[TR] The Brothers (S. Peak) - Route 1 5/29/2013

[dpforestry]

Trip: The Brothers (S. Peak) - Route 1

 

Date: 5/29/2013

 

Trip Report:

Sunday started nice and easy with a late morning start at the Lena Lake trailhead around 10:30am. The four of us finalized splitting up group gear and headed up the trail at a relaxing pace, arriving at Lena Lake before noon. This portion of the trail had a wide mellow grade with plenty of switchbacks.

 

From the lake, we headed up the east fork of Lena Creek into the Valley of the Silent Men. The trail in this section remained mellow in terms of grade, but became much more interesting than the superhighway we started on. The trail traversed the hillside then crossed the creek into somewhat of a Bermuda triangle. The creek was flowing high with all the snowmelt, overcoming many portions of the trail, forcing us into the adjacent bush, through mossy boulders, and up and over much downed woody debris. It was muddy and wet and required paying attention for remnant orange ribbon someone graciously placed through the path of least resistance. This valley is very beautiful, and it glowed green with moisture; tall firs, cedars, and hemlocks as well as collage of shrubs and herbs.

 

We reached the "climber's camp" at the next fork in the the creek around 3000 ft an hour or so later. From this point, we encountered three parties. One group from Oregon (an unofficial Mazamas group plus dog) attempted an ascent around 10am that day and got turned around above Lunch Rock after dodging a wet loose avalanche they said was about 30ft wide. The next fellow we encountered was a friend who had arrived a day earlier. He had also decided to forgo a summit attempt, citing low visibility and loose snow. Nevertheless, he informed us that a Mountaineers group has summited earlier that morning. The third set of climbers were a pair who had arrived before us and were just setting up camp.

 

The day was young and the weather was quire warm and wet, so we decided to trudge on. With freezing levels well above the summit this weekend, we figured a high and early start the next day would give us an advantage in snow we anticipated to be poor. We reached consistent snow around 3400 ft, just below the avalanche debris field and the "minor tree covered ridge." We carefully walked up the thin, hole riddled snow gully atop a rushing creek swollen with meltwater. Popping through the snow here would have been a total disaster. We soon reached the broad snow field around 4200 ft and hurried up in an easterly direction out of the avalanche path to a ridge around 5000ft that we assumed was Lunch Rock. Continuing a little higher, we found an open patch of snow on a southern aspect that looked like a nice place to camp.

 

After setting up camp (2 tents and a bivy), the clouds broke and revealed gorgeous views of Mt. Washington, Pershing, and Ellinor, as well as of the Hood Canal and Seattle. It was phenomenal, and we were all glad to have decided not to camp below the tree line. We built a couch to bask in the views and enjoy a nice tall Oly Beer, well deserved. We went to bed after a gorgeous sunset around 9pm.

 

Apparently that night, conditions deteriorated, and in the morning everything was wet. Snow conditions were worse than the night before and the snow felt almost slushy at 5:30 am. We came prepared to attempt the South to North peak traverse, but quickly realized that even just a summit was questionable this under the existing conditions. We packed up and were off by 6:15am.

 

Conditions were sketchy to say the least, so we focused on evaluating each section in turn. We avoided the narrow couloirs as much as possible, hopping from rock island to rock island and moving quickly, one by one, through and over terrain traps and potentially unstable snow. This rock scrambling proved to be a lot of fun and definitely made the ascent much more interesting. We set up a fixed line to scramble up one wet rocky section using a prussic as a failsafe, should we slip.

 

We moved swiftly this way between sections, and after a couple minor gear issues, summited around 9:15am. Visibility was decent, about a couple hundred feet, but there were definitely no major views. The wind was blowing moderately and sleet scraped at our faces. We took a few quick photos and descended the way we came.

 

On the way down, everything was looking very different. Small waterfalls were flowing and a lot of snow had melted where it was shallow. Fortunately, we made it back to camp safely, packed up, and glissaded our way quickly down below tree line and onto the trail. We were back in the parking lot by 5pm. Beers and burgers were thoroughly enjoyed at the Eagles Landing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

60m rope, mountaineering axe, helmets

 

Approach Notes:

Lena Lake > Valley of the Silent Men > Lunch Rock

 

Basic snow/rock scramble

[olyclimber]

I probably won't carry the camping gear past that "climbers" camp myself, but good on you if it made your trip better (which it sounds like it did). It is nice to camp above the tree line, and if there was already a crowd at the camp then that makes sense too.

 

Thanks for the TR, I love this scramble and the hike through the Valley of the Silent Men is special.

 

[Drederek]

Way to make the most of a moist weekend!

[kozzman]

You guys were hardcore. You failed to mention that it was raining on the approach when you started, and pussy I am, that would have ended my summit bid right there. Kudos for summiting. Good tr.