South Brother (solo)--Olympic National Park--6/3/04

In Seattle, the twin peaks known as the Brothers need no introduction. Regardless, I will supply one: the Brothers is the obvious pair of peaks you can see in the Olympics to the west of Seattle [image scarfed from the internet]

Since I can see the Brothers from the street in front of my house on any day when it's clear, I have often thought about climbing the south peak (the higher of the two peaks, and the easier ascent!) After finishing my last final exam of med school classes, I noted perfect weather forecasted for the next day. Having nothing better to do, I decided to give it a try!

Since I came to this decision over the course of a few hours, and would be leaving that night to camp at the trailhead, there wasn't really time to line up more people so I figured I would do this one on my own.

I left Seattle a bit before 10 pm, and arrived at the trailhead around midnight.  I tried to get some sleep but was psyched about the climb, and never really fell asleep at all.  So I got up at 3:30am, figuring that I could follow the maintained trail by headlamp until sunrise.  After lounging with some coffee and blueberry muffins that were acquired the night before, I started up at 4:30am.

The first 3 miles of the trail climbs incredibly wide switchbacks.  If the trail just went straight up the slope, it would be less than a mile long! But it was nice to have an easy grade to work with.

You then come up on Lena Lake, which is beautiful.  There are campsites available here and they look really nice (note: this photo was taken on my hike out in the afternoon. That's why there is sunshine!)

After curving around the edge of the lake, you enter "The Valley of Silent Men" (who comes up with these goofy names??) It's a cool change of scenery, with lots of bright green moss and steep cliffs on either side.  The valley in question is visible in the distance in this photo.

Hiking in the valley itself.

The maintained trail ends near the end of the valley, and then a well-established scrambling path leads to a meadow at the base of an impressive cirque.

Fortunately there was still a fair amount of snow.  Without it, the ascent would probably involve tedious scrambling over loose talus and slide alder.

Eventually you come to a notch, and I misread the guidebook description...it mentions a "notorious debris chute" known as the Hourglass Gully that you should pass as quickly as possible.  Well I thought this was the gully that is supposed to be followed to the summit...after wasting about an hour wandering about on wet, loose, steep rock I decided that this probably was NOT the right way.  In fact, there is an easy traverse AROUND the hourglass gully that leads to the correct gully.

The wrong way:

The right way:

Here is the upper gully (it's much longer than it looks):

This gully is followed for a long time to a bit of moderate rock scrambling at the summit.

Some sections of the snow were a bit steeper, but it was mostly casual.

And...I was on the summit. Cool!

Views from the top were spectacular!!

That big-looking peak in the distance, to the right of center, might be Mt Olympus--which is the tallest (and most glaciated) peak in the range.

Looking toward Puget Sound.  If you squint appropriately, Mt Rainier is barely visible on the horizon. In real life, Rainier was clearly visible (and Baker, Shuksan, Glacier Peak, etc) but the photo didn't come out too well.

The North Brother is visible in the next photo.  That's the summit of the South Brother on the left (where the earlier photos were taken), and the North Brother in the center.  It's a lot farther away than it looks; look for the trees down and right of its summit for a sense of scale.  Supposedly it is "4th class" to scramble the traverse to the other summit but it looks really scary. I sure wouldn't want to do it unroped!

In fact, a ridge extends beyond the North Brother that could make for an epic traverse route. I wonder if it has been done? (Probably, as the route is quite obvious and looks fun).

Now...to head back down! Some glissading made this a reasonably quick and enjoyable process.

The snow was a bit thin in places, so I was careful to avoid snow bridges.  Here's one that is DEFINITELY good to avoid!!

It was an impressive contrast to return to the lush valley.  On the way down, I observed that the streams supplying the valley had their source at the snowfield I had just climbed!

My boots aren't particularly waterproof, so I lounged in the sun for a while to give my gear a chance to dry off.

On the way out, I stopped by Lena Lake for a post-hike swim. The water was refreshingly cool, and a perfect contrast to the warm & sunny weather.

Along the way to the car, potential future objectives popped into view (these two are Mt Bretherton and Jefferson Peak).

I then made my way back to Seattle.  Back at the car at 4:30pm so 12 hours round-trip, including 1-2 hours off-route and an hour or two hanging out to catch the scenery. As far as stats go, trailhead is at 700 ft, summit at 6842 ft = 6142 ft elevation gain, one-way it's 5.8 miles on the established trail, plus probably 1 mile off-trail (including all the snow and rock scrambling) so ~14 miles roundtrip.