The Brothers, Lena Lake — Saturday, Jul. 5, 2008

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Day trip to South Brother from Lena Lake trailhead. Lena Lake trail is clear and fast. Encountered a few blowdowns on the East Fork Lena Creek trail in the ""Valley of the Silent Men"", as well as a 1/4 mile stretch of intermittent washout just after the first bridge crossing to the E side of the creek. Pay attention to the flagging for the easiest route through. Trail is again clear and easy to follow from the campsites @ 3,000 ft up to the slide/burn. Above the burn found the melted out stream bed a bit easier to navigate than the ""trail"" on the right (E) bank. Hit snow around 4,000 ft, soft on top but pretty firm underneath on the cloudy day, made good use of our crampons. Saw others doing fine on snowshoes. Some of the cruxes have already melted out, made for a couple of interesting snow/rock transitions. Took the crampons off for the climb past lunch rock and up through the trees (no snow in the hourglass) then followed the cairns left (W) back to snow and put the crampons back on for the last gully up to the summit. At the base of the summit spires saw blue sky for the first time all day, and it apparently confused us since we promptly ascended the lower SW spire. Seemed silly to climb 6000 feet and fall 80 feet short, so we descended and swung around to the E to reach the true summit. Rewarded with a spectacular view looking down on a sea of clouds, especially to the N where the heights of Constance and Inner Constance shone in the sun while the stream of clouds flowed W to E through the Duckabush and Dosewallips drainages. Took it easy on the way down given the fast snow and lots of holes/undercutting water, but the wide open spots made for great boot-skiing.