Dave B

Thanks for all of the advice on east ledges. I had previously dismissed this as a descent route given that Summit Post et al strongly discourage it - hence, my interest in possibly descending the east ridge *direct* route. One last question: do the east ledges tend to hold snow into July? I see they look quite dry in mthroman's TR pic, but that was last year which I know was a deplorable snow year for the PNW.

Pete - are there obvious rap stations at the key points along that ridge? We're hoping to get by with just carrying a 50 m but it appears the crux sections are shorter than 25m, yeah? Descending Sahale Arm to Cascade Pass was exactly what I was thinking if that was a viable descent route Bronco - thanks for the TR, that does seem like a pretty solid hike, maybe a bit more than either my buddy and I are interested in. Buckner N. Face is definitely intriguing as well and could be a great alternative from a camp at Sahale Arm. Thanks again for your input!

Good morning, A buddy and I are heading to WA in mid-July with plans on a 3-day trip. One option we're considering is the Torment-Forbidden traverse (other option is N.butt on Mt. Goode) but given the normal two-day trip time for T-F we're considering trying to link up a 3rd or 4th peak. The first thought I had was to head up the Boston Basin approach to Eldorado, then traverse to Torment and then to Forbidden. Night one would be before Eldorado, night two would be at the standard bivy for the T-F. What is the feasibility of this route? Especially the traverse between Eldorado and Torment. Google Earth makes it look like it goes pretty easily, but that's google earth. I also can't find any info on google nor do Beckey's books explicitly describe this traverse. I'd also be interested to hear about descending the East Ridge on Forbidden. I know the standard descent for climbing that route is the west ridge, but descending that then tagging Boston and Sahale is a consideration as well (???). Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Nitroglycerin cream gave me pretty bad headaches but did seem to work the one day I climbed after taking it, but it was a rather mild-day as far as CO rockies alpine days go so with n=1 it's hard to have a definitive conclusion. I also did the Murray's Method treatment last winter. A little back story: my biggest problem is that my hands sweat excessively on approaches so I'm dealing with a evaporative cooling issue that still makes my hands go numb as soon as I slow down, the blood stops flowing and I start touching cold metal crampons/screws etc. With that said, after having done Murray's my hands rarely go numb skiing resort days where my hands aren't sweaty. I've skied a couple of really cold days here in CO this winter and haven't had the problems I used to. Going through the whole Murray's method process is a pain though. I did the sequence 3-5 times a day, every other day, until I had done 60 cycles. The biggest problem I had was getting my body to be cold outside. I generally run very warm so even here in CO in Jan/Feb without a shirt on and with a fan blowing on me, I had to sit outside for 20+ minutes to get the necessary chill - I can't imagine how long it would take in the mild PNW without access to a walk-in freezer. I also saw an acupuncturist at the same time I was doing Murray's method. I had two accupuncture sessions and then he gave me a Chinese herb concoction. I'm guessing the effects of that were more temporary than Murray's so I do attribute the benefits I've seen to Murray's and not the accupuncture. Good luck though. After five years of working on this issue, I've finally got my kit and process down to where I only get numb hands occasionally. When they do go numb now however, they seem to come back a lot more quickly than they used to.

Thanks for all the replies and thanks, Lisa, for the pictures! In looking through TRs, it seems like the footwear varies by user. I don't relish the idea of spending 5-6 days hiking in my Mont Blancs so for those who have done the traverse with full-shank boots, would you wear them again? In other words, do you feel there was enough added security on the rowdy parts to make up for the lack of off-snow hiking comfort? I've been thinking about getting pair of 3/4 shank boots for spring alpine here in CO (and this might be the proper motivation to pull the trigger) but am wondering if even those might be overkill? Second question: aluminum crampons will likely get trashed on this route, right? This forum is pretty awesome, BTW.

Howdy again - I know this is a bit of a gumby question and the answer is along the lines of "if you have to ask...", but I'm curious about opinions of doing the Ptarmigan Traverse with a team of two where one of the members (i.e. me) outweighs the other (i.e. my wife) by a solid 100 pounds. I know this route is often done as teams of two or even solo, but still I hesitate to put my wife in needless danger. We have both taken crevasse rescue courses but have minimal actual glacier travel experience together as part of a team of three and zero experience as a team of two. We do have an abundance of alpine experience - it has just mostly all been in the absence of glaciers. We're planning on making the trip from CO in late July or early August. How convoluted will the glacier travel likely be then (given the low snow year)? Would earlier in July be better or would waiting until later (i.e. late August) for the snow bridges to collapse be better? From what I can gather, the glacier travel is more straight forward on somewhat predictably crevassed terrain, or am I wrong? This would be our anniversary trip so we're not real interested in adding a literal third wheel and would likely pursue alternative plans if the community were to think this an unwise trip given our situation. Much thanks!

Thanks for all of the replies! Looks like Adams might need to be put back on the table as an option - which I'm not sure how I feel about after putting some thought into doing Ptarmigan or other N. Cascades options. I can get a SW ticket into Spokane and luckily they offer no change-of-flight fees so I think the playing it by ear will be the best way to go. So perhaps the question is, and I know it's apples and oranges but, what's a better use of 5 vacation days for a visitor? SW Chutes or the Ptarmigan? SW chutes = epic skiing while Ptarmigan = epic location?

Howdy - My buddy and I had planned to make the trip to WA (from CO) this spring with the intention of skiing the SW chutes on Mt. Adams. The deplorable snow year is starting to make that plan look a bit risky given the required travel time and the lateness of our trip (first week of June). We're now considering options further north, in particular the East Ridge on Eldorado and the Coleman or Easton descents on Baker. I'm hoping to get some opinions on the Baker routes in a low snow year such as this. I understand the Coleman descent is heavily crevassed and am concerned this just ain't the year to do it as a ski (at least not in June). Any suggestions for other peaks of the over-nighter length variety that would provide some grins? Priority given to aesthetic high camps. Five days is just too little time to do the Ptarmigan traverse on skis, right? Especially given the unpredictability of the weather pre-July 4th? Plan B is Tetons or Winds (shucks). Much thanks!