Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Robinson Mountain
Wet weather scotches summit, limits views, but wildflowers abound
Frank Miles
- Sat, May 25, 2019 — Sun, May 26, 2019
- Alpine Scramble - Robinson Mountain
- Robinson Mountain
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The trail is in serious need of brush clearing. With the intermittent rain it soaked us pretty well. There was too much elevation gain to make rain pants a winner. Once above the tarn, the SE ridge approach is mostly already snow-free, taking this scree-bound slope out of our routing considerations (see right side of photo). The S ridge still had plentiful snow, though disappointingly soft and wet (around noon). On the ridge it was quite cold and windy, and with our wet clothing fairly uncomfortable. Party members elected to turn around at this point (~7250' elevation), so we didn't get to see how difficult the anticipated crux might have been while wet. There was only one creek crossing that required heightened precautions, and even with its wet rocks wasn't terribly challenging (poles recommended).
There were many flowers at lower (<5000') elevation. There were a number of chocolate lilies in addition to many balsomroots and bazillions of serviceberries, glacier lilies, and various lomations. There was one seemingly lily-like flower that I've not been able to identify. The basal leaves (as well as I was able to trace through the tangle of stems) didn't look so lily-like. It seemed at the time that there were 4 petals, but after looking at the photos I wonder if there were a more normal 5. There was also a grouse perhaps 12' above the trail that didn't act very threatened by our passing. We heard but didn't see a number of hermit thrushes.