A one-day scramble of The Brothers starting at Lena Lake Trailhead. August 8, 2023

Introduction and the “why”

A couple/three reasons I wanted to climb The Brothers. 1. It’s part of the Olympia Mountaineers Olympic Peaks Scramble Peak Pin Series. I happen to be working on my “copper boot”. 2. Lon and I keep staring at it from other peaks we’ve scambled, including Henderson, Skokomish, Stone, Steel, and Bretherton. 3. It’s only a 1 hour drive from Olympia and is classified as a scramble.

View of the Brothers from Upper Lena Trail

Overview and background

I’ve found somewhat conflicting beta on The Brothers. Some say it’s a climb, and certainly when there is snow. Or at least it needs to be planned as a climb with the added gear that would be used for protecting steep snow slopes, but could ened up being a snow scramble. Most guides rate it class 3. And everyone and all guide books caution about serious rock fall hazard in the gully. And most seem to make it a two-day trip. Our plan was a single day. I had received a lot of good beta from friend and fellow scrambler, Todd Mooney who had scrambled it with the Mountaineers about three weeks prior. And a gpx track.

Trip Report

Early September and we are already losing daylight fast to starting as soon as we can safely walk without headlamps was important and that’s what we did. On trail at 6:10AM. A car pulled in just after we arrived and starting out almost immediately. As it would turn out, it was two other guys, Mark and Dane, who we eventually met on the summit 7-½ hours later 🙂

The Approach

Me at the Lena/Brothers Trailhead No. 810. Yes, I had a headlamp but by the time we started, it had put it away.

The approach is straightforward. Hike to Lower Lena Lake, then continue past the lake toward The Brothers through the Valley of Silent Men. There is water at the Lake and stream crossing, but silly us, we had camel’d up at the start and didn’t get water at the stream, 3 miles in. Then we saw the dry river bed in the valley. This had me a little concerned. As it turned out, we were fine. After a two to three miles, we found water running above ground. Shortened trip disaster averted 🙂

This large tree was moved when we returned. Trail crews had done some fairly signficiant work while we were out hiking/scrambling
Lower Lena Lake
The Valley of Silent Men. Sometimes on trail, other times in river wash.

We were just past what is known as Brothers Base Camp in 3 hours 20 minutes. And 4 hours to the last water at Pine Ridge Camp, which is basically the end of tree line. We took a 20-30 minute break to eat, rest feet and water up. It was 10:20AM and we’d gained about 3,200′, and around 4,000′ elevation. The summit is 6,840′. The rated gain is 6,400′. My garmin and download showed 6,900′. I didn’t keep perfect records, but I recall the last water, or just beyond to be about 7.5 miles. We ended with 18.5 round trip, so that means gaining about 2,800′ in 2 or less miles. Put it this way, it’s steep!!!!

Getting our first view beyond the trees
This fire pit may have come close to burning down the forest. It was over a foot deep with burned roots
Scooping water with my new favorite filter – The BeFree
I filled 1 and a half of these 1-liter bags, plus the 20 ounce BeFree, as well as carried 20 ounce gatorade for the summit and return. I had drank it all.
Meanwhile, Mr old school.
Our route is up to the silver trees and then right
Wild raspberries
Yummy wild Raspberries
A lot of loose scree, small talus chockstone
Neat little feature
The route up is varied between loose gully material and these dry couloir’s
When you look back, you think, yup, it’s steep
A short traverse to the last, and worst gully section. Which was not great on the way up, but a nightmare to descend.
Our route is directly to my left through the trees. We found quite a few orange flagging and cairns
Getting a look over the far side
Crossing the upper gully to the narrow gap, secret passage to the summit
Secret Passage
Looking back to the summit from a lower section
Great place for a nap but we really didn’t have time. We departed the summit at 2PM
We let Mark and Dane start 15-20 minutes ahead. Good thing too, because we knocked a couple big rocks down on accident. Even trying to be so careful.
We tried to take a slightly different route down but had to backtrack
Looking at Tacoma I think. Maybe Seattle. Very hard to tell.

Conclusion and Summary

Once we caught up with Mark and Dane, we just kept a steady pace together. Lon somehow got off route just before the last scree gully and came down a not so great way. Which also resulted in some worry on our part. This is where the Rocky Talkie Radios came in handy. After about 5 minutes we made contact and eventually met up just above tree line.

We were at the cars at 7:15PM. Plenty of daylight. So just over 13 hours round trip. We traveled light and wore trail shoes. I think Mark and Dane had approach shoes. I carried a 100′ static line and some anchor building gear. We never used the rope and never felt we needed it. And frankly, one may be hard pressed to find an adequate anchor where it might be needed. A doable one-day scramble with the right fitness, skills and mindset. And I should be clear that we hiked in early September when it was very dry, so we didn’t have to contend with high water crossings or snow. Yellow jackets yes. Lon got stung once or twice. That said, different conditions result in different precautions, gear, footwear, etc.

Stats

18.5 miles – 6,900′ gain – 13 hours 5 minutes