Last weekend, we kicked off the climbing season with a 4-day trip into the Pasayten Wilderness near Winthrop. Jim and I were joined by Kevin and Lisa Loper, Kevin K, Tony, and two new comers in Steven and Colin, friends of Kevin K from Bremerton. The eight of us were set to climb Robinson Mountain on Sunday. Jim and I planned to hook up with Fay on Monday to climb Beauty Peak which is on the next ridge over.
We were blessed with sunshine and no bugs which made for a leisurely approach.
We arrived at camp early on Saturday. After setting up camp, we settled into dinner which completed before 6pm. New record. Jim and I are lucky if we eat before 7pm in the mountains.
Early dinner turned out to be a blessing since cold winds kicked up around 8pm. For those of us that had experienced Ice Lakes last fall, we were more than a little concerned. We did not need another broken tent pole.
The wind blew heavily off and on all night long. We woke to freezing cold temperatures. Much lower than the weatherman had predicted. Everyone emerged from their tents wearing everything they had brought. Sometime during breakfast, the sun hit us and quickly we were down to short sleeves.
After breakfast, we headed out to gain the ridge on Robinson Mountain. We were camped in the bowl below the ridge. Our party took 3 different approaches to gain the ridge. Lisa and Kevin opted for the shortest snow approach with the longest ridge run. Kevin K and his group headed up the moderate snow slope in the middle of the bowl. Jim and I went for the steep snow and most direct route.
Once everyone had reached the ridge, we regrouped and prepared for the long ridge run to the summit.
The ridge run was pretty non-eventful until the final class 3 pitch which included some exposure to get your heart pumping.
After taking summit photos, we settled into a long, boots-off summit stay. The views of the North Cascades were pretty amazing. It helped that we had clear skies and unlimited visibility.
After retracing our steps down the ridge, we opted to take the middle couloir which had a nice glissading line. Tony led out aiming for the tarn in camp. What a great way, under the right conditions, to get down a mountain.
After a break in camp, Jim and I packed up and headed down to the valley floor to hook up with Fay for Beauty Peak. Kevin and Lisa joined us on the trip down. They headed back to the cars to avoid the holiday, weekend traffic.
Fay, Jim, and I setup camp in a crappy but doable valley floor camp. Once the sun went down which was about 7pm, it got crazy cold. Not what Jim and I had packed for.
After a freezing night, we had a very slow morning. Thankfully we had clear skies so as soon as the sun hit us the temps went up 15 degrees. As the three of us headed out of camp, I couldn’t help but get excited about our first summit of the season. When the three of us are together, a summit is never dull.
After an hour in the forest trying not to post-hole in the lingering snow, we got our first view of Beauty Peak.
Our first challenge was finding away across the creek which was running really high. We kept working our way up creek until we finally found a decent log crossing which just happened to be under a beautiful snow couloir which ran almost all the way to the south ridge.
We crested the ridge to be treated to a view of the other Pasayten peaks just one ridge over, Lake, Monument, Lost, Osceola, …
After a short break, we headed up the south ridge first on snow then on crumbly rock.
After multiple false summits, Fay topped out on the true summit.
We spent far too long admiring the views of Robinson and the other Cascade Peaks.
Once we got our shoes back on, we were ready to head back to our dreary camp. None of us really liked our up route. The rock was loose and the snow near the top of our couloir was soft and over rock slabs.
Together we opted for the unknown down route. Never a good idea but somehow it works out for us most of the time. We began a downward traverse aiming for one of the other snow couloirs. After several sketchy rock gullies, we found ourselves on a continuous snow couloir that ran all the way back to the river and a couple of nice snow bridges to get us back to the other side of the creek.
We arrived camp at 7pm. Neither Jim nor I could stand the thought of camping there another night. Fay had a better spot, tucked under the trees so she opted to stay put. Jim and I packed up camp, ate dinner, and were underway by 8pm. The next camp was a couple of hours away but it was down in the forest, out of the wind and the cold. We arrived camp at 10:30. What a beautiful site. It was flat, dry, and warm. Everything we dreamed of.
The next morning, it was only a 35 minute hike out to the car and a 15 minute drive to the Mazama Country Store for a hot breakfast. Great first climbing weekend.
Complete Gallery of Photos
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