Dru Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Climb: Robertson Peak-2nd ascent, via N glacier Date of Climb: 10/3/2004 Trip Report: Well I managed to re-injure my shoulder again last weekend. Rope Up was out unless I wanted to belay all weekend. I could think of more fun, especially with good weather. So Don, Steve and I planned a trip off to attempt Robertson, highest and most remote of the Chehalis summits, with only one recorded ascent. Robertson is 7400'/2250m. It lies SW of the head of Harrison Lake in an obscure and rarely visited area. There are many other nice peaks around. Most saw their only ascents to date when Doug Kasian went on a peak bagging rampage in the late 1970's. We drove up Saturday morning. After some exploratory poking around up various road spurs we picked a line and started hiking. Hey, look! Chehalis bush! It took us about 3.5 hrs to hike 3km of which the last km took 3 hours. The final bit consisted of steep rock with blueberry bushes up which we vege-aided. But there was a nice lake and granite basecamp above. Next day we set off for the summit. Up the NE ridge we went. Steve liked the rock. Jordop had been invited along but declined because he thought the rock was going to be bad. Can't win em all I guess. After climbing to this 2011m gendarme the ridge ahead looked steep and time consuming and would have required a rappel so we bailed to the N glacier instead. Some easy glacial ice and a snow walk got us up to the summit. Approaching col between the summits. On the summit there was no cairn. Not unexpected because the first and only previous ascent was in Feb of 78 and the summit was probably buried under snow. But the lack of any cairn was still welcome because we figured that meant we had made the second ascent. Certainly another ascent has never been recorded in the literature or online. The views were pretty good. This is looking into the chehalis. Trio Spires at left and Clarke group towards the right. Eventually it was time to go back to camp. This is looking down at camp. We were set up by the lower lake. Pk. 2011m is the prominent gendarme at right. We left the summit at 2:30 and got back to camp near 5. After a quick brew up we packed and took off. We found a route down that traded slide alder and devils club for overhanging tree downclimbing, krummholz swimming, gully downclimbing and a 20m vertical rappel. We got into open forest near dark and didnt have to put headlamps on until fairly late in the game, crossing the creek and beginning the final slide alder push to the road. Back to the car at 8:30. Sasquatch Inn at 11:30. Home at midnight. Too tired to drink a beer then. That means I can drink two now! This was awesome trip. Thanks Steve and Don. Gear Notes: rope, crampons, ice axe, 4th class skillz Approach Notes: Tipella Creek road. Slide alder. Devils club. Blueberry bushes. Etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Hey, I never said it was choss, I just had my own plan and posse lined up already. Besides, I had my fun with Robertson when I posted as MrDoolittle, a carpenter from Maple Ridge who wanted to bag the second ascent on a weekend two years ago when I knew you were busy I'll stick with my destination for the w/e being worthwhile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemalot Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 I am sorry Jordop...but there is no comparison... http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=7644&sort=1&cat=500 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 We had more beer and fires than you guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemalot Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 it makes no difference....I don't drink! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 I'm sorry, what? i don't understand, I've never seen that wording before . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemalot Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 which one? "don't" or "drink" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriznitch Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 thanks for sharing, and nice pics Pretty wild that this peak only has 2 ascents, yet is climbable in 2 days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dberdinka Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Nice work and great photos. How were the roads getting in there? Was it the Chehalis tank-trap junk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponzini Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 And how would ski access be? Could you ski up into the valley you camped in? Looked pretty steep..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stemalot Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 no Chehalis tank-trap...but 4x4 hc is still required. it's a loooong drive! the valley is ski-able, but won't get you to the lake we camped. the final bluff is really steep. you are better off going into the area from Tretheway creek if you want to ski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Serl Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 And how would ski access be? Could you ski up into the valley you camped in? Looked pretty steep..... ...or you might try taking the road all the way to the end of the west fork of tipella (last km not drivable). then there is a bush-crash from hell around the head of the valley about 1km to access the lake in the valley northwest of the mtn. this valley is wide open - boulders and scree the whole way. very cool area. and an excellent panorama point: baker/shuksan/slesse/redoubt/etc in S, to matier and perhaps whitecap in N; wedge, garibaldi, mamquam, the lions, etc prominent NW to W; mason, cairn needle, breakenridge, urquhart, old settler, anderson river peaks ranging across the E. and a great treat to be on top of the 'master' peak of the chehalis, after all those years of staring northwest from clarke, viennese, ratney, grainger, and so on, wondering... btw, there is a tiny lake in a tight bowl at 1380m, 1.9km WNW of the peak, that has glacial ice calving into it! (that's about 4500 feet, not much different than the top of mount seymour...) oh, and dru exaggerated the approach. it's not 3km, it's UNDER 2km (from the end of the road)! plus 450m elevation gain. but it DID take us 3 1/2 hrs. gotta love that chehalis bush... cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted October 5, 2004 Author Share Posted October 5, 2004 but from where we parked, it was more like 3 km... however it was the last 1 km that took 3 of the 3.5 hours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Serl Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 Hey, I never said it was choss, I just had my own plan and posse lined up already. OK, so that's the SE buttress of the second tower on 2650, right? where's the TR? see any lines worth going back for? or would that be giving it away? but now it's winter anyway... cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 yes, bivouac, yes, yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted October 10, 2004 Author Share Posted October 10, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted October 10, 2004 Share Posted October 10, 2004 Move along, nothing to see here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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