Page 14 - 2009 AMA Summer

Descending Mount Rainier on the Emmons Glacier.
achieves the kind of popularity rarely encoun- tered in Washington’s mountains, except per- haps further south in the Enchantment range.
We were unable to get permits to bivvi at the normal high camp in Boston. Instead we decided it would be good training for our students to experience a fast one-day alpine style push. Forbidden Peak was the perfect route for it. Starting at 4am from the trailhead after camping in one of the Forest Service sites on the Cascade River road we set off into the night.
The forecast was good, but the previous day the sky had unleashed such heavy rain that it was hard to believe blue skies could ever return. The forest was amazing in its untouched and natural state. Moss and vines draped around the thick dense undergrowth, slippery tree roots and near vertical mudslides where the path should have been. Within minutes of starting in the dark, the whole team was soaked to the skin and we spent some time later debat- ing which position in our small procession was the worst effected. First to push through the wet foliage, or those behind who were drenched as all the branches and vegetation snapped back, quivering into place. One thing is for certain, I got off lightly bringing up the rear of our team!
Once through the Pacific Jungle we left the tree-line and headed out across alpine moraine into a perfect pink alpine sunrise.
Group beneath Litberty Bell Group, Washington Pass.
The clouds were beginning to break up and there was a sense that the weather was thinking about improving. We paused at the glaciers edge to put our crampons on and to try to force warm blood back into our hands and feet. The sun teasing us as it crept inch by inch across the snow towards us.
There was almost a mutiny amongst the ranks. Cold hands, wet feet... a sense that if we didn’t warm up soon the climb would end there and then... and then the sun arrived!
Now moving sure and steady up the glacier to the couloir that would access the upper portion of the West Ridge. Notes in the Ranger Station in Marblemount had sug- gested that the couloir was in fragile condi- tion, in danger of melting out soon and making accessing the ridge a more time consuming affair. We were surprised to find the snow almost eight meters deep and in solid, fun condition. Within an hour of set- ting off across the Glacier we were estab- lished at the notch on the ridge where we could cache our glacier gear.
The ridge itself is a very exposed but straightforward 5.2 rock route. Most is class 4 and it is ideally suited to moving together. Some parties elect to traverse the mountain, coming down the slightly easier East Ridge. Since our crampons and axes were at the top of the couloir we were com- mitted to descending the same way. In
High on West Ridge of Forbidden Peak.
hindsight, a traverse of this fine little alpine peak is the way to go.
The descent of the West Ridge is a mixture of down climbing and short rappels. A fast team can do the route comfortably car to car in a day, but you should be prepared to manoeuvre around slower groups as the route is one of the most popular in the range. The fine town of Concrete, a short way out from the national park hosted our team’s cel- ebrations that night. At $5 a pitcher of beer you can’t really go wrong... or can you?
One of the things that I found most remark- able about Washington is that from every summit that we climbed you could see almost every other mountain we either had climbed or planned to climb. In the magical playground of the over-loved Enchantment range, on Prussik peak we could scope out the descent from the serrated summit of Dragontail. A few days later whilst savour- ing our lunch on a spacious sandy ledge just shy of the summit of Dragontail we were able to marvel at the dramatic north ridge of Mount Stuart, our next objective.
12 ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Liberty Bell Mountain.