Date: July 13-17, 2010
Team: Me, Charles Muzio, Peter McCorkell, Tad McCrea
Overview: This past week, three friends and I climbed the Torment-Forbidden Traverse. There was a lot of snow and we spent two nights on route, but the weather was great and the climb was awesome. Below are lots of pictures (some from other members of the team) and some commentary.
Weather Forecasts: Then – NOAA, NWS and Now – NOAA, NWS
Report: Peter and Tad had left the day before to climb Sharkfin, but Charles and I arrived at the trailhead (3,200 ft.) at 2:30pm after stopping for burgers at the Marblemount Drive-in which is past the ranger’s station on the main drag before crossing the bridge. The photo below shows the trailhead with the left-side of the north face of Johannesburg in the background.
The “trail” was in its usual disrepair and as always we had to do the steep military-crawl under the overgrown branches. Complaints aside, it actually is a decent trail (at least compared to the likes of Stuart Lake).
We arrived at high camp (6,400 ft) at about 5:30pm. Peter and Tad had hiked in through rain/sleet/hail and had just seen the sun for the first time in two days. Despite good forcasts, the weather had been so bad that an RMI guide and client had canceled their plans for doing the West Ridge. Needless to say Peter and Tad hadn’t climbed Sharkfin, but rather spent the last day and a half hanging out in the tent.
By the next morning the clouds had completely cleared. So we headed west at about 5:30am. Below is Peter leading the first rope up the Taboo Glacier toward the notch below the west ridge of Torment.
First few pitches went smoothly and without any route-finding issues all the way through the “hand crack” as described in Nelson. The next pitch Peter and Tad climbed up too quickly and found themselves on the ridge and then east face. Charles and I kept climbing up AND left and were soon approaching the “notch.” The photo below shows Charles following up and left. The belay I’m at is about 150 ft. below the notch.
We reached the notch and traversed along a 3rd/4th class ledge to a nest of slings and rap rings. This would be our rap on the descent from Torment.
We continued pitching it out and doing minimal simuling until we reached the Summit (8120 ft) at 4:30pm. This photo is from the summit showing the east summit back left and Forbidden back right.
We realized imediately we were way behind schedule and that we would not reach the nice (potentially dry) bivies further along the route which would ultimately mean we’d probably either have to spend two nights on the ridge, or descend back to camp after reaching the Forbidden couloir. After some discussion of bailing off Torment we decided to press on regardless. Peter led the first rope up refreshingly easy, grassy, 3rd class ledges to the notch below the lower east summit of Torment.
Peter and Tad downclimbed from the notch, while Charles and I did one short rap to reach the snow. A non-trivial schrund had begun to melt out so I was glad to have the rap. This brought us feet from where we decided to pitch camp for what would be our first bivy (6:00pm).
The next morning we rose and were headed out by 5:00am. We imediately roped up and descended a steep slope before traversing skiers right along much steeper snow to the first piece of rock (which you can see in the picture below). While no crevasses had opened up that obstructed our path in any way, the snow was quite steep and moats were developing around rocks. Peter led us through it, placing the two pickets we had brought, along the way. While Peter made a bee line for the rock, Charles and I stayed high above the rocks in the photo below. I think we all agreed this proved to be a better descision because it avoided some loose scrambling in crampons. We also found a nice belay in the scrund at the top of the arc in the photo below. Tad and Peter wore steel crampons while Charles and I wore our aluminum ones. All of us wore nice, sturdy mountaineering boots.
After climbing up and left around a corner we found ourselves in sight of the second patch of snow. Again we pitched everything out on mountaineer coiled 60m ropes.
Again Peter led us across the steep northerly facing snow. Faint footsteps provided a rough path, but Peter still had to kick steps. At this point we had the ropes at full length to maximize the use of the two pickets. The snow conditions were basically perfect: firm but not too firm.
After about 2.5 full rope lengths, Peter reached the rock. There were footsteps leading to a higher route on the rock but Peter chose to stay low, and the rest of us happily followed.
Below is looking back across the north face.
After traversing the rock for about two short pitches we were back on snow for another pitch before we reached the snow-covered saddle. We climbed over the saddle onto the south side and traversed another snow slope down and skiers left before scrambling up a short pitch of rock that brought us to the bivies shown below.
Once on the ridge the climbing just got better and better. After some of the disheartening scrambling on Torment (especially for Peter and Tad who had come off the intended route) the nice granite on the ridge put smiles on all our faces. We also had a nice view of Forbidden basically the entire time. There was one significantly steeper, and somewhat intimidating pitch (about 3o ft of steep). It ended up only being probably a 5.5. Peter is shown below leading this with Tad on belay.
I’m shown in the photo below in the distance leading the second rope up the steep pitch.
We reached a spot just shy of the “sidewalk” at about 4:00pm. We debated whether to try to find something further along (such as at the notch), but decided to make our home here (pictured below).
The views were great, and it was protected from wind, but it was certainly less than ideal. My thermarest tore despite using a ground-cloth, and I also felt like I was on enough of a slant that I wanted to be anchored in (which I did; as did Tad). Nonetheless it accommodated all four of us and there was snow to melt for water. We didn’t have any food to cook and started rationing at this point because of the full day ahead of us.
After getting up and going by 5am again, we were immediately on the “sidewalk” (stones through from our bivy). Yes, we considered bivying here but decided it would be a little to windy with the exposure.Below is Charles following up to my belay on the “sidewalk.”
After rappeling back down onto the south side from the “sidewalk” then traversing 4th class ledges we were at the notch by about 7:30am and climbing the west ridge by 8am. The west ridge was basically 8 beautifully exposed pitches on great, solid, granite. We droped down onto the north side (as suggested by Nelson and Steph Abegg) when it seemed appropriate, but for the most part kept to the ridge crest.
Peter leading the crux pitch of Forbidden (5.6) below.
Below is Peter belaying Tad down the false summit of Forbidden which is supposedly a 5.6 move, but in my opinion more intimidating than actually technical.
Happy to be on the summit of Forbidden at 12pm noon (8815 ft) after three long days.
Below is Boston Glacier with the North Face of Buckner in the back left. In the foreground are the first set of rap slings for the East Ridge/Northeast face ledges descent.
For our descent we chose to downclimb the west ridge. We did this with a combination of belayed down-climbing, rappels, and a hand-line. We left the summit at about 1:30pm and were back down to the notch and off rock by 4:30pm. We decided to rap the couloir which was rocky 3rd class for the first rope length. Then we did a double rope rap and hit snow about half-way through.
One more double-rope rap shown below brought us to mellower, less steep, less moted snow.
Below, the tiny specks in the couloir are Peter and myself at the bottom of the last rap. We walked from there back to camp, skiers right around the rock below us. The snow bridge was still well intact while the left side was really melted out
Back at camp by 8:00pm.
The next morning we awoke to some low clouds that made it feel like we were really really high.
As we descended down into the lower part of Boston Basin the clouds began to clear letting us peak back at the ridge one last time.
The trail back to the car was still covered with fallen trees and brush. Elves had not come and cleared it.
At one point Peter slipped on some mud (he was ok).
Two of Peter’s camp biners had started getting stuck in the open position. He demoed this once back at the trailhead.
Gear Notes: Two pickets for 2 rope teams of 2 (would’ve placed more if we had them). Two of us wore aluminum crampons which worked out great for the snow conditions. Just sleeping bags and pads for the ridge.
More Photos: Picasa
All TRs: Climbing