Mount Torment & Forbidden Peak Traverse

Trip Report

The trip report included detailed time because this is a very committing climb and managing time was extremely important.

Day 1 - the day that was not in the plan. 

The original plan was to do the traverse in two days. We would go get the permit at the Marblemount Ranger Station Friday afternoon, sleep at the trailhead, and start at 2 AM Saturday. Then, we thought if we got permits for both Friday and Saturday nights, why not start Friday afternoon so that we could get 3,000 elevation gain out of the way and didn’t have to wake up so early. That was exactly what happened. We started at the trailhead around 4:20 and arrived at the Boston Basin High Camp around 7:40, easy cruising and berry feast.

Day 2 - the day that didn’t go exactly as planned.

Our stretch goal was to climb Torment on Day 2 and traverse all the way to the notch below Forbidden, which is the start of the West Ridge climb, and bivy there. Honestly, I was happy if we could traverse half way between the Torment and Forbidden after passing a crux steep snow traverse section. In reality, we made it to a bivy before the steep snow traverse. 

• 5:20 AM: We started hiking from the Boston Basin high camp (6300) and made it to the base of the Torment (7300) in about 2 hours and 20 minutes. On the way, we refilled water for the whole day at the last flowing water at the toe of the Taboo Glacier.
• 8:00 AM: We ascended the gully to a notch on the South Ridge of Torment, which is the base of the South Ridge climb. However, we made a mistake by going down from the notch to a loose gully on the other side to look for a ledge on the left. We realized later that from the notch, we should have immediately turned to facing right and climb up a face or a wide crack and then traverse left to find the ledge. This mistake cost us almost an hour. 
• 9:00 AM: We started on the continuous climb of “South Ridge”. In quotes because you are basically climbing on the northwest side of the ridge until you reach another notch on the ridge above a wide gully. We pitched out a steep open book (image below) and then simulclimbed the rest in about 2 hours to the notch.

• 11:30 AM: The next section was a scramble traverse on the Southeast Face until below a notch on the Torment Northeast Ridge. There, we dropped packs, only carrying a rope in case we needed to rappel. We reached the summit (8200) at 12:10 PM. The summit register was full and there was no pencil.
• 12:30 PM: We were back at our packs. We didn’t rappel coming down and we decided to continue to downclimb to the next notch where we would start the glacier section, which we arrived at around 1:10 PM.

• 1:40 PM: At this moment, we were supposed to do an overhanging rappel from the notch down to the Forbidden Glacier. The glacier didn’t look too broken up but the moat between the glacier and the rock is wide and deep. On Day 1, someone we met on the hike-in told us one of their friends didn’t need to go down to the glacier at all. We didn’t find this option. We geared up, put on our crampons, pulled out our ice axes, and started rappelling. The plan was to go down a little and see how it looked. If options were not good, we could ascend back up and discuss. If options were good, we would stay on rappel while crossing over to the glacier so we still have some protection while making this move. My partner went first. She made it. Then, I followed. When I came over the overhang, the picture was clearer. There was a protruding rock you could stand on, which is 3-4 feet away from the snow. Below it was a deep gap. I stood on the rock, plunged the ice axe into the vertical snow in a self-belay position, kicked out my right foot into the snow, pulled myself over using the ice axe, then I kicked my left foot into the snow. This was an extremely difficult move with one ice ax. I didn’t know how my partner made it with only rope from the top. I had the benefit of my partner holding the other end of the rope. Once the positive was established, I climbed the vertical snow a few feet to the top of the moat. What a relief! This was definitely one of the sketchiest parts of this trip. It took us an hour.

• 2:40 PM: We started going down the glacier to reach the rock on the other side. The glacier was pretty steep on the top, 60+ degrees, and mellowed out to about 35 degrees down below. We roped up, pitched out the whole crossing in 3 pitches, and reached the rocks in almost an hour. Now, here was the problem. This was the only place of the glacier that connected to the rock. The rest all had moats. But this place also did not have a good route to continue on rock. The standard route was a little further down but blocked by a large moat that had collapsed. We thought there might be a route going right on the face from where we were. After exploring, it seemed to be class 5 instead of class 4, what it should have been, and we couldn’t see where it eventually went. Then I went down into the moat to see if there is a way to reach the standard route. It was a no go. The only option now was to go directly up, which we didn’t think would work initially due to a patch of snow blocking the way. I went up a few feet of rock to reach the snow. I tried going below the snow patch but the exposure was too great with no protection on a sloping slab. Well, now I had to give the snow patch a try. Surprisingly, it was solid enough to hold my weight and soft enough to allow me to cut steps with my approach shoes. I pulled out my ice axe and gave it a go. Honestly, since we already rappelled down from the notch, we didn’t really have a good option to go back. We were committed and just needed to figure out a way to move forward. Finally, I got across the small snow patch and got onto the rock again. This took us 1.5 hours.
• 5:10 PM: We were finally enroute to the next crux, the steep snow traverse. This next section to reach the steep snow was basically a rising traverse on the rock around the north side of a sub-peak of Torment. Once we turned around the northeast corner, the traverse became more of an upward ridge climb. We tried traversing, but often got cliffed out and were forced to climb up. In about an hour, we reached some good bivy sites near the beginning of the snow traverse right below the top of the sub-peak. It had already passed 6 PM and we were tired. We decided to set camp and rejuvenate for the next day. At this bivy site, we had a clear view of the “snow” traverse. It was all ice now. So, instead of traversing the ice, we decided to climb up the ridge above the ice traverse, which was another legit route. Before we went to bed, we saw a huge rock breaking off, plunging down the ice slope, and exploding into pieces. Yeah, climbing over the rocks was the way to go.

Day 3 - a 24-hour day

We were behind our schedule so we decided that we would go to the base of the Forbidden West Ridge route and make a call if we wanted to climb it or go down. 

• 4:00 AM: Woke up.
• 5:30 AM: We walked across a pretty firm snow slope to the base of our rock section above the ice slope.
• 6:00 AM: We started climbing. According to the beta, we were supposed to get into a gully between two gendarmes and climb the second one to the top. However, we couldn’t find a way into the gully, so we climbed up a ramp on the first gendarme until we could see the gully. There was a rappel station. We rapped down and went up the gully to the next climb.

• 7:10 AM: We started on the second gendarme. We pitched out the first pitch and simul-climbed the rest to a rappel station before cliffing out. Very solid and fun climb up to 5.4.

• 8:30 AM: We started rappelling to the south side. After two rappells, we were on the grass ledge described in the beta in about 45 mins. Since these less used rappels. Regardless of how the slings looked, we added our own sling or cordelette to each station. Then, we hiked to the end of the grassy ledge.

• 9:45 AM: The next section was supposed to be climbing up some class 4 and 5 stuff to the top of the ridge. We saw a slabby left facing dihedral that looked climbable but the start of the climb did not look low 5. However, proceeding further on the south side looked loose, slabby, and steeper. We decided to climb up the nice looking slab/dihedral. The crux was getting on to the slab. There were two options. The first one was to get on the slab sooner but it would require going through a narrow slab where the protruding rock wall would push you out. The second option was to go up in a slightly overhanging chimney and bypass the narrow section. My partner tried the first option and could not find a way through the narrow slab safety. As she was backing down, she slipped and fell, pulled out two protections, but fortunately did not get hurt. Then, I tried the chimney and was able to get above. I would say it was a 5.7/5.8 move. I pulled our packs up, which was the hardest part due to the lip of the overhanging chimney, and belayed my partner up. This crux took us an hour. The rest of the way to the top was a nice and fun 5.3/5.4 slab just like the South Ridge of Ingalls. After one pitch (35m) and 10 feet of simulclimb, we were at the boulder field on the ridge in 30 mins.

• 11:30 AM: From this point on, everything became so enjoyable and nerve-wracking at the same time. This section was a ridge walk passing a few gendarmes (climb over or pass on the left). The ridge walk was sometimes a sidewalk, sometimes slabby, and sometimes a knife edge. While it was easy and fun, most of the time, it was super exposed with hundreds of feet of cliff under us or on both sides. Around 12:30 PM, we go to the rappel to the Forbidden West Ridge notch. This was the first time we saw other people in 40+ hours. We rappelled down, ate and drank, and decided we would climb Forbidden.

• 1:30 PM: We stashed our gear and started on the West Ridge of Forbidden. It felt so easy and enjoyable without a heavy backpack. We simulclimbed most of the way except for the 5.6 crux and got to the top in 2 hours. Clouds started to roll in so we quickly headed down. We soloed most of the way to the notch in about 1.5 hours with one rappel at the 5.6 crux. 
• 5:30 PM: We started the first rappel from a rappel station visible from notch. The beta is to stay on the rib when rappelling, but after two rappels, we couldn’t find the third. We had to downclimb a little and traverse across a shallow gully to a rib on skier’s left to find another rappel station, which looked like the right station and the right rib. Now, I realized why it’s called Cat Scratch Gully. This is because it is like the mountain was scratched by a cat so there are multiple gullies and ribs. Because we didn’t come up this way. It was almost impossible for us to know which rib or gully we were at. On the fourth rappel, we were supposed to cross over the deep gully on skier’s left when there is a break in the left gully wall. It looked right all the way through the break in the gully wall, but I was almost at the end of the rope and couldn't find the next station, which was supposed to have a pedestal with pins and fixed gear, which I couldn’t find either. Only when I went to the end of the rope, I saw a belay station with a few cordelette slung over a rock horn. Apparently, other people had been misled to this spot and had to improvise a rappel. I did not see other choices so I went off rappel. After my partner came down, I tried to pull the rope. It was stuck! On both ends! I put myself on the rope again and traversed back into the gully. This time one end is loose. What a relief! I pulled the rope and we started the next rappel. We added a cordelette to the rock horn for extra security. We decided to skip the last rappel and just downclimb the gully. This whole section took us 3.5 hours before we were on the glacier.
• 9:00 PM: At this time, clouds rolled in and the sun was setting. It became dark and whiteout pretty quickly. Fortunately, we could follow the GPS track and had already finished all the high consequence terrains. We reached the Boston Basin high camp in an hour and refilled water. The rest was some trail hiking, some off trail scrambling, and some creek crossing in the dark. We were back at the trailhead around 1AM. 
• 4:00 AM: Back home, exactly a 24-hour day.

Gear:

• Rope: 70m 7.3mm twin/half; perfect for this climb; enough for 2p glacier travel; double up for rock; 35m rappel
• Cams: 1 set from 0.2 to 2
• Nuts: 1 set alternating regular and offset
• Slings: 8 singles and 4 doubles
• Ice screws: 1 each person - did not use
• Piton: 1 - did not use
• Throw away slings and cordelettes: 3; had 2 additional cordelettes
• Shoes: I had approach shoes and boots; my partner had boots and rock shoes; under the trip condition, more rigid approach shoes with crampons were probably fine
• Ice axes: I had an ice tool; my partner had an ice axe
• Pickets: 1 each person

Map