Forbidden Peak, East Ridge August 6-7, 2001

Phil's awesome topo. Follow the ridge.

Lukas the rope-gun, in the northwest for a wedding, then a climb. A few days before, we had tentatively decided on the North Ridge of Mt Stuart. I have a feeling this is a little more than I am up for though, and to top it off, Lukas doesn't get out of the wedding stuff and into Seattle, until 11am Monday morning, perhaps a little late to head over there. Also, he must be in "California-mode", because his only footwear for the approach is running shoes! No crampons and no stiff boots. This is the Cascades dhude! I figure we might be able to put my strap-on crampons on his running shoes, but that would leave me with my clip on's, which would only work with my plastic boots, which I don't want to take.

Anyway, we set off for the east ridge of Forbidden Peak instead, which has a much shorter approach. (Unfortunately, it is a ridge climb. Lukas is kind of sick of ridge climbs, because he had just completed a really long one in the Sierras the previous weekend, that hardly gained any elevation. And he is still fresh from his epics on the SE ridge of Huascaran in Peru - oh well). On the drive up, Lukas asks if I know where Cascadian Farms is - that was the company that makes the jam he eats back home in Berkely, in his "hippie commune", and he knows someone who is living on the farms. I say "I think we'll pass it on the way.", and he gets really excitied.

Finally, Lukas' dream comes true, and we pull in to the road-side stand next to the farms. We go inside, and grab some fruit from the fridge, and order a raspberry milkshake and shortcake. At the counter, he asks the girl if she knows someone called "Terrance". She says yes, and that he's probably at the farmhouse, just down the road.

Before going to the farmhouse, we drive over to the ranger station to secure our camping permits for Boston Basin - no problem on this sunny Monday afternoon, only 2 of 6 spots are taken. I ask the ranger how the bugs are in Boston Basin, since they seem to be bad down here. "Oh... there won't be any up there. It's above treeline." I am suspicious at his reasoning, but drop the subject.

He gives us some beta on the East Ridge. "It's a little committing, especially when you rap off the second to last tower into the notch. You've got to climb some honest 5.8 stuff to get out." And about the descent "loose and stressful", like every guidebook says. He also says that halfway along the climb, people have seen a long white rope hanging off the edge of the ridge, out of reach. There is a rumour that there is a dead body at the end of it.

"But it's false", he adds.

Now back at the farmhouse. Lukas goes up to where some people are working in a kind of fruit factory place. Eventually, he is talking to Terrance's mother, who informs us that he's working in the city today, but that his wife/girlfriend (I forget) just left a few minutes ago, and should be down by the road-side stand. We drive back there, but she is nowhere to be seen. Oh well. Time to climb I guess.

Lukas at the misty trailhead

We pull into the parking lot, and decide what gear to bring. The black flies are horrible. We take relief from the fact that, according to the ranger, there will be no flies in the basin.

I have a brilliant idea. In the search to loose any kind of extra weight, I decide not to take a sleeping bag. I'll just use my bivy sac (I consider doing the opposite - bag but no bivy sac - but am aware that a sleeping bag might not be so good at keeping critters out - and bugs too - of course, there are no bugs in Boston Basin). It's still cloudy down here, with maybe a little drizzle? But it's supposed to clear out this afternoon, and get warm and sunny.

Lukas figures out a way to rig my step-in crampons on his running shoes, thereby alleviating me of the need to take my plastic boots. Instead, I take my soft hikers, and aluminum crampons.

Boston Basin

So we start up the steep climbers path to the basin. After an hour or two of hiking with pretty light packs, we emerge above treeline, and proceed to the higher camp. We see a tent at the lower camp, but the upper camp is deserted. The clouds are still there, but the cloud deck is above us, with occasional spots of blue. There is a good breeze, so no bugs. We eat, the sun slowly goes down, and we sleep. At least, I try to sleep.

We witnessed these weird clouds when the weather started to clear Monday night.

The critters are out. Running over my bivi sac, trying to get into the food.

I start to get cold. It's cold with no sleeping bag! I've got a down jacket on, but my feet are freezing. And my legs. I toss and turn all night. Eventually I zip my bivi sac completely shut, and "put on" my backpack (slide it over the legs part of my bivi sac) to add warmth. It works a little, but it keep getting colder. The freezing level is supposed to rise to 14000ft. Tomorrow I guess though - right now, it feels about 40F. Morning comes, and I've gotten no sleep.

Lukas got some sleep - but maybe he shouldn't have. When we wakes up, he realizes that the snafflehounds have gotten into his food bag. But how? His food bag was in his bivy sac! Unless - no! They ate a hole through his bivy sac! While he curses the snafflehounds, I go for a 5 minute warm up hike. Then we eat a quick breakfast and leave.

Looking southwest from the notch below the climb.

The sky has cleared above us, but the low valley fog is spilling into the basin. However, we always manage to keep above it. We arrive at the glacier beneath Forbidden, and head up along a gentle snow gully on its right side. The snow is ice hard, crampons are pretty much necessary. Lukas' step-in crampon/running shoe combination seems to work fine. At the end of the snow, some loose 4th class rock brings us onto the screefield that leads up to the East Ridge.

It's cold up here! I've got all my clothes on, and the wind is blowing strong across the notch. I look down the other side of the notch, just as Jim Nelson says to do in Select Climbs, to look at the gully you ascend back to the notch on the east ledges descent. Yikes! Looks hideous! Steep dirt and loose rocks.

Lukas quickly leads off the first pitch, which takes us on the south side of the ridge, then up to the crest itself partway up the first tower. We simul climb for a bit - removing one of the slings, I accidentally drop the biner in a crack. Doh! I can't reach it. It's gone. Lukas reaches a good belay. Then I hear something bouncing down the mountain.

"What was that?" I ask.

"My belay device."

Wow, we're losing gear quick. He puts me on a munter, and I come up to him, and lead off over the tower. Easy climbing - once over the tower, I see in front of me a super exposed knife edge section of ridge crest. Yikes! Looks impossible, but as usual, ends up being much easier than it looks, as there is a ledge system a few feet below the crest on the right side. We switch leads a few more times - it's all a blur now. It was about 7 or 8 pitches in all. At some point, we see the abandoned old rope that the ranger mentioned. We can't tell if there is a body at the end, because it disappears over an edge. Why would anyone descend that way? What happened here?

The climbing is all straightforward except for two bits (and if you skirted the towers, instead of keeping to the ridgecrest and going over the tops of them like we did, you could make it even easier). The first bit is on the second to last tower (though we don't know this yet). Still simul-climbing, Lukas leads straight up the face of the tower. It looks steep, and takes him a while, but eventually he is on top and sets up a belay. I come up to the base - this is tough! Maybe no problem for Lukas - but I am flailing, and very nearly peel off. It starts off with no feet, then it is pumpy, overhanging face climbing on medium sized holds for around 30 feet. Good lead Lukas! Now, it turns out, we are on top of the second to last tower - this is probably the rappel mentioned in the guidebooks. Ever the purist, Lukas lowers me off, and asks me to check it out and see if its down climbable, and if so, put some pro in for him (rappelling is cheating, after all). As I wait out my lowering in my uncomfortable Alpine Bod harness, I see the wall move up in front of me. At first it's steep with no pro, then vertical with no pro, then finally overhanging, so I say "no", and Lukas gives in and rappels.

The tower we rapped off of (as seen on TV the descent) - looks like you could walk around it pretty easily.

Down in the notch, this really isn't very committing, because it looks like you could walk off on the north east side. In fact, along the whole climb, there are plentiful places to bail onto the standard descent route.

The final tower is supposed to be the 5.8 crux of the climb - hope it's not harder than the last tower! It's not - Lukas leads again, and it turns out to be an enjoyable, solid, not too strenuous pitch. I guess there must have been an easier way up that last tower! I finish off on easy rock to the summit. It is cool watch your progress by measuring your distance from the north ridge. The north, west, and east ridges all join together as I make the last few steps to the summit block. Such an easy mountain to understand. We have the summit to ourselves.

Looking down the north ridge from the summit - looks nice!

Lukas comes up, then immediately starts setting up the rappel. No time to lose, he's got a flight to catch a 9pm! And neither of us have watches, so we have no idea what time it is.

Lukas about to rap off the summit block. The east ridge is behind him, but you can only see the last couple of yards.

I'm nervous about this descent. "fatal accident" the guidebooks say, "loose and stressful", "one of the most difficult descents in the whole range". We make three single rope rappels, traverse a little, and do one more rappel. From here, Lukas thinks we can put the rope away. I agree, but ask him to not get too far ahead of me, in case I want to rope up. However, on this warm sunny day, the traverse is straightforward (and WAY easier than the descent off Fisher). The exposure is great, and in many places, if-you-fall-you-die, but there is always solid rock to hold onto, so if you're careful, it's no problem. In fact, we both mention to each other that this is enjoyable solid scrambling! Finally, we seem to be approaching the gully we ascend back up to the ridge. You can tell, because the terrain beyond this point really does look shnasty! Instead of intersecting the dirty gully, we just angle up on blocky solid 4th class terrain right to the ridge crest. It probably only took about an hour in all to descend from the summit.

The last rappel, then we followed the "east ledges" descent - the grassy ledges on the right.

As we're relaxing, eating, drinking at the notch, I mention to Lukas that his helmet seems like its about to fall off the mountain. He takes note, but doesn't do anything about it. A couple of minutes later, he nudges it accidentally, and it start rolling down the mountain, bouncing off rocks, etc...

"Should I go after it?" he wonders aloud.

It disappears off the south face of Forbidden Peak. So far, Lukas has lost his helmet, his belay device, and had his bivy sac and food ravaged by mice. This is becoming an expensive trip for him.

On the descent, Lukas veers right to see if he can see his helmet, and says he'll meet me at the bottom of the dirt section a few hundred feet below. Down there, I traverse over to where he went, and call out his name. Finally, he appears over a ridge, with a blue helmet on his head. Wow! It thought it was a goner. There is something about Forbidden Peak. If you drop gear, it doesn't slide into oblivion (see the West Ridge attempt - Benji's ice tool.). I bet he could have found his belay device if he'd looked a little harder. Come to think of it, I should have just fumbled around in a crack at my feet - I bet the carabiner I dropped earlier in the day trickled down to here.

Lukas, on the edge of the south face, after having retrieved his helmet.

We continue the descent from the notch - at the tricky bit to get onto the snowfield, we notice an abandoned rope hanging from a rock horn at the opposite end of the small amphitheater. It looks new, as do the slings it's attached to. Again, begs the question: What happened here? If we hadn't been worried about Lukas missing his flight, we probably would have walked around and retrieved the rope (yes, you could simply walk up and retrieve it). Must have been from a Mountaineers party.

Back at camp, two kids are hanging out there. We ask them what time it is. 2pm. Hmm, not bad - the whole thing took about 7.5 hours round trip from camp. They press us for beta. They only have a single 100ft rope, but ask us if we think they can do the east or west ridge. Were they trying to save weight by bringing a 100ft rope? Their packs were huge! (And brand new, and identical). Granted, they were here for a couple of days.

Lukas went to pack up his polypro shirt that he'd left at camp. No! The snafflehounds - they had eaten a huge whole in the shirt. Hmm - guess they like sweaty polypro!

Lukas realizing how expensive this trip to the Cascades was...

On the way out, we met two more parties coming in. Hmm, no solitude in Boston Basin, even mid week! I guess we timed it just right, right on the edge of the weather window.

Oh yeah - the flies! They were horrible. Yes, in Boston Basin. ABOVE TREELINE! Horseflies usually come singly, or maybe in pairs. But up here, they were in swarms! We headed out as quick as possible. It was hot, muggy, buggy. We were dehydrated. I kept drinking and drinking, but never needed to pee.

Stream crossing in Boston Basin.

We were back at the car by 4pm - plenty of time for Lukas to make his flight. So, we stop at Good Food and order some gardenburgers, fries and shakes. The food is ready. Lukas gets it at the counter window, then stumbles walking over a log back to the truck. My chocolate shake tumbles off, and explodes at his feet, covering the wooden porch in chocolate shake. Oops. We look at the cup - the bottom has popped off! I walk back to the counter and describe what happened.

"Oh! We've been having trouble with the latest batch of styrofoam cups! That happened with some iced tea yesterday."

And I get another shake. So be careful with your styrofoam cups from Good Food.