I logged 17.7 miles and 7,200’ elevation gain.  A small off-course side trip on the way up added a few feet to each so 17.5 miles and 7,100’ vertical is what it should be. The highlights: Views at the top are superb (esp. Hood Canal and distant Seattle skyline), the Valley of the Silent Men is a great 3-mile segment, and the scrambling near the summit involved quite a bit of unpleasant scree.

The Details:

The hike to Lena Lake is about 3 miles and 1,200’ gain on very good trail.  Easy fast going.  Lena Lake is beautiful.

The hike through the Valley of the Silent Men (love that name) is 3 more miles, and 1,400’ more gain.  I theorize that the “silent” is due to so much moss covering the rocks, boulders, and most of the ground.  The “men” could be the tall cedar and Douglas fir trees.  This is a good trail also, with a few locations of braided route finding.  Jamespaw posted a review/description from June 24, 2023 about two routes at one section; one in the streambed and one in the forest.  At this date in August the streambed route is dry and I took that route both directions.

At the end of the camper’s trail, there are a few campsites.   The trail crosses from right to left of the stream at the last campsite and starts the Brother’s climbers trail.  I would characterize the route as 4 sections: (1) forest trail, (2) the burn, (3) copious screen, and (4) rock scrambling.

• The forest trail section is moderate elevation gain on a nice forested trail for about ½ hour.
• The Burn was my first exposure to sun (out of the trees). There are two snowfields accessible from the route; one near the base of the burn and one near the top.  The snow is about 12-ft deep, so likely to last quite a while.  A good place to top off water bottles.  (There is no snow directly on-route anywhere.)  The burn takes about ½ hour to get through with some pretty steep climbing on a fair climber’s trail.
• The scree section is pretty unpleasant and it extends from the top of the burn to near the summit. I’m not sure of elevations, but I think the burn may top out about 3,900’ so be ready for a lot of scree.
• The scrambling near the top is such a relief after all the scree, and no tough moves.  The WTA description says that climbing gear and expertise is required, but with no snow skill level is only a moderate scramble, although it is quite strenuous.

The flies were thick at the summit, but only at the very top.  Literally 30’ down there were almost none.  I tagged the top and dropped down a bit to enjoy my lunch.

No one else on the route on a Friday.  On my way down I encountered a few campers who were planning to climb on Saturday.

Car-to-car in 10.5 hours, which is a fast pace. (No snow is a plus).

Climbed the Brothers Saturday 6/24. Car to car in just over 15 hours. Slept at trailhead Friday night, 3 am start Saturday morning, 11 am summit, got back to cars just after 6. ~20 miles and 7k gain. 

Route-finding:

Seem there are TWO marked trails for the Brothers approach, particularly the section from Lena Lake to the climber's camp. I find no mention of that on trip reports, and Gaia and Alltrails both only show one trial. However, following trail markers, we ended up taking one trail up to climber's camp (pretty uneventful), and one down (through the big mossy boulders and alongside/into the river). The latter was muddier and full of washed-away trees/blowdowns, so would recommend the former trail (higher up away from the river).

Other than that section of trail, we also lost the trail on the way up from camp and ended up in some intense bushwhacking before reaching the tree line (on the way down it was easier to find and we stuck on the established trail most of the way). On the way up, I'd recommend staying close-ish to the river when leaving the camp to increase odds of you coming across the official trail.

Gear:

Pack was around 20 lbs. We wore trail runners for the approach with mountaineering boots taking up the majority of my 30L pack. I don't usually do two pairs of shoes, but it was pretty helpful for this given the long approach. For my risk tolerance (and I think most people's), ice axe and helmet were a must up high. We didn't end up carrying crampons due to trying to go light; there were a few section they would have been nice to have, but with good boot and axe technique we were overall fine without them and it cut down on transition times as there's a fair amount of rock-snow transitions right now. We carried gaiters (and microspokes) but didn't end up wearing.

Route conditions:

The Hourglass/right below it is pretty badly melted out, we scrambled up the loose rock island to the left of it to avoid the sketchiest snow bridges, and re-joined the route higher up - pretty chill. Soon after that is a long sustained snow finger, with one narrow snow bridge moated on other side, but nothing too crazy. We scrambled a bit on the rock thinking it might be faster, but it was sketchier than it looked from below (mossy, not many holds, etc), so I'd recommend sticking to the snow with current conditions. The last section of snow is pretty darn steep, and the snow was harder than expected. We used two-handed belay position on axes and kicked solid steps (it was at this point I was most grateful for having brought the mountaineering boots). After that was the scramble, it wasn't too difficult and route-finding there wasn't too bad, but lots of loose rock just waiting to slide meant we went slowly one-by-one. I wouldn't want to be on that section on a busy day.

Wildlife:

In other news, there were no goats on the route! I did the Brothers two years ago and we had a scary encounter with a goat who was getting pretty aggressive with us (on the steepest part of the route no less). I reported it to the rangers. (I also eventually learned goats were introduced to the Olympics and that there's no naturally occurring salt there for them to eat, hence the aggression in following sweaty humans). If the lack of goats this weekend was due to relocation project, I'm a fan!

We did see some shrews and salamanders out and about in the middle of the night (two firsts for me), a garter snake in the afternoon, and a couple deer close to the trailhead.

Went with a party of 9 to summit The Brothers on Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend.  Summary - was a great trip, very taxing, with some tricky route finding, serious snow climbing, and a couple sketchy stream crossings, but our patience for good weather paid off and we had a terrific sunny climb and view from the top.  

Day 1 - hike to The Brothers campground was nearly snow free - with snow starting about a half mile from the camp.  About half the campsites still had snow on them, but it's melting out quickly and I bet almost all will be snow free by next weekend.  During one section of this hike there are so many blowdowns near a stream that it would be easy to lose the trail, but there are pink ribbons that are pretty prominent all along the way that helps greatly with navigation.  The biggest obstacle on Day 1 are the sketchy stream crossings, particularly the one at Lena Lake.  The river is high, and there's a log crossing that goes down at an angle.  Someone has strung a rope at chest level that you can use to steady yourself if you walk across.  Although it looks very daunting, everyone in our party and in several other parties walked across without mishap.  (Actually I slipped at the very end getting off the log and half-fell into the water right next to the bank, but really only soaked my shoes and pants, which dried off eventually.)  Note that I intentionally did this part of the hike wearing trail runners, carrying my heavier boots so that they would be fresh and dry for the climb on Monday.  There are a few other log crossings with no ropes, but they are all milder and mostly easy to navigate.    

Day 2 - We had ice axes, helmets, and crampons/microspikes, and we needed them.  We also were with a leader who spent some time training and drilling on self-arrest techniques when we got to the snow fields.  The way up, once you escape the forest, is still pretty much all snow covered except for a few rocky sections.  And the very steep chute to the summit is all snow.  The snow is melting fast, and it was quite soft, particularly later in the day.  One could conceivably do this hike with just boots, making foot prints in the snow as you go, but the folks with crampons and microspikes had a much easier time of it (either worked well; it was the first time on crampons for me and it turned me into a fan).  As the snow melts, there are some tricky areas where if you slip you hit rock instead of more snow.  And the last 10th of a mile to the true summit is all exposed gravelly rock and a true scramble to get up.  But, obviously, very worth it.  On the way down we increased our pace, especially on the lower slopes, by glissading down large stretches, using our ice axes and feet to control the speed.  Very fun.  The hike back to the car from the campsite was exhausting.  It's a long 6.5 miles and hard on the knees, but we made it.  A 13 hour day!  Fun but hard.   

I hiked to Lena Lake with the intention of crossing Lena Creek and looking at the start of the Valley of the Silent Men and the trail to the Brothers.  Lena Lake is very high and Lena Creek is very full of water.  The crossing of Lena Creek leading to the Brothers Trail has been washed out or submerged.  There is now a fairly deep ford as the only option just before the creek enters the lake (see photo).  Upstream there is a large jumble of logs washed down the creek.  While it is possible to do some serious scrambling up the creek for about 75 yards to find a log crossing, that only gets you to the other side with a steep cliff bank, covered again with blowdown trees.  It may not be practical to get back down the far side of the creek to where the Brothers Trail continues.  If you intend to head this way, be prepared for a fairly deep stream crossing, 2-3 ft., with swift, cold water.  I did not try it.

Creek at head of Lena Lake roaring.  A couple questionable log options; we crossed on the log about 12 feet above creek water level without incident, but wouldn't be pretty to fall in under current flow.  2 feet of snow at Brothers base camp, but little snow up Brothers chute.  Partway up chute, turned around.  Not enough snow for the classic and fun snow climb.  Risk beyond comfort level with risk of breaking through snow to creek below, or too short of run out for comfortable self arrest in steep areas.  Might be a non issue for some.  Hope this info is helpful to some, as trip reports in short supply.