[TR] The South Brother- Lena Lake/Valley of Silent Men 5/23/2004

[olyclimber]

Climb: The South Brother-Lena Lake/Valley of Silent Men

 

Date of Climb: 5/23/2004

 

Trip Report:

As the weather forcast prohibited us from climbing a large nearby volcano, we decided to go climb The Brothers instead. Or at least one of them. Eric (The Big Balla), little bro Oscar (Sherpa), Eddie (Gourmet), and myself stayed at an older brother's house just south of the Hamma Hamma outlet into the Puget Sound. On the way out we were pulled over by Washington's finest for 60 in a 50, but unbelievablely he let 3 scroungy looking guys in a $300 car continue on without a ticket. We stayed the night at my older brother's and then met Eddie and his truck/home at the trailhead. We started up with perfect, blue skies.

 

The trail up to Lower Lena Lake goes by really quick. Then we get on to my favorite part of this hike, the Valley of Silent Men.

 

We made it up to the climbers camp at the confluence of the two creeks, and decided to have an early lunch. Eddie "Gourmet" had worked at catering job in Port Angeles the previous day and packed a heck of a lunch: red pepper stuffed chicken, wild rice, and chocolate cake...which he shared with us all.

 

Next we headed up the way trail and hit snow at the first chute. Right about this time the skies started to cloud up.

 

We continued up the hillside, and got slightly off route for a moment in the 'white out' conditions (heavy fog, not snow), but quickly found the chute up to the top.

 

Eric "The Big Balla" decided to climb in Saucony's Technical Climbing shoes, but they just seemed like running shoes to me.

 

We climbed up to the top of the chute and around and up to the summit of the South Brother.

 

After we were up there for about ten minutes, we were rewarded with a view. The whiteout partially lifted and we were able to see the Constance group, and the North Brother.

 

The glissade down is fun. Sherpa Oscar nearly bit it twice...once going head over heels right before the snow stopped and turned into scree. The second time he was glissading at top speed and fell into a hole filled with rocks. He escaped uninjured somehow.

 

Back at the trailhead we enjoyed some left over fine wine from Eddie's catering gig.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axes, Eddie used crampons as he was slipping, I tried out a Dan McHale Super SARC. I'll be buying this pack for sure. Very comfortable!!

 

Approach Notes:

Nothing to note.

[Blakej]

nice TR. What was the round trip time?

[olyclimber]

I can't remember the exact time it took, but it was a full day, car to car. We ripped through the hike up, but then we got off route for a bit on the climb and in general took it easy going up and back down. I think it was around 8am to 6pm or something like that. No man-dog speed record or anything.

[Alpinfox]

Your summit pic is not working.

 

Nice TR! I'm surprised how little snow there is for May!

 

edit: Picture seems to be displaying just fine now. Probably just my stupid POS computer.

Edited May 26, 2004 by Alpinfox

[johndavidjr]

Nice photos--- really nice tr--- interesting.

[olyclimber]

This is sort of a neat picture...

 

[PONCHO&LEFTY]

Nice trip. It's fun to see some Olympic climbs. When I climbed the Brothers we had a great view. Then a cloud moved in and socked in any view. When I say a cloud, I mean one cloud in the whole sky and it happened to be over South Brother only! Glad you got a view. It's cool bieng @ 6800 that close to the water.

[mtn_mouse]

Nice TR. The south brother is a great quick climb in the olympics. It is fairly easy in the winter too, snow conditions permitting. I remember winter climbs of it and the most difficult part was laying in the tent for those increadibly long winter nights.

Is the snow pack really that little?

[olyclimber]

It is an exposed south slope, so you can't expect that the snow pack is going to last that long. I don't know though...my previous trips have always been later in the year.