Fueling up at the Marblemount Drive-in.
The have delicious vegi-burgers and curly fries...and shakes.
Charles puts excess gear back in the car.
Leaving the trailhead (2:30pm, 3200 ft).
Johannesburg.
Some of the trail to Boston Basin is edging on hands and knees to duck under overgrown trees.
All the stream crossings on the ascent were inconsequential.
The marmots have no fear in the Basin.
Johannesburg on left.
We only found one dry bivy so Peter and Tad slept there while Charles and I found a relatively flat snow camp site nearby. We reached camp at 5:30pm (6400 ft).
Feet warming dance.
Morning at high camp in Boston Basin on Day 2. We left at about 5:30am.
Crossing the Taboo Glacier to the base of Torment which is at the notch if you look directly up from the lead climber and follow that ridge down and left to it's lowest point.
Charles following up Torment. The belay I'm at is about a rope length from the "notch."
The notch (pictured here) was followed by two pitches across the southeast face of Torment.
The traverse with Forbidden in the distant background. The north face of Buckner is to the right of Forbidden.
This also shows the traverse but includes the notch right of the ridge of the lower east summit of Torment. Below the notch on the north side glacier is where we bivied the first night. Nice and flat snow camping, but admittedly not as far on the traverse as we had hoped. We reached this spot at about 6:30pm
Summit of Torment with the traverse and Forbidden in the background (4:30pm, 8120 ft).
The traverse.
Charles on the Summit of Torment.
Peter on Torment with the ridge to Forbidden in the background.
Eldorado is the highest peak on the left.
Moraine Lake.
We downclimbed from the Summit back down to and across the southeast face of Torment then took one single rope rappel from a well slung station, followed by a short section of down climbing (20 ft).
Then we traversed back up and east on progressively easier grassy, 3rd class ledges to the notch below the east summit of Torment.
From the notch, one single rope rappel brought us down to the snow on which we bivied. A large, deep moat separated the rock from the snow. Peter and Tad down-climbed this while Charles and I rapped.
Tad scarfs down more freeze-dried hash browns than any one man ever has in one sitting. We arrived here at about 6:30pm.
First bivy.
We left the first bivy at 5:30am the next morning and immediately roped up before crossing the glacier and steep snow.
Peter followed by Tad leading off the first steep snow section.
Peter placed both pickets along the way.
Peter scouting out the ridge leading to the second steep snow section.
Peter starting off leading across the steep north facing snow. Snow conditions were close to ideal. Perfect for aluminum crampons.
Peter reaches the rock again after the snow traverse.
We traversed right (south) around this high point on a snow slope.
Glacier Peak.
Bivies.
Peter leading up a steep section of the ridge.
Second bivy. We arrived here at about 4:30pm so we had a lot of time to recoup.
Peter scouting out sleeping spots.
Peter's the big spoon.
Tad licking almond salt off a rock. Rations were meager.
Views south of the bivy toward Glacier and Rainier.
Hygiene.
The start of day three on route. We started climbing at 5:15am.
Charles following over toward the "sidewalk" section. El Dorado in the background.
Officially off Torment, leading up the first few pitches of Forbidden.
Peter leads through the crux pitch of Forbidden.
Peter at the false Summit of Forbidden.
Summit of Forbidden (12:00pm, 8815 ft).
Looking north east from the summit.
The expansive Boston Glacier with the north face of Buckner.
Our tent is visible somewhere below.
First rappel for the East Ridge (northeast face ledges) descent route. We chose to instead descend the west ridge climbing route.
Tad leads back up to the false summit.
For us the descent involved about four rappels, three belayed down-climbed pitches, and a hand-line that Pete setup for shits.
Boston Glacier above and in foreground of Moraine Lake with Inspiration Glacier and El Dorado in the background.
We rappelled 5 rope lengths down through the couloir to the snow. The snow was quite soft and looking riddled with motes.
Peter setting up the last rappel (double-rope).
Last rappel out of the couloir.
Forbidden Peak. You can barely see the couloir if you follow the somewhat independent rock below Forbidden up and around left through a small snow opening, it is basically directly up from there.
The morning of our final descent (7:15am, 6400 ft).
The trail was messy in places. Peter has just slipped here.
The snake-like stick literally activated my fsympathetic nervous system.
I realized back at the car that Kate was watching over me.
I released her back into the wild, but at first she wanted to stay on my hand.
Two of Peter's Camp biners kept sticking in the open position.
Bam.
