[TR] Sahale-Austera-Klawatti-Eldorado- Forbidden Traverse 5/12/2006

[fheimerd]

Climb: Sahale-Austera-Klawatti-Eldorado-Forbidden Traverse

 

Date of Climb: 5/12/2006

 

Trip Report:

Myself, a swiss guy named andreas, and Alex headed out to do the Forbidden traverse. The first day was cool and clear in the morning but quickly warmed up as the day progressed. Some powder was found. The original plan was to traverse over Sahale and ski down the Queen Sabe to camp below the Sharfin-Forbidden Col. We got half way up Sahale arm and then decided to go directly to camp and bag the peak from there. Conditions on Sahale were good. The niext day we went over the Col and onto Boston Glacier. The chute up to the Col was snow-then ice-then rock. All fairly straightforward. Then up and over the toe of the north ridge of forbidden and down the forbidden glacier. 3500 feet of pure skiing bliss. We camped at Moraine lake and toured around there in the afternoon. That night we noticed a very warm wind was desintigrateing out snow wall. The warming trend of our tour had begun. The next day we went up the basin to the northwest along the ridge and up through a col to the Klawatti Glacier. WE then droppped out packs and skiied over to Austera. Very nice views. We skied back to the packs and camped at Klawatti col. The next day we kicked steps up the sof south face of Klawatti as the sun rose bathing Eldorado and the rest of the mountains in luminous alpenglow. This was the highlight of the trip for me. Then we skied over to and up eldorado down the Edlorado glacier down to the talus field. The upper field was covered and only the lower protion required scrambling. It wasn't to bad. The entire tour was spectactular. It was nice to do it in four days and have time to explore the area, climb peaks and soak up the ambiance. Pictures to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Skis, rope, ice axe, ski crampoons, crampoons

Edited May 20, 2006 by fheimerd

[RocNoggin]

WOW! nice job guys, cant wait to see the pics! :-)

[Weekend_Climberz]

Yes, lets see the stokey! Nice trip guys!

[letsroll]

nice trip was thinking about doing something simular myself.

 

Way to get the stoke on.

[JoshK]

nice trip was thinking about doing something simular myself.

 

Way to get the stoke on.

 

Add the tour of the Klawatti and North Klawatti glacier area as well, including tricouni and primus peak. This was the best part of the tour, IMHO.

[fheimerd]

The Klawatti was nice but we only made it as far as Austera peak. It seems like you could spend a couple of days up there touring glaciers and bagging peaks. The Mcallister looked like it would be interesting as well.

[JoshK]

That's exactly what we did - I think we did 4 days as well, and went over to Klawatti Lake, etc. Our one mistake, however, was after circling over aroundd forbidden we tried to make it interesting by crossing ripsaw ridge and exiting via horseshoe basin. This was stupid and time consuming and highly not recommended.

[summitseeker]

Did you guys climb Austera or just go to the false summit? We were up there last weekend and didn't see any steps kicked up the final gully. Maybe the snow was really hard? Or perhaps you scrambled up the rock to the right of the gully? Just curious, as it would give me an idea of how fast the snow is melting in that gully. We did see a skin track coming around the east and north sides of Klawatti and a camp on the east side of Klawatti Col, which must have been yours. Anyway, must have been a fantastic tour -- congrats! That one has been on my list for a while but still haven't gotten to it.

[skykilo]

South Face of Klawatti is a great little descent; way to go get it Scott!

 

<edit>OOPS wrong thread. Way to get the Forbidden Traverse too, fheimerd!</edit>

[summitseeker]

(Just gonna reply here.) Thanks Sky. It was a fun little ski. Conditions weren't the best, unfortunately, but once I cut the slope and most of the rain-saturated snow slid, there was actually some decent stuff underneath that made for some fun turns. I definitely enjoyed it -- wish it could have been longer. But then it's not too often I wish a slope was shorter. BTW, I'm still blown away by your trip report on Liberty Ridge! Now that was phenomenal.

[stigi]

Hallo alle miteinander

 

For all of you eager to see the images of the traverse, check out http://www.mr.ethz.ch/~astein/Skitouren/NorthCascades_2006/

 

The handsome looking guy in orange without the Schenkelbürste in his face is ME - the swiss guy .

 

Enjoy,

Stigi

[JoshK]

I really enjoyed that south face of klawatti descent as well. somewhat short, but a great line!