Torment-Forbidden Traverse, July 2013
Tod and I climbed the classic Torment-Forbidden traverse on what was forecasted to be a marginal weekend in early July. Yet despite some cloudiness, we were fortunate not to experience any precipitation and enjoyed great climbing conditions in somewhat cooler temperatures. The unavailability of camping permits in the Boston Basin alpine zone caused us to get a jump on the route with plans for overnighting somewhere in the Torment zone instead. Having made good progress up Torment, we decided to continue past the first camp opportunity high on Forbidden Glacier confident that we could make it to the next camp before dark. Thanks to the long days and continued speedy progress, we reached an incredible bivy at the route’s midpoint by dusk on our first day out. All that remained the following day was the remaining scramble to the West Ridge Notch and climb of Forbidden Peak.
Beta on the TFT abounds, so I’ll simply point out that we avoided the infamous snow/ice traverse by making a single rappel down the south-side and climbing a gully back up to the crest. From here some exposed scrambling or a short bit of down-climbing on snow leads to the saddle on the east end of the aforementioned snow traverse. Lastly, the rappel line down the rib just (skier’s) right of the West Ridge Couloir makes for a much safer and worry-free alternative to rappelling and down-climbing the couloir itself. All told, I found the TFT a thoroughly enjoyable outing in a superb setting with what amounted to long sections of scrambling and some steep snow traversing bookended with short pitches of technical climbing on Torment and Forbidden proper.
