Torment-Forbidden - Traverse 6/28/2008
Trip: Torment-Forbidden - Traverse
Date: 6/28/2008
Trip Report:Our fourth couldn't make it due to a wedding...but we figured this would be an OK climb with a threesome given the amount of scrambling and simul-climbing involved. We'd had it on the calendar for some time and it seemed like a nice way to escape the heat. Gabrielle wondered if we were too early. "Well, it's almost July..."
Hackie sack on the waterfront seemed like a better idea than sitting in traffic, so we didn't leave town Friday until seven. We got an early start Saturday and made good time up the road (washed out at milepost 20), through the steep, winding trail, avy debris and the Taboo glacier.
crossing the first creek:
looking back through avy debris at Johannesburg:
It warmed up quickly but we had a nice breeze most of the time - great conditions for climbing. We found the bergschrund on Torment larger and steeper than expected. While approaching we watched a big slab of snow slide off right on to the 'schrund we'd be crossing to gain the SE ridge of Torment. We elected to climb the south ridge instead. This took a little while as Jport had to tunnel through a block of snow to get us to the rock. We simul-climbed some of this ridge – straightforward climbing but exposed. This took a while. We could see someone cruising around below, solo, to the SW. We were on top of the south summit around 3:00. We couldn't find our way down from the notch between the summits, so we scrambled over to the N. summit, downclimbed a little and rapped from there. The snow was soft and slushy– pickets and ice axe seemed pretty worthless. I soon recalled why I had retired my boots last year - halfway through the first day my feet were soaking wet.
s. ridge of Torment:
J-burg from Torment:
It seemed like it took us forever to get down, around a crevasse and back up some steep snow to rock and our bivy on the first high point of the ridge. We had hoped to be further along the ridge - as it turned out we were only about one fourth of the way. We found a nice bivy spot with great position - 360 degree views. We enjoyed the sunset and read from Beckey's account of the forgotten peak...climbing the west ridge of Forbidden in snow with nailed boots: "Once the North Cascades have caught the alpinist he is likely to return soon."
sun going down on Forbidden:
sunset over Eldorado:
moon over Forbidden:
We found that we were sharing this spot with some little mountain rodent that looked like a cross between a rat and a squirrel. We stuffed all the slings into the packs so this little beast couldn't wreak any havoc. After we hit the sack I could hear him chewing on my boots so I moved them next to us. Later I could hear him chewing on something else...got the headlamp out but couldn't see anything...went back to sleep. It was a warm night, a pleasant bivy with a bivy sack, puffy jacket and light fleece pants. Four days from a new moon...the view of the milky way was pretty phenomenal. I was sleeping quite well when all of us were awakened by me yelling motherfucker! as this little varmint chomped on my index finger, right next to the fingernail. The brazen little bastard drew blood. I had to tape it up and stick it inside my jacket pocket. The next morning we found that he'd chewed halfway through the ratty chin-strap on my helmet (I've been meaning to wash it). Evidently he liked the taste and went in for the real thing.
From our bivy spot it was a straightfoward scramble down to some snow, over to the next rock, down a gully and back up to the next band of snow. The beta we had talked a lot about avoiding the ridge by traversing snow. We did the opposite as we found the snow to be soft and crappy, even first thing in the morning. We were able to stem through a moat to gain the next rock band, up and around the corner, one more short section of steep snow (no crampons, as they didn't seem to help)...and we were on rock or low angle snow for the duration.
We simul-climbed most of the ridge, which wasn't a whole lot slower than going unroped. As advertised, the route finding gets easier and the climbing more fun as you get closer to Forbidden. It had taken so long to get to the bivy Saturday, and we had so much ridge left to travel…we had quietly worried we would not have enough time to make it over to Forbidden in time to climb it. By the time we made it to Forbidden, we were in a good rhythm and simul-climbed the ridge up and back with the occasional hip belay. It was a lot of fun to climb that without packs. We were back at the couloir well before our turnaround time.
We rapped the Couloir (three single raps...the first was a rope-stretcher and the second about 10 feet short, but close enough that we could down climb right next to the moat). This got us just over the 'schrund at the bottom. The slushy snow made for good plunge stepping/boot glissading as the angle eased off.
On the way out we found the creeks running a lot stronger. The convenient little snow bridge we crossed on the way in (first creek) had washed out. We had to go upstream a little, over an intact snow bridge, up a small chimney, through some devil's club, alder, a few smaller creeks...your typical North Cascades bushwhacking fun. Below the first big culvert, water was running through a debris pile and over the road, where it had been dry the day before. Before we knew it Johannesburg was fading out of sight and the adventure was winding to an end. We had a watermelon in the car, busted it open with an ice axe & a rock, devoured it, let our waterlogged feet air out a little and hit the road.
Thanks, guys for another great climb - for living good days.
Gear Notes:-frittata sandwiches, fruit, nuts, chocolate
-medium alpine rack; could have used less gear and more slings
-one 60m rope
-next time bring a rat trap
