The Torment Forbiddent Traverse – Day 1
Day 1: Mount Torment South Ridge and Bivy
Since I’ve wanted to climb Forbidden Peak for so long, it was only fitting to do it the best way: the Torment-Forbidden Traverse. This was a classic alpine climb and gave Robert, Aidan, and I all we wanted – a beautiful alpine setting, a challenging and committing ridge, and fun moderate climbing. We left Seattle around 6:45 or so and hit the trail a little after 10. It was pretty cool when we started, but it wouldn’t last. These late July afternoons are HOT, as Michael and I discovered one year ago on Johannesburg. We blasted up the trail though. The avalanche crossing is getting substantially easier by the year and it hardly cost us any extra time. Deep in the forest, the black flies starting hitting us pretty hard. Aidan and I both got stung by some sort of wasp. “It was probably a stick,” suggested Robert. A stick? Well, after Michael’s lesson in the Pickets, we broke out the Benedryl to deal with the swelling.
At an hour and forty five minutes we were at the upper camps in Boston Basin. The black flies had left us but the horseflies picked up where they left off. We took a comfortable break on a slab next to a waterfall where we drank our fill and killed maybe 50 horseflies. We then traversed around a prominent rib coming off the ridge at it’s bass where we arrived at another section of slabs and waterfalls. Third class climbing got us easily to the base of the western part of the Taboo Glacier. At first, the crossing looked easy and we jumped on the glacier without crampons. However, higher up, it looked like access to the peak was blocked by a massive bergeshrund. At the far end though, we were able to jump on 4th class slabs that gave us access to the glacier above the shrund. From there we went back in the opposite side to the prominent notch where we’d start the climb.
Probably the hardest rock pitch was the very first one, the first 20 15 feet of getting out of the notch. It was probably much easier in normal snow years when the notch had snow in it…maybe not. Anyway, Robert led out over the steep crack up to the normal place where we roped up. The first pitch climbed an easy dihedral up to the south ridge. For the most part, we were just to the left of the ridge and the climbing never got harder than 5.0. Most of it was 4th class and we did the whole thing in one pitch. Robert went a little far up to the east ridge and got into some loose rock and had to downclimb. From here though, it was easy to just drop our packs and scamper up to the summit where we shook hands, took a short rest, and surveyed the rest of the route.
The next goal was to get to the next notch at the beginning of the ridge. We had to make some careful downclimbs down the south face and traverse along ledges to the notch. I arrived at the notch and surveyed the next section; it looked tough. Well, to follow the ridge directly would be some unreasonably hard climbing. There was snow about 60 feet below, but separated by a large moat from the cliff. Aidan looked a little green after checking out our options. Robert decided to rappel down to the snow and had to make some awkward moves to push himself onto the snow. Aidan and followed and we helped each other across the moat. At this point, the only option was to follow the snow along the moat down some semi-hero slopes to where we could regain the rock. From there, it looked like more easy, if not loose, 5th class climbing. Robert opted to lead out again and slowly made his way down the snow. Aidan and I followed, Aidan being tied in about 15 feet in front of me. For the most part, the downclimbing was easy, just awkward and loose in spots, but it did eat up lots of time. Robert did a great job of picking the best route to get on the rock. Finally, we were off again on the rock. This time we were traversing left around another huge gendarme. When Robert crossed the crest, he yelled, “Bivies!”. Alright! We now could rest; it was about 8:30pm.
The bivy location was awesome – nice and cozy on a moderate cliff with great views of the remainder of the traverse. They were just big enough to hold three people. There’s room for a fourth about 30 feet below on some sloping slabs. The steep snow traverse was just beyond the bivies. From there, we could see that we’d be back on the crest of the ridge. Enough of worrying about tomorrow though, we sat back and enjoyed the views, the food, and the company and turned in shortly after sunset.
Tags: bivy, Boston Basin, horseflies, Torment
