Torment-Forbidden Traverse
Words by Dave Shuey. Photos by Greg Overton, Dave Shuey, and Patrick Murphy.
The watch alarm sang its 4am song, with the van parked at a trailhead above Cascade River. Not one especially keen on leaving the comfort of a mattress in the morning, I pried myself from my cocoon and fired up the stovetop coffee maker. An hour’s preparations later—mostly sitting and drinking said coffee—Patrick and I had boots and packs on, and were ambling up the trail.
As many fellow vertical adventurers will attest, the term “climbers’ trail” can be a loosely applied phrase. Typically this means that the way forward to the base of your objective will be an unmaintained path, scampering over downed trees and rocks, often with little regard for slope angle. The three-mile, 3200 foot approach trail to Boston Basin, has all these characteristics, but it gets the job done effectively. There’s some ‘swhacking through dense PNW-style forest; some steep steps up rocks an roots; some sections of calm, dry woodlands; several creek crossings; and finally one stroll up heather-covered slopes with chunky marmots fleeing the scene. After a couple hours of good effort, through what is hopefully a cool and pleasant morning, you’re presented with a perfect high-alpine camp below the impressively-ridged Forbidden Peak. 2:45 hours after leaving the car, we found ourselves having finished the traverse across slabs and snow to the base of the Torment Glacier.
A quick rope up in glacier travel mode allowed for a carefree traverse of the Torment Glacier, navigating passed two broken sections, while aiming for a third class couloir with an notch marking the start of the South Ridge route on Torment. Although not significant separation, we were forced to down climb into a moat before ascending the loose chute. I started off on what would be our first simul-climbing block of many by climbing a steep but easy broken crack system, which took us around the ridge towards Torment’s NW face. Deviating from our researched route beta, we kept climbing up and left just shy of the ridgeline instead of traversing on ledges towards a wide couloir. Route-finding often feels like a gamble while choosing between a couple options, as its a real time killer to have to make a one-eighty if your decision doesn’t pan out. As it would happen, this route turned out better than our beta and took us directly to the upper notch in the south ridge. As we popped out onto the south east face, a guided party, with whom we would share the route for the remainder of the climb, was approaching from below, having taken the SE Face route instead. A quick dash up and left produced our first summit with a top out on Mount Torment, 2:50 hours after leaving the glacier.
Here is where the alpine trickery continues and true traverse begins. A short rappel and some down climbing brought us to the obvious notch on Torment’s east ridge. Skipping the rappel, we chose to down climb some loose blocks to the notch’s east and hop across a moat to gain the Forbidden Glacier on the north side. At this point, seasonal snow/glacier conditions will largely affect your next moves. We opted to traverse and down climb around the bergshrund via a snow bridge to the skier’s left, protected by t-slot anchors with our axes. One of us would lead out 60m, build an anchor with their ax, then the other would climb to their position with a munter belay, and continue on for an additional 60m. 4-5 pitches of this method brought us safety yet quickly to a large northerly ridge of rock. For reference, the guided group behind us chose to rappel a full 60m off the notch directly over the ‘shrund, before continuing on the lower angle snow.
Two more simul blocks brought us up and around this north off shoot and back towards a saddle on the main east ridge. Our next objective lay before us, in the form of the classic steep snow traverse. Prepared with a possible bypass option in case the snow was determined to be out of condition, we were delighted to see the face in perfect snow conditions. As with the previous glacier section, the snow was soft enough to allow for easy step kicking, while firm enough to securely support our weight. Without any additional snow protection such as pickets, and with our previous t-slot anchors method rehearsed, we chose to pitch out our full rope twice to reach the saddle beyond. The exposed position along this snow traverse is excellent, as the north face drops down for several thousand feet over both slabs of rock and crevassed glacier. Upon reaching the saddle, we were elated with our progress and pleased to have the conditions-dependent snow crux behind us.
After a short ways continuing along easy rock and ledges either on the ridge or to the south side, Patrick discovered a perfect bivy site, where previous parties had spend some considerable time flattening out a comfortable ledge with rocks. With a flat spot to camp and a snow patch dribbling water nearby, we called it a day. We couldn’t have hoped for better weather conditions for a night out in the open. Over a shared freeze-dried meal and a little bottle of bourbon, we basked in the rock’s warmth and watched the ebbing light fade. Under a rising full moon, we drifted off with stunning views of the North Cascades to inspire pleasant dreams.
Comfortable with our position well along the ridge, with Forbidden’s pointed apex seemingly a stone’s throw away, we slowly arose with the sun about 6am. Glenn and Greg, our route sharing compadres, must have bivied just west of our spot and they passed by just as the sun was hitting the ridge. The traverse beyond this point, offers pleasant and aesthetic climbing, often with huge drops to either side of a knife-edge, leading the way to a notch below Forbidden’s West Ridge route.
Still being relatively early in the morning, I was fine sharing the route with just two other pairs, as I imagine this route can get busy. As we had done for all the rock portions of the route, we continued simul-climbing along this flowing and casual route. The crux 5.6 moves to gain a small tower two thirds up the route, gladly proved none-too challenging, even simuling with light mountain boots. After a short and exposed down climb near the top, we scampered along to meet up with Glenn and Greg on the summit, just two hours after leaving our bivy site.
Having been to this summit just last year, after an ascent of the east ridge, I already knew this spot was a special place. Under blue skies with wispy clouds for texture, our eyes were drawn to turquoise alpine lakes, glaciated volcanos, and craggy summits, all within one glance in any direction. The 8816 foot summit of Forbidden Peak has to be one of the best spots I’ve ever found myself, and I would gladly go back again and again.
With the Torment-Forbidden Traverse complete, all that remained was our descent. As the weekend parties begin to stack up beneath us, down climbing and rappelling the west ridge took some time, as I’m inclined to give the uphill climbers a bit of the right-away. Some 4-5 rappels down the west gullies deposited us onto a soft, but very snow covered glacier. Unroped, we blasted down the snowfield with our minds set to Snickers and makeshift iced coffees (glacier melt and instant coffee powder) once reaching the basin below. The hike back from Boston Basin to the trailhead proved thankfully uneventful, as we lamented and glowed on the previous two days. Back at the van, the cooler proved its worth with icy cold PBRs on demand.
What is hands-down one of the coolest adventures out there, the Torment-Forbidden Traverse (IV 5.6, steep snow) is a full-featured yet never too difficult objective for any moderately experienced alpine climber. More than an ability to crank down on small holds, the traverse requires an understanding of a variety of techniques from the ol’ bag of alpine tricks to move quickly and efficiently yet safely through diverse mountain terrain.
BETA:
Torment-Forbidden Traverse (IV 5.6, steep snow; 2500’ technical, 6850’ total)
Prepare to move light and fast over snow, glacier, and easy to moderate rock. Our method of simul-climbing all the rock and pitching out the steep snow without protection beyond t-slotted ice axe anchors proved effective and safe.
A single alpine rack to 2” with plenty shoulder-length slings is sufficient. We brought two ice screws and never used them. Snow pickets could be useful to help protect the snow traverses or to use as protection for running belays, but would add weight and bulk. Ditching packs at the base of the West Ridge route allows for more comfortable climbing.
Our times for the traverse on 1-2 August 2020: 3:00hr trailhead to Torment Glacier (via Boston Basin); 2:50hr from base of route to summit of Torment (via South Ridge route); 6:00hr from summit of Torment to bivy site, about 2/3s along the ridge; 2:00hr from bivy site to summit of Forbidden; 4:00 from summit of Forbidden to Boston Basin; 1:45hr from Boston Basin to trailhead.
