[TR] Forbidden Peak - North Ridge 7/24 - 7/26/2016

[tvClimber]

Trip: Forbidden Peak - North Ridge

 

Date: 7/24/2016 - 7/26/2016

 

Trip Report:

-Pictures at a later date-

 

The North Ridge of Forbidden has always seem like something of a myth in the local climbing community. Those who have climbed it in prime conditions say it's one of the best routes in the Cascades. Yet, compared to other long routes like the west and north ridge of Stuart there isn't a whole lot of beta or spray on the internet.

 

On the 24th of July the weather gods lined up with perfect conditions to climb this route. After stopping at the Ranger Station to pick up our permit for the Forbidden Zone at leisure hour of 9:00am where the nice guy working the counter informed us that the col was out. We simple smiled and thanked him for his services and left- hint the foreshadowing to come.

 

We hit the trail and reached the col about 3 hours later. From here we first checked the Alternative Col that seems to be the most common way folks have been going lately. We took a look and opt out, sounds like Jeffery team did it earlier in the day. One quick rap and we were at the base of the described Sharkfin col in the Nelsen's Selects. I put on rock shoes and lead the 5.7 slab part. I was able to protect it with a BD .1 and then place a BD .2 after the move. Then we hauled packs and my partner followed in approach shoes.

 

At the Col it was apparent that a 60 meter rope wouldn't work but we saw a nice crack that we figure we could hammer a couple pitons in and do another rap there. My partner rap down and I waited at the col in case he need to climb back up. The pitons we brought were too small (A knifeblade 4# would have worked) but he found another crack that would and he hammer a KB in and then slung a small horn in addition. I rap down and pulled the rope and prepared to rap down to the glacier. On my rappel, the piton popped and I drop a little ways but thank God the sling held. I quickly, found a great crack and put in a BD .2 in it and hung off the piece. My partner then lower our other small cams and I added BD .1 to the crack and created an anchor. We quickly decided that our best option was for my partner to rap down to me and then rap off the solid cam anchor. We didn't want to trust the single sling because there was some sideways movement on the rap. My partner did a short half weighted rappel to me where I fixed the rope to my anchor and then we easily rap to the glacier. In Short- Lesson learned just make a double 60 meter rope rappel and you won't have a problem getting to the glacier. Perhaps the best setup would be one rope and a tagline.

 

Once on the glacier, with all the time lost going over the col we were forced to move quickly across the Boston glacier. I must say this was maybe my favorite glacier crossing ever. So remote and so beautiful and it felt almost effortless weaving around one big crevasse to the next. We opt for the lower ramp that made the north ridge longer but gave us a better bivy site with great views of Eldorado, Primus, Logan, Buckner and even Sahale. It was a gorgeous night and Milky Way was incredible beautiful and there were lots of shooting stars. Isn't this why we climb in these places? We started climbing the ridge at 6:30am and summited at 3:45pm. Yes, I am sure folks have done it faster but this was only my partner's third time climbing together and our simul-climbing skills improved as our day went on, plus we did the longer version so cut an hour and half our time. Here's what I got to say about the ridge itself. It very, very much lived up to the myth! My partner said it best when after we crossed the upper snow field (really the only snow on route), "This route really has it all! Snow, solitude, amazing views to basically every peak in the North Cascades, scrambling ledges, sweet knife climbing that has extreme exposure on both sides.

 

The crux is at the start of the tradition start, where there is what my partner and I call a Leavenworth 5.5-5.6 move, which seems harder with our overnight packs. From there it's a wild ride because unlike the north ridge of Stuart there isn't much human information to draw upon. You just kind of guess which side of ridge looks easier as you go. We probably crossed over the ridge about 8 times in all, but we tried our best to stay on the true ridge most of the time. Down low we favored the left side and higher up we favored the right side. There were lots of time I wonder if the route would go or if we would need to belay a pitch out, but were able to do a running belay the whole time. We exit left to gain the summit the right side had some loose rock and didn't want it to fall on me or my partner.

 

At the summit, we decided to down climb the west ridge since I had done it twice before. We made great time, because I knew the route and we caught two west ridge groups at the col. We choose to rap over down climbing the snow gulley because we were tired. Another group choose to snow gulley and we beat them down so efficiency in rapping really does matter! From there we down climb the unnamed glacier got water and when we couldn't find the trail across meadow in the dark. We choose to just bivy another night under the beautiful starry night and wait for daylight.

 

Turns out in the morning we were about 50 yards from the trail. We were able to take advantage of low water levels to cross the streams and hiked out in about 2 hours. Then a mandatory stop for coffee and burritos.

 

Conclusion: This is a real gem of climb for many reason, perhaps crossing the Boston Glacier and bivying in such a beautiful place is reason enough to do this climb.

 

Gear:

 

Ice axe and ice tool- (we could have done all of the climb with a light axe but we came prepared)

Crampons on approach shoes (use whatever setup works best for your shoes)

Glacier rescue kit (2 pickets, 2 short ice screws, pulleys, prusiks)

Stove and fuel- (because we had to melt water)

 

Rack- BD .1, .2 (lost in anchor), then .3 thru #2, double .75, middle size set of nuts, and two hexes (#2, #3 BD Cam size) which we placed a lot.

 

Lots of Slings -15 singles, 9 doubles, a triple and a cordelette

 

Rope : 60meter, single at 8.5mm, but if I did this again I bring a 60meter tagline, so I don't have to deal with any shenanigans at the sharkfin col.

 

Edited July 27, 2016 by tvClimber