[TR] Forbidden Peak - West Ridge 6/13/2015

[ilias]

Trip: Forbidden Peak - West Ridge

 

Date: 6/13/2015

 

Trip Report:

Our group of 4 climbed the West Ridge of Forbidden Peak this Saturday. I was really stoked to get on this climb as it's one I've wanted to do for about 2 years now. We were worried that permits for Boston Basin would be unavailable when we got there Friday just before the ranger station close time, but it turned out they had plenty of room for both Friday night and Saturday night.

 

We decided to hike in that same evening, leaving the trailhead at 6:30pm and getting to high camp in the basin just after 9:00pm. At high camp, there are currently 2 snow free spots big enough to hold a tent and a bunch of other spots big enough for bivies. All 4 of us were in bivies and had no trouble finding space. We were greeted with this view of the approach glacier and bottom of the West Ridge Couloir from camp:

 

 

Clouds came and went throughout the night but conditions were not bad for some night photography (with my point and shoot):

 

 

We started from camp at 4:30 am, behind one other party of 3. We chose to go straight up the glacier through a path that connected all the way through, rather than going far left as some beta describes. For now, it is relatively easy to navigate straight up the glacier, either crossing a few snow bridges and hopping over a few crevasses, or zigzagging back and forth. Shortly, we arrived at the base of the couloir, where the snow still connects continuously on the left side of the "major rock" (but not on the right):

 

 

There's a bit of a break forming in the snow in the narrowest part between the major rock and the left wall, where you have to climb down and then back out again, but there's snow down inside the break that you can step down onto. This will likely soon be gone and you'll have to step all the way down to rock, but it doesn't look too bad.

 

Ascending the couloir was pretty mellow, with solid secure snow in the morning. Up the entire length, there is just one area where the couloir looks like it's melting out, with a break down to the rocks below, but there's a bridge over on the right side. The snow looks like there's enough of it to last several more weeks before making climbing up the couloir difficult.

 

 

It was interesting to see the rappel tat all along the walls of the couloir, which must have been relatively easy to access when it was set. But in this low snow year, all the tat was 15-30 feet up off the snow and would have been a giant pain to get to.

 

Also, some previous party had left fixed pickets that they must have rappelled off of buried in the snow all the way up the couloir, at intervals allowing double rope raps from fixed pickets all the way down the couloir to below the major rock. The pickets must have been originally buried deeper, but some of them are now only about 6 inches below the snow surface. They will likely end up melting out and sitting on the snow surface in a week or two and some party will get to booty a whole lot of pickets (I think there were 4 in total).

 

The top of the snow in the couloir attaches nicely to the rock and allows an easy step across, for now.

 

 

After gaining the notch, both of our pairs of 2 climbed up the West Ridge in about 1.5 hours to the summit. The party that had been ahead of us had forgotten to clean a few pieces of pro early in the route, which we cleaned for them. AS a result, they waited for us to come up to them and give them the gear, then they let us pass. There was also one other party behind us, for a total of 3 parties: our group of 4, the party that started ahead of us was a 3, and the final party was 2 climbers that were doing it car to car. Only 3 parties for a total of 9 people seemed like not many people at all for a perfect Saturday and I was pleasantly surprised, after having read many trip reports of traffic jams on the West Ridge.

 

We simulclimbed the route from the notch to the summit, other than stopping to pitch out the 5.6 crux section. We climbed on 1 twin rope per group of 2, folded in half for a total of 30m of rope length, which we coiled down to 20-25m anyway to reduce rope drag. The crux is short and can be easily pitched out with 30m of rope.

 

My partner down-climbing the false summit, me belaying her in from the summit:

 

A view over the Boston glacier towards Buckner, which some of our friends were gonna try climbing North Face on the following day:

 

More summit views:

 

 

Group summit shot:

 

We enjoyed the summit for about half an hour and then began our descent, reversing the route. The party of 3 was getting close to the false summit as we passed them on the way down, and the party of 2 had just gotten above the 5.6 crux section. We simulclimbed down the ridge, doing 1 rappel for the crux section only. As always, the descent took longer than the ascent, both because down-simuling that ridge is a little more intimidating than climbing up and demanded a bit more care, and because we had to get past the other 2 parties that were still climbing up (who were really nice about it but it still takes time).

 

We did 1 double rope rappel from the notch (where there is a nice rap anchor) down to the snow at the top of the couloir, and another double rope rap from there onto the couloir, to one of the fixed pickets I mentioned above. We backed it up with a 2nd picket (which the last person to rappel took out) and then rappelled down from there too, but the snow could have easily allowed us to just down climb from there, as well. After that, we roped up and descended the rest of the couloir and glacier, returning to camp around 3pm (10.5 hours camp to camp).

 

We took a relaxing rest at camp and started hiking down at 4:30pm, returning to the cars by 6:30pm Saturday.

 

Overall, the west ridge couloir and the route are in great shape right now. Go get it!

 

Gear Notes:

We brought 5 cams: 0.3, 0.5, 0.75, 1, and 2 and a set nuts. Could have been fine with a lot less. The crux has a piton you can clip, but I still stuck in a couple cams leading it. The ridge mostly takes natural pro (slinging rocks/horns) and we wouldn't have minded a few more slings than the 13 we had brought.

 

Approach Notes:

West ridge couloir and glacier in great shape. Likely to stay good for another couple weeks.

Edited June 14, 2015 by ilias

[waterproof]

Happened to be on Shuksan arm the same day and snapped some pictures of Forbidden and the West Ridge Couloir from that angle:

And, of course, the money shot of ilias himself as a little ant on the ridge:

[ilias]

Nice shots! That's pretty awesome that you could see us from all the way over on Sahale.

[Abby]

Hey, ilias. Nice trip report. Thanks for posting. I was in the group of two that followed you. It sure was an awesome day!

[ilias]

Thanks Abby! I'm new to posting on CC so it's good to see someone I ran into in the mountains on here!

 

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

Nice TR, Ilia!

[ilias]

Thanks! Saw you were up there too just a few days before. Were the fixed pickets already there? Curious how long those were around.

[diepj]

For those tracking the picket saga, they were gone when we descended the west ridge on Sunday...