TR: Torment-Forbidden Traverse

[Tod]

Last weekend (October 4-6) myself and mtnear decided to do the Torment-Forbidden traverse. mtnear wanted to do the West Ridge of Forbidden and since I had climbed Forbidden before (via N Ridge) I figured a more entertaining way to do the trip would be to do the Torment-Forbidden traverse since I had not climbed Torment before.

 

Our plan was to do it in two days, take a relaxed pace with day packs and bivy gear. As has been reported before, the first 1/3 of the traverse is not straightforward and really slowed us down. We had some trouble finding the Class 3-4 route up the SE gulley of Torment and ended up doing one pitch of 5.7 mid-gulley (with packs loaded with water for the next 2 days). Beyond that, the route up from the gulley to the top of Torment is Class 3-4 and was not an issue. Torment didn’t seem like that great of a climb and had lot’s of loose rock and an unpleasant gulley.

 

What did slow us down quite a bit was trying to figure out where your suppose to cut over to the north side of the Torment-Forbidden ridgeline. We cut across some ramps (50-100yds east of SE gulley of Torment) and up another gulley that ended up putting us above the glacier that sits below the NE face of Torment. We rapped/climbed down to the glacier and bivied there, our day was done. We were disappointed that we had finished the 1st day without leaving the shadow of Torment.

 

The next morning, we traversed across the glacier, rounded and climbed the next north rib to the east of Torment and got onto the glacier where the famed snow/ice traverse is that is on the north side of the Torment-Forbidden traverse. From the col that is at the start of the snow/ice traverse it looks as though there is a Class 3-4 ramp that comes up the south side from the base of the SE gulley of Torment. I am guessing that this is the correct route and would have saved us time if we had stayed low on our initial traverse from Torment. Instead we took a more scenic tour…

 

 

The snow/ice traverse is definitely a two tool traverse right now. There is a section that is hard ice, other parts are hard snow/neve. At this point in the morning we passed two guys heading west on the traverse doing the Forbidden-Torment traverse via the East Ridge of Forbidden. They stayed on the ridgeline above the snow/ice traverse, however it looked like it slowed them down considerably. From the snow/ice traverse to the top of the ridgeline is Class 3-4 as is the rest of the traverse. We did not rope up for the entire traverse and the going is pretty fast with little route finding once you get past the snow/ice traverse. We did end up doing a running belay for the lower West Ridge of Forbidden and belayed two upper sections of the West Ridge.

 

We topped out on Forbidden at 6pm and rapped down the NE Face. By the time we got past the 5th rappel the sun was setting and the traverse over to the East Ridge gendarme was by headlamp. Let’s just say that sucked…

 

Rather than head down from the East Ridge in the dark we bivied at the gendarme and headed out in the morning. A safe decision, but with people in town expecting us back Sunday night it didn’t sit well with a significant other. Turns out phone calls were made at 3am and a Skagit County Deputy was at the ranger station Monday morning checking on our status. Thanks Geordie for keeping everyone cool and at bay. I can’t say that that having people worry about you is wrong, but it usually escalates beyond reality (in there mind) as what happened here. Thankfully Geordie knows the territory and explained that it’s not uncommon for people to come out late on climbs in the North Cascades. Regardless, an interesting end to a great climb.

 

My question to those who have done the traverse: Where is the best or correct place to cut over to the north side of the ridge. Do you do it at the top of the SE gulley of Torment or is it better to take the Class 3-4 ramp that comes up the south side from the base of the SE gulley of Torment that looks like would work? Here’s a picture and a map describing our route and what I am thinking is the correct route. Were we off route?

 

 

 

Hopefully your comments will clear things up for me and possibly for others who want to do the traverse also.

 

[goatboy]

Well, it looks like you were on route to me.

 

The yellow line ("correct route?) marked on the topo seems like a lot of rock climbing on exposed, loose terrain as opposed to dropping down and traversing, as we did.

 

We rapped (off a purple sling) down from Torment onto the glacier (where you bivied) and encountered a huge schrund there. Then it was traversing on snow, doing a few hundred feet of 50 snow with poor runout, then up a rock rib (loose, unpleasant easy fifth class) to regain the ridge crest. Then it was highway cruising on the ridge to a large gendarme which we climbed up and over, then it went on to gain the west ridge of Forbidden standard route.

 

Sounds like you were on route to me -- the "shortcut" shown on your topo, to me, seems like it would be a lot slower, all things being even.

 

THat's my interpretation of the topo and my memory of the route.

 

Nice work on a beautiful climb. As for the unplanned 2nd bivy, better safe than sorry. "If you take bivy gear, you will bivy . . ."

 

S

[Tod]

When we looked down from the col to the south at the start (western edge) of the snow/ice traverse it sure looked like a very doable Class 3-4 ramp. When we were screwing around the day before on the south side of the ridge (just to the east of the SE gulley of Torment) we also saw that the ramp seemed to go. The problem was that the ramp was below us and we didn't want to go back down to check it out and see if it really did go...

[cracked]

I've been wanting to do that route. Nice job.

[JoshK]

So did you not get to talk to the guys doing the traverse east-to-west? I would have been cuirous to see how that went for them. The E ridge of forbidden is much more interesting, so that would be a neat alternative.

[Tod]

They only conversation that we had with them was that they had camped at the West Ridge notch and that they had simulclimbed from they're to where we passed them.

 

They were sticking to the ridgeline and avoided the snow/ice traverse. This did seem to slow them down as it seemed like they got bogged down on the last bit of the ridge above the start (west side) of the snow/ice traverse.