The Brothers April 20, 2002

[PackOnMyBack]

Climbed the S. Brother on Saturday. Trail is snow free to Lena Lake, patchy to solid snow last 2 miles to Lena Forks Camp. Route is solid snow above 3000'. Huge amounts of slide debris once out into the meadows E of the Nose, and in all of the gullys above. Tough travel through these areas (unconsolidated snow made us glad we had humped our snowshoes this far!). Terrific views from the top, above the 6000' cloud layer that we climbed through.

Huge variety of snow conditions on the route, summit block mostly snow free. 1st attempt, 1st summit

 

Many thanks to all CC.com's who posted and replied w/ beta!

[David_Parker]

POMB, just curious if you did it in a day from the trailhead? How many hours? I was all set to blitz it on Sunday (and had my snowshoes packed) but then my 7 year old son said he wanted to go. Seizing the opportunity, I quickly switched aggendas and we went to Mt. Angeles. We too experienced a varity of snow conditions including wet avy debris and found ourselves above a cloud layer for awhile until it moved up. Also, any opinion about doing the traverse from S to N peak? How did it look? Nice climb!

 

[ 04-22-2002, 11:26 AM: Message edited by: David Parker ]

[PackOnMyBack]

David,

Good choice to switch agendas. Not sure how far you'd have gotten with a 7 year-old.

We left the trailhead at 6:20 a.m. and returned at 7:30 p.m. We were on the summit for about 40 minutes and stopped a number of times to snack and routefind because the visibility between 3600' and 6000' was off and on most of the day.

We had thought about doing the traverse but would like to try that in a 2-day climb, a little later in the season. The ridge across to the N. peak still looked well loaded w/snow and I'd like to see some of that disappear before heading across. If you'd like to see a current photo of the traverse, just let me know.

[lunger]

POMB, nice work. Which route did you take? Thinking of a daytrip to S. Bro later this week/weekend, snowboard/shoes. Have never been; in your opinion, worth taking the snowboard?

[Stefan]

I have done the traverse. We did not stay on the ridge proper, but went down to the basin east of the North Brother and then up. I did this many years ago and I think the last section was class 4 to the summit--but I cannot recall. We did use a rope.

 

On the way out was one of the most epic rappels I have ever done. We went straight down from the basin east of the North Brother. Do NOT do this. We were rappelling next to cascading waterfalls on both sides of us. My recommendation is to go more to the north of the basin (left) as you are heading down and then follow the stream back to the camp. Brush is thick next to the stream, but doable.

[PackOnMyBack]

Lunger,

If conditions stabilize and consolidate, certainly worth taking the snowboard (if you don't mind carrying it out 6 miles of trail). You should be able to make about a 2000' run. We went up the hourglass couloir, although we ducked onto a ridge just east from about 5200' to 6000'.

Definately a great climb. Most everyone I've spoken to would have been glad to have our conditions, I've heard its a scree spree in late season........

[David_Parker]

OK, lets get some more beta posted on the traverse from S. peak to N. peak and the descent and getting back to camp. I don't want to do any hairy rappels, especially if I'm solo!

[westernbackcountryskier]

is anyone going up this weekend? I was also wondering if anyone had made a midweek attempt this week with the nice weather. post any info you have. Thanks

[tread_tramp]

In 88 I was up there in the middle of May. We opted to travers north to south. After camping on a slope (5600')on the south Brother. We traversed through a notch at 6300' and down into the eastern basin and traversed across to a steep gully ascent of the north peak. the top is just a rock scramble. I remember some exposure in spots. With the weather changing we bailed from the notch. the north approach to the south peak appeared to be a fairly steep slope above an enormous cliff. I think I would prefer going up it to coming down. So my preference is a north to south traverse.

 

I'll be leading a trip of Seattle Mounties up the south peak a week from now. Take that as a warning if you would like.

[gapertimmy]

pomb-

thanks for the tr, that is one of my favs in the olympics, i miss em!

 

tim

[SEF]

About 6 or 8 years ago I did the traverse, N to S. It was a heavy snow year with similar depth as this year, done late April.

 

Getting to N Brother was straightforward once the notch is located on S Brother shoulder to cross. The same notch from the east basin is obvious.

 

Most of the traverse will have significant exposure and steep snow. The final notch on a N to S traverse faces a steep rock wall, 30+ feet, which we found wet and slimy from a large snow mushroom sitting atop the wall and dribbling down. It was unprotectable, and problematic for us. Once up that, steep snow led to the top.

 

The descent from S Brother is straightforward – you can follow the masses.

[westernbackcountryskier]

The conditions this past weekend, 4/27-28 were firm in the morning to very soft in the afternoon. The lower avalanche chutes, were filled, and the trees were buried, this made travel fast, I've been there before when the slide alder makes it nearly impossible to trudge through. There was snow last week i think and this made for a lot of avalanche debris in the chutes. The snow was firm and made for good cramponing. We headed back down at 10:15 to find very soft snow, and it balled in my crampons. So we ditched the crampons and glissaded about 1200 feet to the avalanche slopes at the bottom. The brothers camp is fully under snow, so be prepared for camping on snow, as we were not. A few more weeks of warm weather will melt this out though. Beautiful views of rainier and peaks to the south. Saw a pair that were camped near us and headed out as we were coming in. They claimed to have skied the East face, said it was good. It seems that ski/snowboarding the south chutes would be more work than it is worth right now with all the fresh avalanche debris. Wait till that settles and it should be much better. Good trip, great weather.