[TR] Azurite and Robinson Slam (sort of) - 8/16/2

[tvashtarkatena]

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.

Edited August 22, 2009 by tvashtarkatena

[olyclimber]

That last bug sure has an unfortunate latin name.

[NTM]

I went up to Robinson a few weeks ago. We stated up the ridge too early and hit a fairly imposing wall mid-ridge. After going down to the tarn for lunch and siesta, we decided that going straight up the scree and then the short scramble to the top looked like the best option.

That meadow sure is steep! My dad went @$$ over teakettle on the way down (didn't get hurt).

[ivan]

tvash regularly re-earns his community service merit badge for alerting us to all the peaks we don't much need to be worrying 'bout

 

badass bumblebee pic!

[tvashtarkatena]

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.

Edited August 19, 2009 by tvashtarkatena

[tvashtarkatena]

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

[G-spotter]

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

 

Oh boy, you're gonna write TRs for tree-covered hills like Klenke?

[tvashtarkatena]

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

[tvashtarkatena]

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

[tvashtarkatena]

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

[klenke]

Oh boy, you're gonna write TRs for tree-covered hills like Klenke?

 

Like I said, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

Oh, G-spot-misser, the places I've been that I'm happy to know you'll never go. It gives me more pleasure than you could possibly know.

[ivan]

 

Oh, G-spot-misser, the places I've been that I'm happy to know you'll never go. It gives me more pleasure than you could possibly know.

i love those places - they're usually where i poo - there's an unholy large number of them around harden flats outside the yosemite entrance right now