During quarantine and after a bunch of wet weekends in a row, we were itching to get outside. The forecast looked marginal most places in the state, but the East side looked reasonable for Saturday, so we decided to go up Robinson Mountain, clearly visible at the head of The Methow Valley from Sun Mountain, where Erica and I were married last summer.
We drove out past the pass and camped on Friday night, timing our morning for breakfast sandwiched and coffee at the Mazama Store before heading to the trailhead. As we parked, we smelled burning oil. After parking, further investigation discovered that the guys who had done my recent oil change must not have tightened the bolt—it had loosened up to the point of hanging by a thread and oil was spewing onto the parking lot while the engine was on. Yikes! I foolishly reached under the car to try to tighten it by hand and it immediately fell to the ground, covering my hands in thankfully just warm, not hot oil. We stood in disbelief as the car emptied onto the parking lot.
Thankfully, the Mazama Store sells oil and we were on the receiving end of helpful people who let us hitch to the store and back as well as borrow a wrench to tighten the bolt. Within 2 hours, we were sorted and able to still head off for our scramble. Thank you to everyone who helped! The prospect of squandering the weekend with car trouble after so many days and weekends inside was a really tough one.
After all that excitement, we left the car at 10am with light packs. We made quick work of the Robinson Creek Trail to Beauty Creek and then headed up the steep switchbacks to the valley East of Robinson. The trail faded at a campsite around 5,450 feet and we started making our way up the steep hillside with small hints of foot travel here and there. Things leveled off at about 6,200 feet and we cruised up to the small tarn at 6,900 feet for a lunch break at about 1pm.
We opted to go up the scree slope from the tarn to gain the SE Ridge, which looked more loose and steep than it was. Once on top of that unsavory section, the rest of the ridge was a series of steeps and flatter sections. It often looked much more challenging than it was. At 2:15pm, we were on the false summit at 8,450 feet. We made it to the top, after scrambling the steepest section, around 3:30pm. The “crux” as it was described did have some exposure, but was well wide enough and solid enough to not be concerning without a rope on the way up and down. While it was a bit cloudy, the views of Silver Star and the rest of the range were still awesome.
While up high on our descent, we experienced a brief snow shower. We opted to start down the South Ridge on the way down and then scramble into the basin to glissade down to the tarn, which went swimmingly. It started out relatively steep with mostly a self-arrest mode, but soon opened up to a fun, fast slide.
After a break at the tarn in afternoon sunshine, our walk out was uneventful. We made it to the car 10 hours after we’d started, at 8pm. This was not what I’d call a “fun” route, but I’m glad we did it and were able to have the experience despite the hurdles.
