I have already climbed Forbidden via the west ridge with a party of Mountaineers. The snow couloir was in good shape and we had a very nice climb. Now I am with Bob Pasko and we want to climb Forbidden as a tune-up for some climbing in Canada. The couloir was not in good shape but we managed to get up it and exit onto the rock with some difficulty. We shared the West Ridge with a couple of guys from Portland who were using a double rope climbing technique. We kept with them on the way up but the double ropes definitely gave them an advantage when rappeling. With the two lighter weight ropes they only took half as many rappels to get down as we did. We saw the same technique used on Mt Sir Donald in Canada and wished that we had come equipped with this method.