KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Trip: Torment - South Ridge Date: 7/25/2010 Trip Report: I've been wanting to climb Forbidden really badly this year, and was all set for the trip. I checked with the Marblemount Ranger Station maybe Wednesday and they said there were still four open slots for Boston Basin. I figured if I drove up on Friday after work (leave 4 pm), I'd be good. Not. Some gnarly traffic kept me from getting there until 7:15, but, in the end it was to no avail. All six slots were gone, and four slots were taken up by guided groups, who, apparently can register in advance of a day, not as walk-ins. So, on to plan B, Torment. I know there are many ways up Torment, but thought either the S ridge or the SE face would be best for my skills and my first run up there. However the melting/moating snow, and risk of accident up on the Taboo glacier, especially now, swung me towards the S ridge (both to ascend and descend). So, permit-less, I contacted my climbing partners about the change of venue and agreed to meet them at the Eldorado TH at 9 am on Sat. One of my partners seemed to prefer the idea of the steep, "unaesthetic" trail up Torment Basin, so we parked at the turnout, found what appeared to be the start of the trail and headed up. The "trail" disappeared almost immediately. We searched for about 30 minutes, zig-zagging uphill until I called this out as stupid, and we went back to the cars and drove up to the Boston Basin TH instead. Good call! Within two hours we were in the full alpine glory that is the Boston Basin! We chatted with some friends who were descending from Forbidden, and began our long, beautiful traverse - highly recommended! We mostly traversed snow, with a brief scramble along a waterfall, and, another section of scrambling to the ridge separating the Boston and Torment basins. As we passed the Taboo glacier, we thought that it did indeed look gnarly - a bit broken up around the rock, with a moat. The S ridge it would be. We also briefly entertained the idea of camping here and climbing Forbidden, but opted to continue on. We expected to see a tent city up under Forbidden. Despite the fact that it was 2pm, we saw nobody there at all. Where are these guided groups? The weather was perfect - well maybe a bit too hot in the 5 pm sun, but we set up a tarp for cover. Great views, and they were there at night too, with a full moon. We had the place all to ourselves. We got up at 5 am and were moving by 6. The snow leading up to the notch in the S ridge was quite hard and icy, and thin around the rock to boot, with a deep moat awaiting a punch-through fall. We carefully gained the rock in crampons and scrambled the gnarly gully to an anchor and roped up. It was about 7:30 and already warming. The first pitch was quite fun, then we started traversing left. Despite reading a warning about not climbing too high while traversing, we ended up doing it anyways. The "mistake" might have cost us some time, but in the end we ended up climbing some fun 5.6-ish stuff, and then just having to do a 50 foot rappel into the final, wide gully that leads to the "prominent notch" in the S ridge. This consumed a total of 5-6 pitches with the last one being more like class 4. KK on belay: It was all worth it, however. That summit is absolutely wonderful. The views of the Inspiration Glacier, as well as Forbidden, and the TFT route are spectacular! From the notch we simulclimbed some exposed sections over the SE face, then unroped and scrambled to the summit. It was 3 pm when my partner and I summited and maybe 3:30 when the other two guys got there. Crazy Nelson on the summit: We reversed our steps, which, unfortunately was not too fast. We had to mix downclimbing pitches while placing pro with rappels. One rappel took me to an anchor that was too shaky for my taste - old tat notwithstanding. I ended up going a full 200 feet on my single strand, bending around a corner to get to a nice station. Everyone rappelled to here (setting up the second rope), and we belayed one guy out a bit to do the rope pull with a better angle. The first rope cleared but the second stuck. So, we untied the first rope and set up another rappel, while our partner upclimbed, placing pro, and moving a prusik to clear the other rope. That burned some time. We did another single rope rap, downclimbed a half-pitch, then did two more single rope rappels to the base of the climb. By now it was 8:30 pm and when we got to camp we either could hike out in the dark and then drive home until the wee hours of the morning, or we could just crash for an extra night. We chose the latter, despite one partner really wanting to bushwhack and forest crash the Torment Basin by headlamp. Fortunately, he did not hold it against us and shared his 1 lb can of SPAM with us. I have not eaten SPAM since I was about 12, and it sure tasted better than I remembered it. Today we got up, packed up, and headed down around 6. We opted to go straight down the unaesthetic Torment Basin since it would be nice to compare it to the other approach. Well, it sucks. I guess we can have wanna-be-hardman points for bushwhacking through slide alder and devil's club, as well as sidehilling shit that pushed my tolerance threshold. Eventually - and I mean at about 3100 foot elevation - we actually found, and stuck to, a climber's trail. Near the bottom it hit a log that we obviously had missed 2 days earlier. Over this log was the end of the trail, the one we had previously "explored". Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, helmet. Small alpine rack, lots of double slings, climbing boots suffice. Approach Notes: Boston Basin Traverse = spectacular! Torment Basin = brutal and unnecessary! 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jshamster Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 IF you find the correct, flagged trail, the Torment Basin approach is very nice. I did it a couple of years ago and found it very pleasant, and much quicker into that part of the area. Too bad it wasn't all that for y'all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa_D Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 sounds like an enjoyable trip. I don't know if I'll ever be able to go on the SE face of Torment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 IF you find the correct, flagged trail, the Torment Basin approach is very nice. I did it a couple of years ago and found it very pleasant, and much quicker into that part of the area. Too bad it wasn't all that for y'all. How much bushwhacking is involved in the correct, flagged trail? Up high we found one talus field with a single cairn, and lower down we ran into a boot path going up on what looked like cross-country terrain. We only hit a "real" trail at about 3100 foot elevation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshamster Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 i do not remember any bushwhacking. i was by myself and made into open, alpine terrain in an hour or so. when i say flagged, i mean that's the way to go, not really a trail. been a couple of years, but i remember it being the logical, and easy, way to go to reach Torment. if going to Forbidden, I would, of course, use boston basin trail. i think i just followed the beckey approach beta for Torment basin. cheers jimbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 i do not remember any bushwhacking. i was by myself and made into open, alpine terrain in an hour or so. when i say flagged, i mean that's the way to go, not really a trail. been a couple of years, but i remember it being the logical, and easy, way to go to reach Torment. if going to Forbidden, I would, of course, use boston basin trail. i think i just followed the beckey approach beta for Torment basin. cheers jimbo Interesting. The Nelson-Potterfield-described approach definitely mentions some obligatory 'schwacking to go left under a cliff band before getting into the open alpine terrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counterfeitfake Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Do you have any big pictures of Eldorado? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 28, 2010 Author Share Posted July 28, 2010 My camera battery was dead so all pics are from others. :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Miller Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 I'll have to concur with Jimbo's comments re Torment Basin Climbers Path. We've used it at least three times in the past, quite successfully. However I've not done it in a number of years. Real direct and quite functional. I'm a little surprised that it is not pretty obvious. Oh well! I may have suss it out in the near future. Happy Trails, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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