Daniel and I tried to go up to the North Cascades and do the Forbidden-Torment Traverse, an alpine climb that goes along the ridgeline between the two peaks. The permits to the Boston Basin Trailhead were full, so we decided to take the less popular Forbidden Peak Trail. Note to Self: There is a reason this trail is not popular....possibly because it's not really a trail!! This inefficient choice involved 4000 feet of climbing straight up the side of a mountain, following pieces of flagging and the occasional boot track, over logs, under logs, in alder, and through alder. Oh and also, the forecast said clear and sunny...but guess what, it was overcast and raining....hmmmm.
Example A: For those of you wondering why my legs always look so banged and scratched up. If you can "Where's Waldo" well, there is a small piece of orange flagging in the upper right of the picture. This is probably the closest this trail came to resembling a trail.
Example B: But also it was like this. Yay for wet alder!
Example C: Now you see him, now you don't. That faint yellow in the upper center is Dan's backpack
But we are outside so we are happy, even though we are hiking over wet, mossy granite!
But we could tell the weather was getting worse. This is at about 3ish in the afternoon.
And we think that Mt. Torment is over there!
We got up to a ridge close to 5ish and knew where we were....but didn't really know where that was in relation to where we wanted to be. We ended up finding a flat spot and pitching the tent...and getting about 12 hours of sleep because we turned in so early!!
We woke up above the clouds.
It was beautiful. Can you see our tent in the lower right?
It was too late to do the climb from where we ended up, so we hiked up to the top of the ridge and then rappelled off in order to go down the Boston Basin trailhead. We didn't think we could stomach going back down the crap we had come up.
It was a long traverse back, but rewarding because the Boston Trail is an actual trail. We have definitely completed our fair share of recon. for when we come back. Now we know exactly where we need to go and NOT go!
"The hills are alive" on our "Torment Trailhead to Boston Trailhead traverse"
The highlight of the trip for me was getting to see Kelly and Jason Hower's little boy Patrick, who is now 2.5 months old! He is beautiful, and happy, and I am absolutely in love. He is a such a good baby. We spent some quality time with Kelly and Jason and went for walks and enjoyed the weather. I totally spaced taking any pictures so here are some pics from their blog so you can see how cute he is!
2 comments:
Beautiful pics Team!
Cute pic's!
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