SmilingWhiteKnuckles Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 (edited) Climb: Torment-Forbidden Traverse-Torment-Forbidden Traverse Date of Climb: 8/15/2006 Trip Report: My friend, Giora, and I climbed the Torment-Forbidden traverse in two full days last week. The weather forecast of "partially cloudy" had me a bit concerned, but things turned out great and the clouds really added to the atmosphere without ever turning threatening. Some friends had tried the South Ridge route on Torment the previous summer and got shut down, finding themselves on 5.8-5.9 climbing when the route is supposedly mid fifth. So I guess, I was concerned about that too. Following Nelson's description though, we had no trouble finding our way to the summit of Torment. The climb was easy and fun and the rock was better than anticipated. From the notch below the summit block (the start of the Torment-Forbidden ridge), routefinding became a bit trickier. We crossed a snowfield, passing a few gendarmes. This brought us alongside a wall with the ridgetop high up on our right above us. There was an easy traverse on broken rocks, but we elected to climb straight up mid-fifth class climbing. It took us a couple pitches to summit this formation as we meandered up the easiest lines. Once we got to the top of this hump, we went from being unsure to being stoked. The view of the entire rest of the climb lay before us and the bivy site (again Nelson's route descrip) was a mere 20ft downclimb below. We settled in, put on some warmer clothes and brewed up dinner and more water. What a spot!!! Protected and beautiful. Not a soul around. Wasn't even cold! The next day found us crossing the steep snow (what am I saying, this shit was water ice!) in our aluminum crampons. We had two, Grivel Black Compact tools between us. After crossing the first band of ice to a rock island with one tool. I brought Gi over and told him a sure as hell wanted both tools for the next and way longer section. So I started up from the rock island anchor hoping for enough rope to make the ridge crest. No such luck. I was 2/3's of the way up when Gi shouted "15 feet!" There was a little ice ridge that provided a bit of a stance and I ended up chopping a stance and a bollard for pro. After tying into the bollard (backed up with one of the tools), I zip-lined the other tool and my gloves down to Gi. He was able to nerve his way up with just the one Compact. Another short lead for me and we were finally to the top. Yikes. Gripping stuff. Definitely the crux of the route. The rest of the climb was spectacular. Parts of the ridge were like a sidewalk with thousand feet of air on either side. Gi got his wish for sure! We did two rappels off the ridge during the traverse. One shortly after the snowfield off a gendarme and the other just before the notch at the base of the west ridge of Forbidden. Finishing on Forbidden reminded me of what a spectacular climb that is! We cruised it in 3 running belays. The rock is unbelievably good. We rapped (5) the NEface down to the ledge system and soloed across and back to the base of the east ridge. It was probably 7:30pm, Wednesday, by this time and we sat smiling in the sun for awhile before plunging down into the fog which filled up the Boston Basin below us. We found the way down into the basin but couldn't find the upper camps in the fog and increasing darkness. We found a couple really nice camp spots and ended up just crashing there until dawn rather than beat around in the dark looking for the trail. Morning came and the upper campsites were close, 100yds away perhaps. Oh well, we slept well. Two young women were bivied there and had their stove going when we came by. Out to hit the west ridge that day...Said they heard us at night for awhile, but then it got quiet and they assumed we headed down. Anyhow, this climb was superb. One of the best yet!! Gear Notes: 1 50m, 8.3mm rope med alpine rack lots of slings (~14) aluminum crampons 1 Grivel Black Compact tool each Could've had an ice screw or two. Edited August 24, 2006 by SmilingWhiteKnuckles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottgg Posted August 24, 2006 Share Posted August 24, 2006 Awesome, glad you got it! I'm planning on getting on the thing later next month, this really got me excited! From your pictures it looks like you can avoid the WI by staying on the ridge crest, is that an option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmilingWhiteKnuckles Posted August 24, 2006 Author Share Posted August 24, 2006 I'm pretty sure you could climb the rock. Might take awhile and involve some snow to rock shenanigans, but I think it'd go...Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle_Flick Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 We stayed on the rock and avoided the water ice a couple of weekends ago. It wasn't all that time consuming. I'd recommend it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Sad to see that "snow" traverse melted down to old grey ice after what was supposedly a big snow year. Nice pics! I like your TRs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Ack...that "steep snow" looks sketch. I would be tucking my tail and heading for the rock... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatboy Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Sad to see that "snow" traverse melted down to old grey ice after what was supposedly a big snow year. Nice pics! I like your TRs Agreed that global warming is a bad thing...but, perhaps not unusual or unexpected that this winter snow would melt to gray ice by late August? In other words, perhaps this route is doing what one might expect snow below 8000 feet to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClimbingPanther Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 (edited) The thing is that it's down to bare ice at the top of the accumulation zone. This means that at one time, there used to be more snow on average per year than what melted, creating the ice in the first place. Now that more snow is melting than falling, the ice will shrink. The other possibility is that an unusual amount of snow avalanched off the mountain, leaving it more bare in spite of the high amount of snow. This could be considering some places down lower appear to have quite a bit of clean snow. Edited August 25, 2006 by ClimbingPanther Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmace Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 maybe it has something to do with the record high temps we have had this summer, last seen about 8 years ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summit_Rolos Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 Does anyone know if there are bivy sites on the ridge that will accomodate 4 climbers (particularly the "good bivy" Nelson/Potterfield mentions)? Also, is there still some snow for water at the bivy sites this time of year? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatboy Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 Depends on how you define "accommodate!" I did not bivy on this route, but remember passing several spots that were large enough for this function. After the steep snow traverse, you regain the ridge crest at an obvious, wide flat section -- this would accommodate a large group I'm sure. It's also nice to get all the snow done on the first day, I bet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmilingWhiteKnuckles Posted September 7, 2006 Author Share Posted September 7, 2006 What Goatboy said! The bivy site we slept at (described in Nelson) was a 2-banger. There was another small spot very nearby and snow to melt, but 4 might be tough or at least of questionable comfort. But hell, it's not really about comfort anyway. The following day, we weren't thinking too much about bivies, but there are probably places like Goatboy says... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted September 7, 2006 Share Posted September 7, 2006 bivies are aid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syudla Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 The spot goatboy suggests will accomodate a troop of boy scouts, and girl scouts to keep them company. Still lots of snow there for water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summit_Rolos Posted September 8, 2006 Share Posted September 8, 2006 Great, thanks all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pms Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 how are bivies aid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
layton Posted September 9, 2006 Share Posted September 9, 2006 cuz your pack is so heavy, you have to aid climb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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