[Bluebird]

Jake had *JUST ONE MORE BULGER* left and I've been interested in Forbidden Peak for years. Two years ago during some of the worst smoke, I had a 4 day permit for Boston Basin. I drove out there twice and even stayed overnight at the Buffalo Run Inn one night, hoping that the smoke wasn't as bad as the internet maps, but it was so I gave up. If you assumed I was excited for a chance to try again on what promised to be a bluebird Saturday, you'd be right! We set up camp along the road at one of the few decent campsites on Friday evening and went to sleep with the alarm set for stupid early. The drive didn't take too long and I started my watch recording at 2:41am at the beginning of the Boston Basin trail. The trail is pretty crappy but it wasn't hard to follow it through the forest by headlamp. One major creek crossing was running on the high side and we were not able to keep feet dry on this crossing. We hunted for the trail on the other side, looks like people cross this stream differently at times. After a while we broke out into open terrain and lost the trail route in the twilight and snow so we just headed up towards the glacier as dawn broke. We crossed some streams and filtered/drank some bone chillingly cold water.

twilight in the basin

As we continued to ascend, the snow became more firm so we switched to boots, crampons, helmets, harnesses and axes. We went up the main gully, required a couple mixed climbing moves to get over the bergshrund and then we were on the snow again. The rest of the gully was my least favorite part of the whole climb. Rock/dirt, 4th ish class and I could pull out some of the rocks I wanted to climb with. On the way up I insisted we not come back this way, or that we at least rap it. I could see some slings, but they were out of the way over to the side. Jake did not think this section was a big deal and waited semi-patiently while I found a way up that worked for me and then we were at the notch that starts the west ridge climb.

a=looking towards Forbidden

Johannesburg across a sea of clouds

climbing

steeper

some decent rock past the horrible dirt gully section

We put on rock shoes and racked up our minimal climbing gear. We used two 30m ropes so we could each carry half. The initial "jump" across the chasm was not my favorite thing, I could not get myself to do it even though Jake did. We kicked steps on some steep snow in our climbing shoes instead, and it was probably more dangerous than the jump would have been. The ridge climbing was mostly fun and I'd call most of it class 4. I didn't always pick the safest way and did some climbing on small holds with big runouts. It's interesting how I can feel so focused and within my abilities while in hindsight I realize that a wrong move there could have been death. We didn't rope up for most of the climb on the agreement that if either of us wanted to rope up there would be no delay in doing so.

As we ascended we chatted with another party on the mountain. They were roped together but not placing any gear. Hmm. They moved efficiently and faster than me so soon they were mostly out of sight. The crux area was an unavoidable 5th class move so we roped up and Jake lead up, placing the one cam of our route, a #2. Beyond this, the thrilling ridge continued and we stayed roped up and placed some slings even though it was not any more serious than the previous climbing we did unroped. Just before the summit there's an interesting downclimb move, and then a short walk to the true summit. I waited near the downclimb and watched Jake reach his last Bulger. His face was pure joy. I took a few photos of him on the summit and then finished the downclimb and joined him there.

the downclimb move

100

the smile was obvious from all the way back here

It had taken about 8 hours for us to reach the summit, at the speed of me, and it was now around 10:30-11am You can't rush me in exciting terrain, it's just gonna take however long it takes. We enjoyed the summit thoroughly, pleased that we had not encountered crowds on the route despite it being a gorgeous Saturday. We started to pack up reluctantly, knowing the descent is often the crux of this climb.

summit view

For fun, I lead a bit of the ridgeline, placing some slings until we reached the 5th class section, which we rappelled. We rapped a couple more times, and then some more downclimbing. Jake wasn't too excited with some of my micro route choices, including a very exposed traverse on little holds with snow. When we reached the jump-across, I wussed out again and did the dubious steep snow in my climbing shoes with no axe move to reach the notch.

lol

another rap

I was not excited about the next section of the descent. We carefully downclimbed the gully and Jake was way faster than me. He downclimbed the worst part of the gully, the part that scared me a bunch. So he was down there with half of the rope so I couldn't rap without him climbing back up. I hunted for a better way that didn't exist and finally decided just to do it, it was one of the worst things I have climbed. We agreed to rappel the next section of the gully, which was snowy and it looked like the bergshrund had collapsed during the day. After one diagonal rap we set up the second rap. We rappelled across the collapsed bergshrund's dripping chasm with rocks far below to safer snow below. We swapped to crampons and axes and continued to downclimb the snow until we met our second party of the day. Jake chatted with them and shared a gully condition report. The party went to the Cat Scratch Gully instead, releasing some rockfalls as they climbed.

the collapsed bergshrund

With daylight, it was easier to see where the basin trail was. We headed down snow, slabs and crossed streams until we reached the trail on the opposite side of the basin. Once in the forest again, we swapped boots for trail runners and enjoyed a much needed snack before taking the steep trail to the car. Total trip time 15.5 hours.

slab hiking

Johannesburg

looking back

marmot DGAF about people

Torment

[Bosterson]

Very nice, way to break out the belated TRs during these dark, outdoor-less times! Other party roped up w/o gear = no bueno! (Why???) I like the pic of you palming the rock next to those very enticing finger cracks. If the outdoors actually gets reopened this year, I'm going to have to take all the vacation I didn't end up using visiting my family this spring and go take a couple weeks in N Cascades. Extreme envy of the much reduced drive time from Seattle vs PDX!

[Bluebird]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[Kascadia]

[MangyMarmot]

Awesome TR. Forbidden is on my list. Can't wait to get up there.

[Brushbuffalo]

[Matt Lemke]

Way to get it!