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May 5-8, Forbidden Traverse

5/15/12
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Posted by mattgoyer on 5/14/12 2:42pm
Little late on this TR, next time I'll book an additional vacation day for recovery and blogging purposes :).

May 5-8 we did the Forbidden Traverse guided by . We had originally planned this trip for mid-March but Cascade River road wasn't in good shape and May 5th was when all our schedules aligned. Fortunately the weather really turned out great!



Day 1, May 5th:

Took the Cascade River road to about mile 18.5 and started a combination of hiking and skinning until we got to the Boston Basin Climbers Trail. We then took that up to the knob at 6248' and camped.



Day 2, May 6th:

Woke up to totally clear skis!

While we headed to Shark Fin Col the party we saw head up to Sahale Peak and ski down must have got some awesome turns. 6"+ of fresh pow. Clear blue skis. Lucky group. Was hoping I'd see their TR here :).



We found Shark Fin Col chock full of waist deep snow that we ended up needing to shovel out. From the top we rappelled off the summer climber's rock. Then it was over to Forbidden Col. Snow conditions were warm but the fresh tracks compensated.



On the way up Forbidden Col we set off some small loose slides. The way up was definitely easier than Shark Fin Col but still a wee bit technical.

Descent down from the top of that to Moraine Lake was long! At Moraine Lake we were able to get fresh water...

Day 3, May 7th:

Skied across the lake then up to the Inspiration Glacier. The route up to Inspiration Glacier was breakable crust. We skinned most of the way with ski crampons but booted a section or two. From Inspiration Glacier over to Klawatti Peak we were seeing pin wheels off our ski tracks. One of em turned into a small wet slide.



Day 4, May 8th:

Headed up Eldorado, summited at 10:40. Kudos to the group that skied up and off the summit. We booted the last bit :).



By the time we were done skiing the east face it was slayed. A group had hit it the day before then two groups before us. Sorry if anyone came after us and found no fresh tracks :).

Took off our skis at 3800', picked up the Eldorado Climber's Trail at 3500'. It was certainly tough going in ski boots and skis on our pack. I suspect I'll lose a toe nail.



Thanks to Chris and Pro Guiding for a great trip! I highly recommend it!

If you're looking for more, here's all my photos, .

Nice thing about this traverse is that you have three good downhill sections so it isn't all just skinning :).

Nice! Thanks for the map, I always wandered where exactly the tour went.

Rad trip.  Good to see you're still killin it Matt.

author=runningclouds link=topic=24791.msg104762#msg104762 date=1337113456]
Nice! Thanks for the map, I always wandered where exactly the tour went.


that's quality wandering without a map!


author=mattgoyer link=topic=24791.msg104760#msg104760 date=1337111890]
Nice thing about this traverse is that you have three good downhill sections so it isn't all just skinning :).


Matt, thanks for coming on the trip with us.

Looks like a great trip!  Also on my to-do list, thanks for the stoke.

author=Mofro link=topic=24791.msg104766#msg104766 date=1337121015]
that's quality wandering without a map!


:) obviously that should have been "wondered". Although I do dream about having enough time to go into the North Cascades without a map and just finding for myself.

Strong work, MG. Going down the Eldo climbers trail with skis on your back is pretty awful.

I used the 3x function on your photo #87 where Klawatti S face is in the top right corner: it appears that the S face had its usual big slide. Can you confirm? (The other Klawatti images show the west side.) Thanks, N

Sorry Niko, I can't recall if Klawatti had slid or not!

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may-5-8-forbidden-traverse
mattgoyer
2012-05-14 21:42:29