The Back Door Approach to Forbidden Peak

The National Park Service limits overnight access to vulnerable areas as a way of reducing human impact on our pristine wild lands. I’m all about keeping our wild places wild by reducing foot traffic and tent platforms until these limitation interfere with my climbing plans (Just kidding). The restrictions do present climbers with limited time an added challenge. When my friends Ben and Spruce and I headed to the North Cascades to Climb the West Ridge of Forbidden Peak the overnight use limitations proved to be a pain in the butt. This inconvenience lead us off the typical path to the summit of  Forbidden Peak, where we found a great out of the way adventure.

On July 19th 2012, Ben, Spruce and I left Seattle in a light rain and overcast grey skies steaming coffee in hand. This was not the best climbing weather by Colorado standards but we were fueled with optimism. Our goal was to hike into Boston Basin and climb the West Ridge of Forbidden Peak the next day. Both Boston Basin and Forbidden Peak are extremely popular destinations. The West Ridge is one of North America’s 50 Classic Climbs per Steck & Roper making the peak insanely popular and crowded. As we raced excitedly towards the Marblemount Washington Ranger Station, the gateway to the North Cascades National Park, I had no idea getting permits to stay in Boston Basin was more unlikely then taking Cindy Crawford to prom.

With a massive smile on his face, the greenback Ranger at the desk told us no permits for Boston Basin remained. My heart sank. He told us eagerly about other great hikes in the park. Hike, are you kidding me? I don’t hike. I walk to the start of a rock climb. But that’s not hiking. This wasn’t just a great opportunity to climb a classic but was my traditional birthday climb. Hiking was not going to get the better part of me.

Ben in a moment of genius noticed the adjacent Torment Basin might offer us a “back door,” into Boston Basin. The topographical map showed a ridge separating the two Basins. “There has got to be a weakness in the ridge that will allow us into Boston Basin,” I thought. No one had a permit for Torment Basin. Game on. This was our way to sneak into Boston Basin and get the job done.

As the newbie ranger scribbled our names onto a permit for Torment Basin a senior ranger with hands on his hips marched over to us. He had been ease dropping. “What are you boys up to?” he asked.

I explained “We’re going to hike up Torment Basin, spend the night and then cross the ridge into Boston Basin the next morning and climb Forbidden Peak.”

Wheels turned in the Ranger’s head, he thought we were up to no good, “There’s no trail up Torment Basin.”

“It looks pretty straight forward.” I said pointing at the map.

He then said “You can’t cross that ridge into Boston Basin, the cornice is still to big.” He pulled out a recent hiker’s photo and pointed to a random ridge.”

“I guess we’ll have to cut through the cornice,” I joked.

The ranger had no immediate response. He seemed frustrated and just got right to the point “You guys are not allowed to camp in Boston Basin,” he said firmly.

“Sir we are aware of this, we will stay in Torment tonight.” I replied.

Now he got down to business, “We are going to have a climbing ranger up there and if he finds you guys camped in Boston Basin there are going to be fines and consequences.”

We assured the skeptical Ranger we would not poach Boston Basin and hurried out of the office into the pouring rain. The rainy weather, the unfamiliar approach, possible crowds on the climb, did I mention rainy weather. These were all billboard signs telling us to retreat but we pushed on.

We found what we thought was Torment Basin and started bush wacking up the fall line. It was like nothing I had ever seen. First of all I didn’t know a forest could grow on such a steep hillside. The rain lubricated the forest floor making it slicker then snot. We desperately climbed through old growth conifers sprinkled with slick loose talus fields and impassable thickets of Box Elder and stinging Devils Club. The going was relentless. Our hands and legs stung with each swipe of Devils Club. The humidity was almost debilitating. I felt like a wet towel that needed ringing out. We hiked mostly in silent misery probably because throwing in the towel was at the tip of everyone’s tongue. I wouldn’t be surprised if the last person to have walked into Torment Basin was Fred Becky himself.

After hours of hiking we gained a ridge. To be honest we had been hiking in such a thick fog nobody had any idea if we were on the right ridge connecting Torment and Boston Basin. The ridge offered a breath of fresh air and was substantially easier then fighting our way through the thick unrelenting forest. As we inched further up the ridge day light was disappearing. We had been on the move for over 5 hours and we had no idea where we were. All of a sudden the ridge ended one more step would have been into thick grey fog supported by nothingness. We were on a pinnacle with cliff to the right, left and straight ahead. I was sure we were defeated and would be hiking back down Torment Basin in the morning unsuccessful.

My stupor was broken when Ben yelled “There’s webbing down here.” To our right there was an old rap station on the Boston Basin side. A sense of relief filled me. This must be it a way into Boston Basin. In the thick fog and rain we had no idea where a rappel would bring us. It would of been reckless to try the rappel so we decided to bivy on the ridge and see what the morning brought.

We were in our wet sleeping bags and bivy sacks by midnight. I laid contorted on a small irregular patch of wet ground close to the crest of the ridge thinking there is no way I am going to fall asleep. The next thing I knew my alarm was going off, it was 3:45am. My head was near the crest of the ridge so I looked over the cliff edge in the direction of Boston Basin. There was a little light in the sky and the thick fog was breaking. Below me I could see the snow field of a glacier. I ripped myself out of my sleeping bags more excited then 6 year old on Christmas morning. The guys groaned and stirred out of there

warm nooks. We stuffed soggy down sleeping bags into out packs. We were ready in minutes.

We rappelled down over 250 feet of broken granite cliff to the snowfields of Boston Basin below. After a quick transition into crampons we were charging across the snow field just below Torment Peak. The West Ridge of Forbidden Peak is narrow and can easily become bottle necked with climbing parties. Do to our handicapped start we were already feeling behind the curves so we raced across the snow. We decided to drop all non essential climbing gear on a flat swath of glacier to be collected after the climb. This let us pick up the pace. I had another motivation for moving fast. The next morning at 6:30 am I was leaving from Seattle on a 6 Day Mt Baker Trip. I had to get back to the city, dry stuff, grocery shop, pack and maybe sleep.

The stellar granite climbing of Forbidden is protected by a 400 foot steep snow couloir. I dreaded having to pitch out the couloir or do running belays with snow pickets. I knew this would really slow us down. Fortunately the couloir had a great boot pack (Steps) with firm cramponable snow. It took us only minutes to ascend the couloir. A short pitch of blocky granite in a gully above the couloir lead to the ridge proper. After hours in the shadows the sun hit our chilled bodies for the first time in a day, the warmth was incredivble.  Once on the ridge we were overwhelmed by breath taking views and energized by the narrow ridge in front of us still to be climbed.

We easily lead most of the ridge. I lead out full 60 meter lengths of rope until the rope would literally tug me to stop. At that point I would build a belay. I then brought Ben and Spruce in simultaneously to the belay spot. We did this until the angle of the ridge leveled off just a few pitches before the summit. From this point we simultaneously climbed to the summit roped up with a few pieces of protection here and there.

At no time is the climbing on Forbidden’s West Ridge very challenging. In fact I did the whole thing in a pair of mountaineering boots. Spruce had on a pair of approach shoes. Approach shoes are probably the best choice for security of foot placements and comfort. Although the climbing is not strenuous the rock quality is superb and the exposure on each side of the ridge makes the climbing exhilarating. The West Ridge offered a little of everything, Cascade weather, tortuous approach, glacier travel, steep snow climbing and stellar alpine granite.