The Approach to Base Camp is to Boston Basin per the Main page. Camp at the upper Boston Basin designated site or in a small rock bivy on the edge of the unnamed glacier in the Forbidden Cirque. Head up the right hand side of the circque over slick polished granite slab (water usually present) and into the upper cirque proper. For the West Ridge Couloir, eyeball a path through the crevasses and blocks in the glacier off across to your left. Rope up. It may seem to be a lot farther to the couloir than it looks (foreshortening). At the base of the couloir, there will be a moderate to serious bergschrund. A snow bridge typically forms up and to the left as you look up the couloir, above the large block protecting the entrance.

Once in the couloir - which runs 40-50 degrees and can be icy, the approach (or is this part of the climb?) is pretty straightforward. Be prepared to use a running belay from both pickets and rock protection. There are slings all over the place on the couloir rock walls. Somebody who is a better climber than me needs to tidy up in there. I found the moat at the top rather entertaining - it will usually involve some creative and adrenaline-pumping "climbing" techniques to defeat this. Try to exit "left" into various 4th class rock gulleys. Then there's a nasty loose scamble through some small chimneys and stuff to the West Ridge itself.

Route Description

WoW! You're now on the famous West Ridge of Forbidden Peak, one of the 50 Classic Climbs in North America. The views into Moraine Lake and Eldorado Peak just blew me away. The view down the spine of Klawatti Peak also freaked me out after seeing it oblique from Eldorado a few years earlier. Oh yeah. The route.

The route is mostly 3rd and 4th class scrambling with lots and lots of exposure. Incredibly enjoyable. The first two-three pitches can be (and have been) done unroped. In fact the whole thing has been climbed unroped - not by me. It is important on the easy pitches to climb with the absolute minimum protection required for your personal objective and subjective danger levels in order to maximize speed. This route is often crowded and you don't want to contribute to the que. Whenever in doubt as to route, go to the East side (left). There's a number of great hanging belays on this face dangling 1200ft or so above the Forbidden Glacier and 2200ft or more above Moraine Lake.

There are three distinctly technical portions of the climb - the Quartzite Ladder (that's my 'nom de plume') at 5.2-5.4, the Tower / Pin Crux 5.6, and the West summit traverse 5.6.

The Quartzite Ladder takes a fairly featureless portion of the Eastern (left) side of the ridge and makes it a little cakewalk. These great quartz chickenheads stick out in a vein about 5-8 feet below the ridge crest and you walk across them like on some chiselled stepping stones. The Tower / Pin crux was the hardest part i thought. When the ridge finally goes vertical after 4-5 pitches at an obvious step, bear around to the left and find a fixed pin in the wall (some say it was left there by Anderson and Beckey's party but it didn't look THAT old to me). Use that crack for fingers and protection - there's a small chickenhead or two to help, but this is certainly the crux of the climb. There's a nice belay patform on top of the tower. When you reach what initially appears to be the top, you'll find yourself on the West Summit, 5 feet lower than the true (East) summit. There's a big step here that can be awkward but is best defeated by working left (again) and slightly down into the notch from whence you can scramble up to the true summit!

My general advice on descent: Return from whence you came. You just climbed up it., why not go back down it? Downclimb everything you can and maybe try to rappel (or be lowered down) the Tower / Pin crux if you don't want to downclimb that.

The "standard" descent route on Forbidden - the East Ridge (actually the NE Face) - is also the one that has had a recorded fatality (in 1975). it's loose 3rd class with 4th class traverses around a number of rock ribs. If you haven't been on it before, just turn around and downclimb the west ridge and west ridge couloir. i know that sounds ugly (and it is) but unless you're up for more adventure and lots of exposure and adrenaline, it's probably less hassle than working down to the NE Face route and then clambering out on a completely different ridge than you entered! See the Selected Climbs in the Cascades by Potterfield and Nelson for a nice treatment of the NE Face (East Ridge Descent Route). The views into Boston Glacier and Mt Buckner from the summit and the East Ridge are incredible though... From upper Boston Basin in nice weather 5-9 hours to the summit and 3-6 back down. Double or triple this time for bad visibility, sudden storms etc. Don't get caught out on this peak. There is no easy way off.

Essential Gear

Hmmmmn. We took harnesses, pickets, crampons, ice axe, a rack to 2 inches (there are no BIG cracks on this peak), fewer slings than we needed - there's lots of horns to sling so bring more slings and less hardware if you're a hardware FREAK - and a rope, helmets for sure, glacier travel equipment like prusiks, 'biners, rappel devices. etc. rock shoes. One nice thing about entering and exiting the ridge from the same place - you can stow glacier gear instead of lugging it woth you on the technical portion of the climb!

Miscellaneous Info

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