tvashtarkatena

So what part of Thailand is she from?

That must be why you forgot my birthday gift, what, with a little one on the way and all....

so is your mom. Speaking of your mom... when the hell did you get married? Jebus, last time I checked you just got yourself a new woahman.

Isn't your wife gonna need some extra emergency room coverage comin' up here?

Hey, this makes three POS's slammed in 4 days.

You know, for when you're finished reading this TR you don't give a shit about.

I might just do a TR about the Robinson trailhead shitter for your personal benefit...you seem to be into that kind of thing.

Plus, if you think these peaks are useless, wait til my upcoming round of TRs....

Wut? According to one Robinson summit register entry, the North Couloir is the finest snow route in all of the Pasayten. We trundled a nice fat boulder down it as a scouring measure for any future takers...but there just might be one or two loose chips left on that side.

And here I thought all you Or EE gun boyz were faggot buddies.

I climbed Torment with Cal and some Russian exchange folks in the 80s, but my buddy Don knows him much better than I.

I've notified the proper authorities of your failure to make use of a your blue bags.

Jebus, Dan, be careful out there! Very nice photography.

Only when I point the camera my way.

Damn, and I was just over there yesterday

Trip: Azurite and Robinson Slam (sort of) - Date: 8/16/2009 Trip Report: TR Azurite and Robinson 8/16-18 “Bridge Out”. Beauty Creek. “Huh. That’s weird. The summit’s to our right, not our left, now” “That is weird….which one is it?” And so it goes. You pick a gulley and take your chances. Azurite: a crappy peak with an alluring name. On Don’s suggestion, we mountain biked six and a half miles or so up the west fork of the Methow until the brush beat us off of our mounts. From there, we walked the rest of the ten miles to the base of the peak before starting up to Azurite Pass and the summit beyond. We overshot the first hugely broad gulley system, which heads straight for the summit, for the second, which offers a choice between wet, steep turkey grit slab or wet, steep friable shite biscuit (we took the latter) before exiting to other gulleys that go back towards the summit. The weirdest thing about this choss palace is that its western flanks are studded with absolutely beautiful granite outcrops, none of which go anywhere useful. Boy, what one could do here with a roto hammer and a bucket of bolts…. Azurite does offer a great view of the precipitous backside of the Tower and Golden Horn area. Biking the West Fork of the Methow Bumblebee Bombus flavifrons, Jet Creek Don on Azurite’s summit The ride down was a blast. Both of us quickly regained our somewhat atrophied biking legs, and within a mile or two we were jumping logs and launching off embankments at dizzying speeds. Or not. Anyway, it was fun. That night we decided to overnight at the 6700’ tarn near Robinson rather than do it as a day trip. Don only had his car camping gear, so he stuffed his Coleman Bag (“Plaid’s nice, but I really want cowboys and Indians”) into his pack, leaving his even more voluminous sleeping pad in the car. We climbed the peak that day. If you love scree, the SE ridge is your little piece of heaven. It starts with a 600’ fan of debris in teal/gray and dusty rose; kind of like the cube-world color scheme of some amorphous tech company circa 1985. Tedious. Alternatively, you can climb the heather/rock slopes to the south ridge. Don descended this and reported it the better choice. Or head straight for the peak, directly up the scree/talus at 320 M (from the tarn) and negotiate a couple of hundred feet of steepish gravel-over-packed at the top. I took this descent route: it’s the quickest way down, but I’m not sure about the other direction in late season. Scaling Robinson My Robinson summit pal: Braconid wasp braconidae acanycolus sp. Don’s Robinson summit pal: Wooly bear hover fly Eristalis flavipes The author on Robinson’s summit. To the west, Rome was burning. We wondered if the PCT hippy we passed the day before had somehow lost control of his smoldering non-fire. Our total travel time for Robinson up and down was about 9 hours, so, despite requiring more elevation gain, it’s a shorter day than Azurite. There is a very well maintained trail up Beauty Creek, and the ‘bushwhack’ up to the 6700’ tarn from there is really all meadow. The moon and Venus, from my sleeping bag One of the many things I love about the Pasayten, other than the rock quality (Cathedral area excepted) and the low angry-hairless-monkey population, is that it is overrun with critters. We flushed out two young bears, a snake, and enough deer and grouse to feed a stadium full of pilgrims during our 2 and half days there… …not to mention many more diminutive monsters: Bee fly Anthrax analis, Robinson Creek Gear Notes: Any sleeping bag with cowboys and indians on it. Approach Notes: Azurite: bring the bikes. Real brushy at about mile 6. Robinson: Bridge out and under repair at Beauty Creek. Trail up Beauty Creek is well maintained.

If the Canada is Garibaldi, and you need an extra body....

This time of year? He's gonna need to bolt it.

Ding ding ding! He has a Phd (!) in ethnobiology, a MUCH more difficult, way cooler subject than archeology, and was one of the leading author of books on herbal remedies of his day. You win: A free weekend Asolo Blue Boot rental at REI.

COnga line's gotta be Rainier, Hood, or St. Helens.

Ptarmigan traverse, circum Jefferson, some Canadian trip...still working on the conga thing.

Harsh. It's gonna be sunny.

For some, high per bowl hour....

I didn't deserve that. No one does.