Torment-Forbidden Gear

[jport]

We're planning to work the Torment-Forbidden Traverse this weekend: Taboo Glacier, Southeast Face of Torment, Ridgeline traverse, West Ridge of Forbidden, Boston Basin. Does anyone have any gear beta to share? I'd like to thin my rock rack out and go light. Also, would you take a picket or two for the ridgeline snow traverses?

Any info will be helpful. Thanks!

[dbb]

I haven't done the route ('cept the W. Ridge), but one thing I'd advise is that with a larger rack you'll be able to simuclimb much greater distances between belays. This is assuming that you're planning on roping up for most of it though. One way to lighten the rack in that area though is to bring lots of doubles for slinging horns.

[Winter]

Joel, is that you? Thought you guys were going last weekend. Did you postpone due to weather or am I confused?

[DPS]

I have done the Torment part and the Forbidden part, but not the connecting ridge between the two. I found the Torment part to be significantly more difficult than the West Ridge of Forbidden. I would personally not skimp too much on the rock pro, I recall the rock on Torment being kinda funky in places and did not see a lot of natural features to sling.

 

As for the snow sections, Colin Haley said a second tool would have been nice. To my way of thinking that would suggesting bringing a picket.

[jport]

Yes, we'll likely be doing alot of simulclimbing over 4th-class and low-5th class rock. It's good to know that there are lots of horns to hitch along the W. ridge of Forbidden. I've heard mixed reports of the quality/soundness of the rock up there. Last year, a group of friends bailed off the ridge due to poor rock (among other factors).

We'll likely take a picket (or two) with us.

 

"Winter"- who dat? Last weekend we were at Smith. Too much: has left you confused.

[Lowell_Skoog]

I've done the traverse twice. The last time, in 1996, we used a 50m half-rope (doubled), four wired stoppers, four small-to-medium hexes, two Friends (1.5 and 2.5), seven single and three double runners, extra webbing for rappels, one ice axe each, and crampons. (We didn't use the crampons but I wouldn't leave them behind.) In my journal I wrote "excellent rack for this."

 

Obviously, you're mileage may vary.

[Jim]

Also looking to do this later in the summer. Would you mind commenting on your schedule (how long) and bivy selection. Thanks.

[JoshK]

As for the snow sections, Colin Haley said a second tool would have been nice. To my way of thinking that would suggesting bringing a picket.

 

I chatted with Colin once about this. He did it late in the year (sept maybe?) in that year when we had a very late winter, two years ago I think. He encountered very hard ice, which he commented the second tool would have been helpful. You'll almost certainly be encountering snow (and soft at that if the forecast holds) so you maybe be able to get away with less/different gear. My 2 cents.

[jport]

Our group of three is planning to complete the traverse in two long days.

 

Day One: approach scramble to Torment Basin/Taboo Glacier, Southeast face, bivy. I've been told that there are several suitable bivy spots along the ridge just east of the Southeast face climbing route. (There is also a larger "camp" area on the west col beside Torment- though it doesn't fit into a Southeast face climb).

Day Two: Complete traverse along ridge to Forbidden via West Ridge, Rap/downclimb West Ridge or NE face (TBD), hike out of Boston Basin to the car.

Simulclimbing and efficient teamwork should allow a comfortable climb inside of two days. Of course, other people have done the entire route in one day (we would rather savor the views and enjoy a stellar bivy on the ridge).

[jport]

Lowell-

Great gear tips... that's exactly what I wanted to read.

[Winter]

Joel, post a TR when you get backand good luck!

[Jim]

Good luck. I'd like to hear about it when you return. Pictures always liven up the TR.

[jport]

I'll do my best!

[DPS]

My mother is a librarian and the library frequently gets unsolicited submissions from the public. One such item was a video made by Steve Marts (I think) of the Brothers Skoog doing a first ascent of Golden Horn.

 

The boys made belays consisting of a single slung stopper and the like. Not sure if this was standard for the era or if the Brothers Skoog were light and fast before it became popular.

[Lowell_Skoog]

My mother is a librarian and the library frequently gets unsolicited submissions from the public. One such item was a video made by Steve Marts (I think) of the Brothers Skoog doing a first ascent of Golden Horn.

 

The boys made belays consisting of a single slung stopper and the like. Not sure if this was standard for the era or if the Brothers Skoog were light and fast before it became popular.

 

Um, yeah. That video is one part nostalgia, one part embarrassment. It wasn't made by Steve Marts. It was made in 1980 by Don McCune and the crew of KOMO-TV's Exploration Northwest. Not climbers at all. They did a pretty darn good job considering that. The program was called "Goldenhorn Pinnacle" and it won an Emmy for editing, I believe.

 

There were a number of scenes shot near our base camp that aren't very realistic. The one-chock anchor was one and the bivi was another. But there was some pretty realistic stuff too like rockfall, rain, bad rock and simul-climbing to reach an anchor. The climb was actually the second ascent of the NE buttress. My brother Gordy and Jim Walseth made the first ascent a year earlier and Gordy suggested it to the TV crew as spectacular climb where it would be legal to go by helicopter. It's an interesting tale--someday I'll post a story about it on my website.

 

I believe you can buy this program on videotape from Don McCune's widow Linda. See the following website:

 

http://www.donmccunelibrary.com/

 

The Goldenhorn tape is V-107.

[hopalong]

 

I saw that video from the library too.

I also like the Jim Wickwire and Steve Marts Video in the Fairweathers.

 

Anywho

[johndavidjr]

I guess my experience on Torment isn't relevant at this time of year, but I tried it in late July, I think in 1995, and found gully from Taboo glacier melted out.

 

We were forced to the left of gully, on rock & I found it rather hairy in (stupid) plastic boots, & bailed pretty low down, before reaching intended route. It wasn't difficult by ordinary standards... don't know at all--but maybe we wandered on to 5.7 (adjusted for NW ratings)?

 

In process of bailing, my partner nearly rapped off end of rope into moat. Not entirely a good day, but fun. I think Becky rates the face at class 3 but warns that "aid has been used" in later-season couloir melt-out.

 

The chimney to left of peak looked quite unpleasant, though Becky rates at class 4? I dimly remember.

 

Torment to me is a really compelling objective though, especially by route you mention. I had good experience on WR Forbbiden a couple of years before, though I hear W.Ridge Couloir can get troublesome, depending on snow.

[dberdinka]

It wasn't difficult by ordinary standards... don't know at all--but maybe we wandered on to 5.7 (adjusted for NW ratings)?

 

What are you saying? New Jersey 4th class = Washington 5.7 ??

[johndavidjr]

This is an old controversy known to enrage some Western climbers & is article of faith among some Eastern climbers. This is also off-topic but you brought it up.

 

At my ability level, I must say, I'm probably unqualified to offer an informed opinion, so I'll just defer to local sentiment.

 

But just to babble on about it, I first heard the idea from somebody who did a number of (alleged) 5.12 first ascents in Connecticut during an FA boom of sorts that took place there in early 1980s. In Connecticut especially, most climbs are very short, perhaps never more than a full pitch, and this was offered as part of the reason why all those whimpy Westerners supposedly over-rate their climbs.

 

But to modify the idea slightly, it seems like at least a reasonable theory anyway, that rating of moves at cragging areas might, on average, tend to be stiffer than on alpine routes, and Eastern alpine routes aren't easy to come by.

 

I do think its safe to say that published ratings are often inconsistent, no matter where one goeth.

[cj001f]

This is an old controversy known to enrage some Western climbers & is article of faith among some Eastern climbers. This is also off-topic but you brought it up.

Depending on where you climb in the East, some of the areas have been 8 month a year after work cragging sites for 50 years (Carderock in DC comes to mind). Polished doesn't begin to describe the rock.

[Winter]

We need a new grading scale for urban hazards. I would give the Breakfast Cracks at Rocky Butte a 5.10a, D (for drug para), X (for getting ur rope cut by a thug), and S (for gettin ur geal stolen by hoodlums). Other PDX area grades would be T (getting trundeled) (Broughton's), A (getting arrested for closures) (Madrone and Beacon), TR (getting run over by a train) (Beacon), HW (getting run over by a truck) (Rocky Butte) and last but not least, RP (gettin raped by a perv) (Rocky Butte).

[jport]

I think we should include:

BF- Beer bottle fall danger (Rocky Butte)

P- Pornography distractions (Rocky Butte)

[JoshK]

FT (falling turds) - yosemite