we had hoped, it was time to relax, take in the views and enjoy the shooting stars.

 

 

Day 2

David took some masterful shots of the sunrise:

 

The Boston Glacier is just so damn big:

 

We eventually gained the ridge, and I got to lead the "lower crux," which was invigerating. After that we just started simulclimbing forever it seemed. The rope drag ended up being quite annoying with the three of us and really seemed to slow us down. We came to a col and then continued up the steeper section:

 

The climbing was never difficult and was just so much fun.

 

Who needs running water when you have snow?

 

Just living the dream:

 

We could hear thunder in the distance, and the clouds rolled in, slowly at first first, then relentlessly. David, barely visible on the ridge:

 

We soon lost most/all visiblity and after getting to the top we just got the heck out of there. The raps went fine, however it was getting late. The traverse on the ledges was tedious at first, and got better as we got closer to thet exit gulley. By this time it was dark and little did we know, we were too low when we entered the gulley, which led to sometimes wet and mossy chimney climbing. We made it out and were greeted with this view:

 

We started descending quickly, however the gulleys we thought we could take down to the glacier were not connected and looked too cliffy and wet to safely down climb in the dark. We opted for a fun unplanned bivy - just a tad colder than the night before. The clouds threatened but it never actually rained.

 

Day 3

We awoke to this:

 

Thankfully after a little scrambling around we found some old rap stations. Two wet rappels down a waterfall gulley got us onto the lower snowfields and easy hiking out.

 

This was really our last semi-clear view of Forbidden:

 

After leaving the snow we were greeted with lots of Marmots:

 

Down lower the clouds started to part and we were left with a suprisingly pleasent hike out:

 

Just want to say thanks to Bala and David for a great trip!

 

Gear Notes:

We brought yellow, orange, red TCU's and red and yellow camalot, set of nuts and long runners. Worked fine.

 

Bring more food! We ended up with a bag of trial mix for the three of us to eat for the last like 16 hours of the trip.

 

Approach Notes:

Easy to spot the gulley once out of the trees. Just remember to veer left once in it.

Edited August 14, 2008 by kevino

[hollyclimber]

Nice report! Great pics on the rock!

[Val Zephyr]

Nice work guys. Looks like a fun climb! I love the sunrise pics. It looks like a pretty sweet place to bivy (even if it was unplanned).

[rob]

Nice job! Definitely on my list. Looks like a great time

[DPS]

Nice job! This is one of my favorite routes!

[sobo]

WTF?? why aren't the pics showing up for me???

 

Nice job Kevin and Bala. You guys should come craggin with me at Lightning Dome this weekend! C'mon, ya know ya want to...

[wbk]

Sorry if I'm out to lunch and it was clear in your TR, but which descent did take off of Forbidden?

Edited August 14, 2008 by wbk

[kevino]

Sobo - Thats weird. Just hit refresh a bunch? And I thought it was next weekend?

 

wbk - I guess I wasn't too clear. We took the East Ledges descent. I think its one of those things where after you've done it once it will be a lot clearer.

Edited August 14, 2008 by kevino

[sobo]

Still "no joy" on the pics. I did a "Quote" toggle, and can see where you have the image files and tags, but for some reason, this is the only thread in which I cannot see pics. Weirrrrrrd...

 

Oh yeah, you're right. It is NEXT WEEK that I'm headed to LD. 8/19-8/25

[jcp]

Hey, this is the guy who you saw when you were on the trail leaving. I was one of the group of three who were going to attempt the traverse. We got thoroughly spanked, but it was a great time. Thanks for your tr here, it inspires me to go back and try it from the north side.

[pup_on_the_mountain]

Thanks for the awesome trip Kevin and David! Its been a while since I did anything in the mountains, and this trip sort of brought my slowass back into some shape . A grand alpine tour indeed .

 

Kevin's TR summed up the trip well. I'll add a few more pics and some pointers.

 

Kevin and David on the approach. The alternate gully to Sharkfin Col is visible above Kevin's head (on the left).

 

Lower portion of the gully. Start veering left at about the top of snow in this picture (it wasn't obvious to us; plus, the way up from the snow was super loose).

 

Bivy on Boston glacier.

 

View of the route from camp. Access to the ridge is visible on the right end. There was a moat making the transition to the rock interesting.

 

Kevin approaching the crux on the first pitch.

 

North Face of Buckner. I guess the season is over (unless you have brass balls).

 

 

We avoided unwanted worries for the near and dear ones thanks to Verizon! Good reception from the East Ridge notch, and also from our bivy spot (for the second night). We had the company of a rat (not the climber) at our second bivy. I left a plastic bag with trash (chocolate and Gu wrappers) outside for the rodent to chew, but saved the bag of trail mix inside my sleeping bag. The rat did chew into the trash bag, but no other damage was done.

[kevino]

Sobo, I think this happened with my stuart TR too. I'll upload my pictures on another site this weekend and you can look at them that way.

 

jcp, what happened on the traverse? Got any pictures? I'd love to do that traverse some day.

 

Thanks for more pics Bala!

[sobo]

I can see Bala's pics just fine. Not so much with yours, still.

[DPS]

Reading this trip report brought back fond memories of my trip with Michael Stanton a few years ago. I found his trip report and re-read it and thought others might enjoy it too. http://www.mountainwerks.org/cma/2002/forbidden.htm

[pup_on_the_mountain]

Thanks for the link (and beta) Dan! I enjoyed reading your TR. We were puzzled how you guys dispatched the climb in 15-16 hours - its really looong. Not complaining though - the unplanned bivy is always nice (as long as its comfortable).

 

I had looked at the route page on SummitPost (put up by Michael). He mentions the upper north ridge (after the snow) is only 2-3 pitches. At the same time, we did at least four pitches (not including some simuling) on a 70m rope! Looks like you just cruised the whole thing so fast that it felt shorter . The climbing was excellent, though.

[DPS]

Well, I was younger, healthier, and fitter back then =). We soloed or simuled most of the ridge. I remember the upper ridge being longer than 2-3 pitches as well. Hmmmm.

 

Your assessment of this route being a grand alpine tour is spot on! The climbing is never hard, yet demands the full alpine climber's repetoire and traverses a spectacular landscape.

[Alex]

stellar shots yo! nice trip. still on my list. hope to do it before i get old.

[pc313]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mvs]

Whoa, thanks to google I just saw this fellas. I'll fix the summitpost page. It's true, for Dan and I that ridge was just an extended dream sequence. Probably due to tiredness from the 2 am wake up . Thanks for the memories!