 |
Trip Reports
Here's where you peruse WACer trip reports and post your own for everyone to see. Remember: Never let the truth interfere with a good story! | Trip Reports |
|
|
|
| GuideBook | Summit Routes |
| Weather | Gorgeous, though like baking in an oven at times |
| TrailConditions | What trail? |
| Owned By | SusanAshlock |
| Mailed to WacList | |
| RowId | 489 |
|
| Mountain |
Elevation |
Summitted |
|---|
| Robinson Mountain |
8726 |
true |
|
| Report |
|
Summary ("Just the facts, ma'am")
Dates: Sat-Sun, June 12-13
Who: Murray K, Lee A, Susan A
Where: Pasayten Wilderness. In via Monument Creek Trailhead, out via Robinson Creek TH. Planned destination: Monument Peak, Lake Peak. Actual summit reached: Mt. Robinson
Equipment used: Snowshoes, overnight gear, avy beacon, running shoes (for the jog from Robinson Ck TH to Monument Ck TH)
Equipment brought but not used: ice axe
Time to camp (Saturday): ~8 hours
Time to car (Sunday): ~12 hours
Map of route: http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanashlock/4699742939/in/set-72157624149056157/
Murray had complained about the distance of our planned trip so much on the drive out that I wasn't sure what had convinced him to join Lee and me. According to Summit Routes, it was 33 miles round-trip, including 24 miles on trail (when the trail isn't covered by snow). As we schlepped along the first few miles of trail, we placed bets on where the snow line would be. I guessed 6200' during my trip planning, but was convinced by Murr that it would be lower based on a Hart's Pass TR from just a few weeks prior. And as Murray continued to whine about the heat and how boring the trail was, we observed that the Lost River was moving quite *fast*.
It turns out that there's nothing like a missing bridge to perk up Murray Kahn.
For it was ~4 miles into our trip that we came to the bridge that crosses Eureka Creek. Or at least, where it should have been.
According to two young men who happneed to be hanging out there, there had been notice of this fact at the trailhead. But alas, that didn't help us at this point.
Options were considered. A beaver-downed tree was pushed but not budged. I had brought the most significant mappage of the three of us, but that only included 1:100,000 resolution maps for the area outside our planned summits of Lake and Monument. In hindsight, perhaps the smartest thing would have been to retreat to the car, where we had both a copy of Summit Routes and four Green Trails maps for the area.
But the team of Dumb, Dumber, and Dumberer weren't about to give up that easily. So we convinced ourselves that heading upstream along Eureka creek would eventually lead us to a log-jam or shallow enough water that we could cross. We would simply have to go upslope to avoid some cliffs... and, well, if nothing else, we could go check out that ridge to the west and camp there. That would at least be more interesting than heading back to Seattle or some other such nonsense.
And thus began the opening day of bushwhacking season.
We spent the next 6 hours covering approximately 3 miles of ground, scrambling over rocks and burned trees, earning our first scratches of the season. And it wouldn't be bushwhacking without having snowshoes attached to the outside of your pack. Likewise with the postholing. After seeing all the scratches on my legs, Murray pointed out that most women he knows travel in the backcountry with BD backcountry nylons. I pointed out that if his legs weren't so hairy his probably would have looked just as ridiculous as mine.
The actual ridge that we were aiming for seemed to always be *just* out of sight ("A Ridge too Far"?), and we joked at how impressed people on cascadeclimbers would be when we posted a TR about our success at attaining the much-sought-after ridge. However, it *was* pretty when we got there (both at sunrise and sunset!) and there was even a snow-free spot just large enough for Murray's tent. And from that vantage, we speculated that we could indeed try for Mt. Robinson the next morning, as that was most almost certainly easier to obtain than Lake and Monument from our current location. (For the record, it looked like consistent snow on Lake and Monument started around 6500' and on our ridge it started around 5800').
A warm night made it fairly easy to rise at 5 a.m. and head north towards Mt. Robinson. Once at Beauty Creek at 5800' we cached our overnight gear and headed up the Beauty Creek valley. The trees soon became less dense and our rate of prgress improved. at 6200' we dropped our snowshoes, as we were about to go steeply up towards the summit. At this point it was ~9:30 and things were already certainly softening up. At 6400' (camp) it hadn't gotten down to freezing overnight and was probably 50 degrees at 6:30 a.m., and in the 60's by 9:30. The sun was intense.
We saw evidence of slides all around us, and a slow-moving point release occurred off to our left as we ascended the final 800' of gain to the summit, in a slide path that had already released recently. And with about 300' to go a fast, large-ish one went just to our left. That certainly increased our rate of ascent.
Once on the broader-than-it-looked-from-below summit, we speculated that some avy control work might be in order. Sure enough, throwing even baseball-sized rocks triggered slides. Lee was by far the most successful of us, due no doubt to his experience with ski patrol at Squaw Valley. He got some decent-sized slides to go, some of them fairly quickly.
And quickly went the three of us down the slope (it was noon at this point), deciding that glissading was the fastest and safest option for us.
There was some relief when we got back to the safety of the creek at 6200'. But we still didn't know exactly how we'd get back to a trailhead. We knew that there was a trail along Robinson creek, but we couldn't be sure from our 100k map that we wouldn't get cliffed out or horrendously harranged by shrubbery along the way.
We did actually use snowshoes for a couple of miles and things went surprisingly smoothly. At an elevation of about 4800' we noticed an obvious trail across Beauty Creek from us. But despite Lee and Murray's best efforts to build a log jam, the creek was running too fast and too high. Downstream we continued, occasionally on game trails and keeping our fingers crossed that we'd be able to reach the Robinson Creek trail safely.
We didn't believe Murray when he said that he had found the trail, but there is was! So smooth, so easy, so easy to imagine ourselves drinking a beer in Mazama... until the trail ended at a fording for Robinson Creek. Another missing bridge?!!! We had just a mile left to the trailhead, but Murray and I put our bushwhacking clothes (i.e. pant legs) back on and resigned ourselves to the fact that this was indeed a semi-epic adventure. For the vegetation was thicker; no snow to elevate us above the worst of the understory here.
But for some reason we decided to retrace our steps and see if we had missed something and see if there was an easier way to cross up-stream. And there stood a beautiful, sturdy, bridge of happiness. And thank god it was there. The east side of Robinson Creek has a bunch of gnarly cliffs, far worse than anything we went through on Saturday!
So when we finally got back to the car (hooray for the fact that I carried running shoes all that way), I checked the route description for Mt. Robinson. "The most accessible of the peaks in the Pasayten..." it began. All three of us nearly fell over laughing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
