The weekend before our wedding, Becca and I needed some quintessential Cascades trouble to get into. Somehow, we were able tease our good friend and talented climbing partner Eric away from the crags and into the alpine (why even bother with something easier than 5.10??) while simultaneously duping Matt into tagging along. Eric had pitched the Torment-Forbidden Traverse, a classic alpine traverse in North Cascades National Park which starts on the summit of Mount Torment and traverses a mile of jagged ridge, finishing with an ascent of the uber-classic West Ridge of Forbidden Peak. Matt had previously been up just the West Ridge, and I’d climbed the North Ridge of Forbidden many years earlier, but we we all excited to tick off a classic with amazing views and at least some clean rock.
The four of us set out from Seattle around noon on Saturday, planning on hiking in the evening when it was a bit cooler before bivying somewhere along the route. With an entire WinCo pizza stuffed into out bags, we headed up the familiar Boston Basin approach, making friends with a Black Bear just below the upper campsites (the same bear that resulted in the closure of the cross country zone last month?).
Our new bear friend enjoying the lovely meadows in Boston Basin.
We headed past the upper campsites to the dying remains of the Taboo Glacier, beneath the South Face of Torment, and grabbed some water before starting up the South Ridge route up Torment in lovely evening light. The “South Ridge” route name is a bit of a misnomer, as the route actually mostly stays on first the east and then the west sides of the South Ridge before finishing up the Southeast Face of Torment, spending almost no time on the ridge itself. We had an easy time climbing up the gully which provides access to the west side of the ridge, and the scrambling on the west side was beautiful, exposed, and definitely low-fifth.
Becca heading towards the Taboo Glacier, with the impressive North Face of Johannesburg in the background, above the Cascade River valley.
Eric enjoying the evening light high on the South Ridge of Torment.
We crossed back onto the Southeast Face as the light faded, and made our way over to the notch in the East Ridge which accesses the Forbidden Glacier and the rest of the traverse route. Most parties rappel onto the glacier to get around the moat and bergschrund, but we hadn’t yet tagged the summit of Torment. We couldn’t skip Torment, and it was getting fairly dark, but there wasn’t a great place to bivy, and we didn’t want to deal with ascending a rope in the morning to backtrack to get Torment. Instead, we found a few cozy spots to stick our bivy sacks at the East Ridge notch, and we all settled in for the night, Eric and Matt sleeping tied in for extra security.
Eric and Matt, with headlamps on, scouting for bivy sites on the East Ridge of Torment at dusk, with Forbidden’s summit shrouded in clouds to the right.
Our peaceful night was only marred by the simultaneous puncturing and deflating of both Becca and my Thermarests (coincidence?). A few mid-night reinflations later, we awoke at dawn to an absolutely stunning undercast filling the entire Cascade River valley, with Johannesburg and many other summits sticking up through a sea of clouds.
Sunrise on Spider and Formidable, with Glacier Peak in the background, and Johannesburg in the middle-right, all rising above an amazing undercast.
Matt at sunrise, waking up after a peaceful night snuggling his trail runners.
We roused ourselves and headed up to summit Torment, just a dozen minutes of scrambling above our bivy. The view to the west from the summit was stunning, looking over to Eldorado and the Inspiration Glacier, and down thousands of feet to Moraine Lake. We returned to camp to make breakfast and pack up, then rappelled onto the Forbidden Glacier where we paused for a little bit to melt some snow for drinking water before setting off on the traverse in earnest.
Becca making quick work of the last few hundred vertical feet below Torment. The rest of the traverse route over to Forbidden (spiky summit in the middle) stretches out behind her.
This time of year, the bergschrund didn’t pose any challenge, and we got off the glacier and back onto the rock without trouble. We traversed on the north side above the glacier, with a few exposed moves of low-fifth, to regain the ridge crest at a saddle, then stayed closer to the ridge crest to bypass the north-side snow traverse. Except for few exposed low-fifth moves, everything was class 3/4, although with mediocre rock quality in places. The first part of the traverse felt very slow, and every time we looked around the corner it seemed like Torment was still just behind us.
Becca and Eric on a short exposed section of scrambling just before the first snow saddle.
Becca descending easy snow with the Forbidden Glacier and the lower part of the North Ridge of Forbidden in the background.
Matt and Becca at the saddle, with a lingering undercast below Johannesburg and Glacier Peak.
Past the snow saddle, we made a few more exposed moves then enjoyed some easy but stunning scrambling right on the ridge crest before making a 50 meter rappel to the south side of the ridge. From here, easy going on the south side led us to one more hard move (which Becca and I opted to belay) before we returned to the ridge crest and the classic “sidewalk in the sky” section. After spending hours to go what felt like just a few hundred yards, we cruised the much easier terrain to the base of Forbidden’s West Ridge, where the rock quality improved dramatically due to the traffic.
Becca making a few exposed moves above the Forbidden Glacier.
The whole gang cruising the knife edge ridge towards Forbidden.
Eric rappelling above a sea of clouds. Snowking in the distance.
Becca and Eric walking along the “sidewalk in the sky”, with Eldorado and Klawatti to the right.
We dropped most of our gear at the base of the West Ridge and cruised up towards the summit, passing a handful of parties on their way down. By some total coincidence, we reached the summit less than five minutes ahead of Becca’s friend Jack, who had climbed the NE Rib of Forbidden - we had no clue he would be in the same area as us!
On the descent, we made one short rappel past the crux, then downclimbed back to our packs. We dropped off the south side of the ridge to descend into Boston Basin, which also meant descending into the clouds that had been lingering below us all day long. The whiteout, which never made routefinding an issue, added an appropriately ominous mood to the really unpleasant loose downclimbing that separated us from easy slabs. Becca and I made one final short rappel to join our more confident friends below us.
Becca rappeling into the clouds on the descent off the West Ridge.
Back on the easy glacial slabs below, we descended snowpatches and rock, passing some beautiful patches of Monkeyflower. We spotted a proud mommy ptarmigan with her baby before catching the climbers’ trail at the upper campsites and cruising back down to the car. What a great way to spend a weekend with great friends!
Beautiful Monkeyflowers in the slabs below the West Ridge.
Can you spot the White-Tailed Ptarmigan and her baby?