Exposure on the East Ridge with views of Buckner, Boston, and Sahale
Forbidden Peak and the Boston Basin area keep drawing me back. Even after climbing the TFT, East Ridge, North Ridge, and NW Face of Forbidden, I was happy to head back and get out there with Colin—the position, rock, and views are all awesome.
We drove up from Seattle on Friday after work, enjoying a dinner at the Train Wreck in Burlington on the way, and slept in the back of the car just below the trailhead. We left the car at about 5:30am, got to the edge of the basin at about 6:45am, geared up at the start of the route at 9:30am, and were off on the sea of jagged ridgeline shortly thereafter. Everything on the approach was nice and straightforward. The Unnamed Glacier was well covered and quick in approach shoes with strap-on aluminum crampons.
Making progress with the North Ridge making up the right-hand skyline
We'd read a recent trip report suggesting that the East Ledges anchor was missing, so we brought all of our gear just in case. The route was longer than I remembered and I was surprised that it took as long as it did to reach the large gendarme. Exposure is a constant companion on this route and it can wear on you if you're not ready for it. We found fun, pretty well-protected climbing on good holds through the couple of steep crux sections (around 5.8).
Taking in the view of Rainier, Glacier, Johannesburg, and more
We hit the summit at about 2:45pm and took in the views for a little bit before heading down the East Ledges thanks to a shiny new rap anchor right off the summit block. Thanks to whoever placed that purple webbing at the top and backed up some of the raps on the way down. We did 5 single-rope raps down and then did a downward-trending traverse across the ledges, taking our time on the loose, somewhat nerve-wracking terrain and reaching the start of the route at 5:15pm.
Boston Basin alpine meadows going all "Sound of Music" at golden hour
From there, it was smooth sailing back down, including a glissade from the high point of the glacier all the way down to the waterfall just above camp and a jaunt through the alpine meadows at golden hour. Totally worth the resulting wet, frozen bum. The hike out was predictably painful, but not terrible. Another great adventure up in Boston Basin.