The Brothers, Lena Lake

4 of us departed Seattle Friday after work, arrived at trailhead at 7pm, hiked to Lena Lake and pitched tents/camp before dark. Lena Lake, is not real photogenic, because it is difficult to access. It was very busy.

Awoke Sat. 3:30am and on the trail by 4:15am using headlamp. Trail up Valley of Silent Men easy to find, however a large size rockfall wiped out part of the trail 1/3 of the way to Climbers Camp. Trail will need to be re-routed. We somehow traversed the slide in the dark. Not the brightest idea, but we had lots of energy at the start of the day (on the way back, low on energy we hiked around it :) ).

We arrived to Climbers Camp after 2 hours of pre-dawn hiking. CC is located where two creeks converge. Essentially, this is where the snow started. Note, we spent 15 minutes trying to find the trail. You NEED to cross over the right (east) creek fork and follow the right side of the left (west) creek fork. There is no bridge here. The flow was high, so we hippitty-hopped over some boulders. Following the climbers camp, there are a few pink / orange flags to follow a rooty fairly steep trail.

After 1/2 mile, you reach a blow down area from early spring avalanches (worst part of the route IMO). Some of the sharp vine maple could impale you. Route finding is a bit of a challenge again. But just keep traversing up the valley and stay right of the creek. We then went up a few 25 degree snow slopes, where crampons were optional at 7-8am. The tracks started to veer right and then point up directly at the Brothers. I put on my crampons here. Around 5,000', you need to turn right, otherwise, you would be climbing incredibly steep slopes (way out of my league). You climb up another 500 feet, and then turn back to the left for 300 hor. feet, where you enter the "hourglass". Crampons and ice axe were mandatory at this point. 3 of the 4 of us wore helmets too. The Hourglass is 1,000' vertical at ~40 degrees. The snow was spring snow consistency and did not seem avalanche prone at all. However, if this would have been icy, the Hourglass would have been a little dicey. As it was with the spring snow conditions, I felt like I was climbing up a double diamond ski run and felt fairly comfortable.

Near the top, you steer slightly right. At about 6,600, you'll leave the snow and enter a rocky shoulder. Take off crampons. Don't go all the way to top. Instead, follow a short narrow "chimney", about 50 feet below the saddle. The chimney, if you have gotten this far, won't spook you. Climb through it. You have to use your hands a bit. The "trail" continues up a steep partly scree slope. One side has steep cliffs with exposure, definitely a no fall zone, but it's decent rock. I'm not a rock climber, and I felt fine. 10 minutes later you're on the top! We were greeted by a family of goats. There was another group of 5 that made it too, that we passed on the way up. We only saw 1 other party and they didn't make it.

It took us 7.5 hours (excluding 1.5 hour hike to Lena Lake the night before) up (partly in the dark with a 0.5 hour setback with route finding and none of us had done this climb before), 45 minutes on top and 5 hours to get back to the trailhead. Hiking out was tough because of the long switchbacks near the Trailhead.

Campsites are WAY better in Valley Silent Men compared to Lena Lake. Next time, we'll camp there. It was a successful trip. Every time, I watch the sunset from Seattle, I will see the Brothers and think of this climb!