Sean, Gerry and I hit the weather lottery and spent an enjoyable couple days on Forbidden's West Ridge. There are a couple significant avy debris fields on the approach into Boston Basin where the trail becomes faint and easy to lose ...as if the Boston Basin trail needed additional character. Once above the low camp (high camp has not yet melted out as of 6/28) we had boot track all the way to and through the couloir (thanks to John Rollins, Marty Jolly, and friends). The couloir was in great shape. No bergie has formed yet, so we didn't have to deal with making the step around. We chose to bivy at the notch which was scenic and gave us an early jump on the route. We simul-climbed just about the entire route, hit the summit, then turned around and re-traced our steps by downclimbing the route. We ended up with two rappels on the descent to get over a couple trick(ier) sections. After breaking camp, two double rope rappels from just below the bivy site put us nearly to the bottom of the couloir.
Lots of air on this route, but the climbing is entirely reasonable and the rock quality good. Thanks to Sean and Gerry for making this a fun trip!
Some photos...
Boston Basin on the approach
Sean works his way up the glacier with Cascade Peak and J-Burg in the audience
Ascending the couloir
Forbidden's West Ridge from our bivy site
Eldorado at sunrise
Sean steps up to the summit
Descending lower on the ridge
Descending unamed glacier to Forbidden's south side
