Forbidden Peak North Ridge Climb with Mountain Madness.

I just got back from a climb of Forbidden Peaks north ridge with Mountain Madness.  I have been wanting to climb this ridge for over 10 years and after looking down it after my west ridge climb a few weeks ago it was more on my list of things to do than ever.  I got a call on Wednesday asking if I was interested in working a north ridge climb and I jumped a the chance.  

The north ridge is not one to be taken lightly.  Just getting to the ridge can feel like a climb in itself since it involves a climb up loose rock and a rappel down the other side of sharkfin col, followed by a walk across a big glacier, and then another climb over a ridge on the other side of the glacier.  

We spent the night at the base of Sharkfin Col with the intention of climbing over will full packs and then spending the night somewhere on either the north or west ridge (our descent route).  We woke up the next morning at 5 am and made the quick decision to go for the whole thing in a day and leave our camp at Sharkfin Col.  

Sharkfin col.  The notch we used to get to the Boston glacier is  located directly above the finger of snow on the left side of the photo that points up and slightly right.

The rappel down the other side of Sharkfin Col at 6:15.

It was looking to be the best weather day of the year so far.

Our objective in the distance.

Crossing the Boston Glacier

There were not to many crevasses on the glacier so it was fairly quick moving.

The north ridge col is located at the lowest point in the ridge on the far west side of the Boston Glacier.  Many people miss this and go up one col too early (south).  This also works but requires a rappel or two on the other side.  I did not like the look of the standard crossing due to a large chunk of snow that needs to fall off, so we climbed up the col just to the south of the standard one.  After we got there we made one rappel and I changed my mind about the route variation choice.  We climbed back up the col and reassessed our situation.    We were planning on climbing the NW facing snow slope that takes you to the north ridge, but after having a better look at the complete north ridge I decided we might as well just start climbing from where we were.

I was very worried about time, since we were not carrying any bivy gear, and although spending the night on the ridge would not have killed us, it would have been a very uncomfortable night.  I figured we really needed to be at the summit between 12 and 1 to get down at a reasonable time, and right now (9:30) we were quite a bit behind that time.  I put the camera away and we got serious.  We climbed the ridge with a few short pitches and a whole lot of moving together on whatever terrain looked to be the easiest.  We bypassed a couple of steep snow sections by downclimbing around them on relatively easy ground.  The climbing was easy, and very enjoyable.  After an hour of climbing we had made it to the snow crest where the NW variation usually joins the ridge.

The only photo I shot on the lower part of the ridge.

The NW facing snow slope that gains the ridge does so at a point where the ridge builds up a lot of snow over the winter.  There were still some cornices on this ridge so we had to traverse the slope lower down where it was a bit steeper.  We did three full pitches on firm snow with picket anchors.  It was now time to relax a little since I was sure we could make it off the peak before dark.  

Looking across the first pitch of the snow traverse.  My crampon marks visible in the bottom right of the photo.

The second pitch.

The final pitch back to the rock ridge.

John maybe wishing he was somewhere else.

The upper part of the ridge was amazing.  Super fun and easy climbing.

Climbing the upper ridge with the snow traverse visible in the background.

The last few moves to the summit.

The entire ridge can be seen below in this photo.  We joined the ridge just after the farthest tower visible in the photo.

Opps,  I forgot to shoot a photo of us on the summit.  Someone else did, so when he emails them to us I will post them.

I took a second to shoot a photo of the n. face of Mt. Buckner.

Much to my surprise we were the first party on the summit, followed shortly after by another guided party.  It was 1:00.  We were soon warned of the large number of parties heading up the west ridge.  We took a short break on the summit and started down.  We down climbed and made 3 rappels on the descent to the top of the gully.

The crux of the west ridge on our descent.

We also passed 4 parties still heading up.  At the top of the gully was a large group of people who had decided to turn around and were trying to figure out how to rappel (or something like that, I don't really know what they were doing).  We walked past them and headed directly to the first rappel station on the right of the gully.  After a little route finding and several raps we made the final rap to the snow below the gully and were surprised to find that were also the first group off the peak.  We decided not to camp at Sharkfin col where all our overnight gear was, so we dropped a pack and ran up and retrieved our gear cached there.   At 7 pm we rolled into the lower Boston Basin camp and started cooking a very needed dinner.  It would be somewhere around 2am before the final group on Forbidden passed our tent heading back to camp.

All in all this was one of the best alpine routes I have done in the Cascades.  It has everything.  It is never difficult, but its length, remoteness and variety make it quite serious.  It is a route I highly recommend, however only to experienced parties of very competent climbers.

Back at the car.

West Ridge of Forbidden Peak Climb with American Alpine Institute

I just got back from a climb of Forbidden Peak over the Forth of July weekend.  Conditions are about as good as they could be right now, with the coulour still completely filled with snow, and the ridge mostly bare and dry.  We dropped our campons a couple hundred feet above the top of the coulour and then continued in our boots from there to the summit.  

Two Skiers in  Boston Basin.

We did not seem to bother the year round inhabitants of our camp.

Pika

Marmot

 We did not get a super early start, and were at the base of the coulour by 8.

Starting up the coulour.

Above the shrund.

Somewhere on the ridge heading up.

Seen somewhere on the ridge.  WTF was someone trying to accomplish with the blue cord added to this anchor?  Thanks, I can add this to my collection of crappy anchor photos.

Summit

Heading down.

Another party below us on the ridge.

James down leading.

Another Pika back at camp.

Skiers with Johannesburg Mountain in the background.

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NW Face of Forbidden Peak

This last weekend I climbed the NW Face of Forbidden Peak. It was my most enjoyable climb this year due both to the terrain and the good friends I spent the weekend with. I will post more comments about the photos later.

The hike in to Boston Basin is always enjoyable, despite the steep overgrown trail. Once above treeline the views are amazing. Our objective, Forbidden Peak can be seen in the center of the photo.
We stopped along the way and made dinner since we had a long way to go the first night. After that we continued over Sharkfin Col and dropped down onto the Boston Glacier and our camp right at dark.
Our bivy site on the Boston Glacier.
A lazy start to the day got us moving about 8am and heading for the base of the north ridge where we could cross over to the Forbidden Glacier where our route starts.
Pat descending the Boston Glacier.
Looking back across the Boston Glacier toward Mt. Buckner, and Boston Peak.
The notch at the base of the north ridge was not expected to be an issue, however due to receding glaciers it looks like it is going to be an issue as the years go on. Most reports I have seen about this part of the route talk about a simple snow gully.
Instead of a snow gully we started with a step across a moat on a barely there snow bridge(which Barry managed to break before I could use it. Thanks dude), followed by a steep climb up a short steep snow section.

Next, was an 80 degree loose dirt gully (crampons required) to gain the notch. Leading this was fairly serious as a fall here would be bad since there is no way to protect dirt. That is unless you climb in Scotland in the winter where the only good protection is frozen dirt. In this photo I am looking down the gully at Degay and Pat.

Pat at the top of the dirt gully.

At least the going looked easy on the other side.

Now we were on the Forbidden Glacier and we could at least see our objective ridge.

Getting to the ridge however was not as easy as we thought it might be. Route finding through crevasses on a steep part of the glacier made for a couple dead ends.

After messing around for a bit we did manage to find a snow finger that lead directly to the rock and was not blocked by a moat.

Our next worry was if we would find a place to sleep once we were on the rock. We had heard that there was some places to bivy on the route, but from below it did not look promising. Luckily we found a site big enough for three of us. Degay slept in a second site just below. From the site we had a great veiw of Eldorado Peak and Morain Lake below us.

Sunrise on Eldorado Peak. Time to start climbing.

The climb itself was abosolutly stellar. The rock was great, and the climbing was enjoyable.

This shot shows all of the ridge from the knife edge traverse to the summit. The crux of the route lies just on the other side of the knife edge ridge. The chimney mentioned in Beckey's book was beyond the actual crux of the route one pitch below. The crux was full on 5.8 climbing made harder by the fact that I did not worry too much about going light on this trip carrying two camera lenses and a tripod in addition to several other luxury items.

Looking back across the knife edge ridge at Barry. The crux of the route came just after this pitch.

Once through the chimney the cimbing eases considerably and you are treated to some amazing pitches of low fifth class climbing on perfect rock.

Pat climbing into the belay with Eldorado Peak in the background.

Pat is getting a little sick of me and my new camera lens.

Barry looking down the entire ridge from near the top.

Degay on the summit.

This route was one of the better routes I have done in the Cascades. Although not technically difficult the whole package makes for a serious outing. There are two ways to approach this route. One is to rap off the West Ridge Col and descend to the base of the ridge. We decided not do go this way due to the seriousness of rapping off the ridge in the unknown below. It is a quicker way to go than our route, but it misses many of the things that made this trip so enjoyable.

Most of the photos in this trip report were shot with a new lens. I have previously been shooting most of my alpine trips with a Nikon 18-200mm VR Lens which makes for a very good all around lens. On this trip I decided to bring a second wide angle lens which I bought just a few weeks ago. I was very impressed with the lens and love many of the photos I shot with it on this trip. It is a Tokina 11-16mm Lens I will add a blog post in the next couple of weeks entirely devoted to photos I have shot with the new lens.