Exposed ridge climbing!

Near the summit.

On the way back down.

We left Seattle butt-early (4:30am) on a Friday morning. We were headed straight into the heart of the 50-Classics hype, and it was sure to be crowded in there. We wanted to get to the ranger station first thing when it opened (7am) to make sure we got one of the limited permits. Upon arrival at Marblemount there was already one truck waiting at the ranger station. My paranoia had me sure this was someone gonna scoop our permit. Turned out no problem. Guy was heading out to hunt bears.

When we requested a Boston Basin permit the ranger marvelled that there was not a single party currently signed up. After about an hour or so of assorted beauracracy, which consisted mostly of becoming educated as to the currently-correct methods of feces disposal, we were awarded our permit and we hit the road.

We made it to the govt.-appointed (lower) bivy site at 11 am. We were alone in Boston Basin on a sunny August day. It didn't take much figuring to decide to go for the West Ridge today, right now. The hordes were SURE to arrive this evening and would all be competing for the route tomorrow. Plus, the weather was nice, and in the Cascasdes, that's a good bird to hold in your hand.

By noon we were heading out. Lush green alpslopes, benign glacier, then the couloir. We climbed over some icefall-type bergs to the top of a plug of rock that sits at the base of the couloir. We had to jump down off the highest berg about ten feet onto the rock as the iceblock was undercut on the upper side.

The couloir was straightforward. Yeah it's steep and all, with SERIOUS fall potential, but it was good kickstepping snow that day. Still, it is probably the crux of the climb (or maybe getting down it is).

We got to the ridge and simulclimbed. Beautiful, exposed, easy climbing (see pictures, eh). I think we did one regular belay at a cruxy spot with a fixed pin. I thought it was pretty hard with hiking boots, but Marty said there was some jug that I missed. Feh! He was on toprope.

We arrived at the summit at 6pm. Weather was beautiful and it was difficult to hurry away, but our tent was a LONG ways away.

We simuled back down the ridge with a couple of raps. We made two raps down the coulouir with our one 60m 'til we got hung out without another rap station. (The ranger had told us we only needed one rope. I think this was probably the only time I've EVER been given anti-conservative advice by a ranger.) We set up an anchor in the snow and Marty rapped down to easy ground. Then I downclimbed, protected by a fluke or two Marty had set for me on rappel. It got dark about this time.

We made it to the top of the rock plug, but could not reverse that overhanging snow we had jumped off of on the way up. It was very frustrating. I was trying to aid up it but getting nowhere, swinging and cursing in the slings. Apparently people over at the bivy spot could see my headlamp swinging back and forth in the darkness and got sorta concerned. After much flailing we gave that up and we were able to find a rappel off the other side of the rock into a moat.

Back across the glacier, down the alpslopes, we plodded via headlamp. We got back to our tent around 2:30am, where kicked back for an hour or two in the balmy summer night. Very relaxing after a long day.

We slept in the next morning. When we got up there were many camps set up but all were deserted, the owners off on assorted climbs. One site sported one of those heavy camping espresso boilers. We borrowed the cooker and when finished left the owners with a fresh hit in the chamber. Lounging around sipping our espressos we noticed Forbidden was socked in. We felt very smug.