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[TR] Mount Torment North WEst Face- Mount Torment ski descent 6/4/2004


martin

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Climb: Mount Torment North West Face-Mount Torment ski descent

 

Date of Climb: 6/4/2004

 

Trip Report:

Hi all. On June 4th Martin Volken and Andy Dappen skied off the summit of Mount Torment down the North West Face. We approached the route via Torment Col. From Torment Col we skied down to 5800 feet near the entrance of the Moraine Lake Couloir (this had been skied by Volken, Wheeler and Ruff a few weeks earlier). We had to climb out of the couloir onto the Lower NW glacier. This was around 5:30 am and the sun was already hitting parts of the face. With concerningly warm temps we hurried to the summit of Torment. The face had been flushed quite clean a couple of days earlier by sizeable avalanches, so conditions seemed quite safe. We reached the summit a little after 7am.

Putting on skis on the summit of Mount Torment was certainly a thrilling moment...

The top 100 feet are quite commiting (rock speckled 50 degrees), but once we were on the glacier proper, the descent turned out to be quite sane. Getting from the NW face back into the Moraine Lake Couloir required a quick rappel. From there the 40 degree Moraine Lake Couloir would link the 2400 foot descent into a 3600 foot descent right to the lake.

We think the line is sporty , but not insane. Overall a great ski mountaineering adventure in insanely beautiful terrain.

A short slide show of the trip will be available on proguiding.com in the next couple of days.

Attached photo by Volken from March 04 taken from near the Klawatti Peak area.

5a1a55b217214_357590-MountTormentskidescent.jpg.9af77f330cf89881773e94e5c9917710.jpg

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Sounds like a good trip. I think a lot of people had their eye on Torment's north side. My brother Carl and I intended to ski it last June the day after our descent of Forbidden Peak's north ridge. However, we found a gaping schrund across the entire face. That was in late June. Another friend of mine was going to try it earlier this spring.

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Interesting Lowell. I assume you are talking about the Schrund at about 7200 or so feet. It was there but easily negotiable on the edges. Different snow year. All toghether I seem to find the snow conditons in the high alpine (above 6000) quite good. In fact better almost than at the end of March. I am sure that is not going to last

5a1a55b21ac51_358318-OnthelowerNWGlacier.thumb.JPG.dbfefbd4f5903f398dfa3eb2bcef9e8b.JPG

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