Lena Lake — Thursday, May. 23, 2002

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

We wanted to do Dome Peak, but the the word from the weather scientists, who are never wrong, called for a wet Memorial Week-end. Instead, three of us decided to zip over to climb the Brothers. From Green Lake to the trailhead via the Edmonds ferry was only 2 hours and 20 minutes. The trail up to Lena Lake and then through the Valley of the Silent Men was snow free and in perfect condition. Snow does obscure the trail just before the junction with the creek draining the south side of the Brothers. We met two guys who missed the cut-off and spent an unproductive hour thrashing through partially snow-covered brush. The way becomes more obvious further up the valley. We camped on a rare flat spot just west of a huge avalanche swath full of shattered trees and tons of snow. The easy climb up a snow chute extends almost all the way to the summit. We were on top at 7:00pm and had glorious views in all directions. The 3000' glissade on the way back to camp took 40 minutes because of several breaks to stop laughing and to regain our composure. Go soon, the snow is melting fast.