Forbidden, what climber can resist a mountain with that kind of a name? On 7
/25/2008, Florin and I attempted to climb it via its easiest route, West
Ridge, in a day. This route is very popular and is usually very crowded, as
it is one of the 50 classic climbs of North America.

We started hiking in at 3:00am from Boston Basin trailhead. My pack was
quite light, only about 25 lbs. In addition to all the rock gears, I took a
light bivy sack and some extra clothing, in case we got stuck on the route
and were unable to get off the mountain before dark. As it turned out, this
was not necessary, even with the mistake we made on the descent which cost
us two hours.

The initial 1000 feet of the trail was in as bad a condition as it was two
years ago when I climbed Sahale via Quien Sabe Glacier. Vegetations were
badly overgrown. It puzzled me why such a popular trail was not properly
maintained. Fortunately, after the initial 1000 feet, the trail was in
decent shape. There were 4-5 creek crossings along the way, which presented
no difficulty at all.

Shortly after 5:00am, we arrived at Boston Basin. We took a long break to
eat and drink and take some pictures. The view was stunning. We were
surrounded by Sahale, Boston, Sharkfin, Forbidden, Terror, Eldorado, and
Johannesburg. Far away, we could see Shuksan and Baker. The most impressive
one was still Johannesburg, which could be seen in your face right at
parking lot.

After the break, we started walking on the unnamed glacier south of
Forbidden. There were hardly any crevasses but lots of moats. We didn’t
rope up. After an hour or so, we were at about 500 feet below the bottom of
the couloir which gains the west ridge of Forbidden. The glacier steepened
to about 30 degree at that point and became a bit icy. We stopped again to
put on our crampons. For this trip, I wore a pair of light hiking boots
which was quite flexible, so my step-in crampon did not work. I had to use
my old style strap-on crampon. That crampon was fine but it took a lot
longer to put on than a step-in one.

The couloir was still in good condition. But near its entrance, there was a
very thin snow bridge, about 20 feet in length but only 1 foot in width.
This bridge would be melted out in a week or two, after which the couloir
would not go anymore for the rest of the season.

We made to the top of the couloir at 8:30am. There we cached our snow/ice
gears and put on our harnesses and rock shoes. At 9:00am, we all geared up
and started climbing. The rest of the ridge to summit is about 1500 feet
long with only 500 feet of elevation gain. We decided to simul climb as much
as we feel comfortable. As it turned out, we felt comfortable all the way
up.

Climbing on the ridge was so fun, so exciting and so enjoyable. The ridge is
rather thin, with literally knife edge at some places. There are over 1000
feet drop on both sides and you can see it clearly. The climbing itself is
quite easy. The rocks are solid and holds are plenty. We used a 60m rope in
its full length. I found it was not a good idea as there were a lot of rope
drags. A bit over half way through when I used up all my cams, I stopped to
take in Florin to get all the pros back. I asked Florin to coil nearly half
of the rope to shorten it. With about a 35-40m rope, I found rope drag no
longer an issue.

At 11:00am, we reached summit. I felt the summit of Forbidden was ideally
situated at the center of the Boston Basin area. The view from the top
handily beats the view of the top of other higher peaks like Rainier. Since
we made reasonably good time on the way up, we stayed and relaxed on the
summit for one hour. It’s a rarity that we could have such a popular route
and the summit to ourselves.

At 12:00pm, we started descent. Forbidden is known for its difficult descent
. There is no easy way down. Our choice was to down climb the ascent route.
We started with simul down climbing. After a couple of pitches, we found a
rappel anchor and did 2 single-rope rappels. With no rappel anchors in sight
and enough confidence that the climb was easy enough, we decided to down
climb again, unroped. This would be the fastest option, but a single mistake
means one would tumble over 1000 feet to the glacier on either side.

At 2:00pm, we reached top of couloir and found our cached snow/ice gears.
After switching back to boots, we decided to rappels down the couloir. Big
mistake. The snow was softer in the afternoon but still not too bad. Walking
down was actually a far better choice. With rappel, since all rappel
anchors were high on the rock walls on either side of the couloir, it was
not easy and a bit dangerous to get to them, and it took a lot of time.
After 4 single-rope rappels and nearly two hours, I got to the bottom of the
couloir first. When Florin got off the last rappel and pulled the rope, bad
thing happened. One end of the rope got stuck.

When I set up rappel, I always tie a knot at the end of the rope on both
strands. That way, one will not rappel off end of the rope and fall to his
death. Since this time the anchor was high on the rock wall, the end of the
rope went straight into the deep moat between rock wall and snow on the
couloir. When we pulled the rope, one end got caught by rocks deep in the
moat. We tried to dislodge it by shaking the rope or pulling from different
directions. None worked. I wanted to give it last try before we cut the rope
. I found an easy way to climb into the 10 feet deep moat, but to reach the
end of rope, it still needed a 8 feet or so lateral traverse. The traverse
wasn’t easy as the moat was too narrow (between the rock wall and snow/ice
wall) and there were no holds on the either side. There was nothing I could
do on the rock side, so I spent some time digging and kicking steps for foot
holds and plant my ice axe as hand holds. It took me almost 10 minutes to
traverse this 8 feet. Finally I got to the rope and freed it from the rocks
that jammed it. But then I had a bigger problem. I could not turn my body
around as I was also carrying a pack. There was just no room for it. After I
fought there for quite a few minutes, trying everything I could think of,
like squeezing pack, cutting snowing, etc, I was able to turn my body around
. Then I managed to climb out of the moat.

It was 4:30pm when we got out of the couloir. Had we walked or down climbed
on the steep snow (about 45-50 degree), it would have taken us about half an
hour. But instead, we did the rappel and it took us two and half hours.
Terrible mistake, but fortunately, with no significant consequence.

The rest of the descent was uneventful and we reached trailhead at 7:30pm. A
16.5-hour day.

This is my first 50 classic climb.