Climbing The Brothers ｜ Seattle's Most Iconic Olympic Mountain

Do you like rocks and moss and even better rocky moss? Mossy rocks, not rocky moss. The Brothers, the most iconic mountain in the Olympics, looking from Seattle. Katie and I are setting out from the Lena Lake trailhead on this nice Saturday afternoon to climb the Brothers tomorrow. Our route takes us past Lena Lake, a very popular day hiking and camping location, to the Valley of Silent Men and then to a base camp at 3,000 feet. I've already climbed the Brothers before. It's one of the first real mountains I climbed in 2022 back when I thought that with Gore-Tex trail runners, micro spikes, and an aluminum ice axe, I could climb anything. Katie encountered snow on Mount Sai yesterday as low as 2,000 feet, so we'll see if we're camping in the snow today. This is lower Lena Lake. The sounds of children's laughter and buzzing bees and barking dogs. We're in the Valley of Silent Men following the East Lena Creek. The flagging is confusing here. Is this really the right way? This part's a whole snarl. Looks like this is the way through though. Welcome to Brothers base camp. Katie, ready for our big climb tomorrow? Yep, it should be great. Yeah, I think it's going to be a lot of fun with the snow. Hopefully. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah, it's pretty chilly at this campsite though. Definitely. I've got some warm water and I'm looking forward to a nice warm dinner. Yeah, measured around 44 degrees just now. We passed some people that just climbed it today. It's not looking well for them. Tomorrow's going to be like 3,600 feet gain and then all the way out. A little after five, we are starting up. I thought I'd be following the snow field, but it's a little bit undercut in places with running water, so we'll probably just stay on the trail to the left of it. The top of the first snow field. The right way to go is to go climbers right. My first time I was down, I tried to scramble up this stuff. Had to backtrack. Made the same mistake again. Definitely hook climbers right here. Up next, hourglass gully. This snow field will take us most of the way to the summit block. The crux, hourglass gully. Last snow ramp, I think. Let's go. This sheer rock wall is the only thing that separates us from this summit. From Baker to the Puget Sound to Rainier. And all the Olympics. Here on the summit of the brothers. It took us a little under five hours to get in from camp. Snow is pretty good. A little weird. Not as good on the way down, but a lot of fun and great views. It's a little chilly up here. Let's see if we can find the easy way down. I'm so sure it's the right way, but this is a lot worse actually. Pretty steep, pretty narrow. Nice that we're out here by ourselves today. Left hand side, the snow in the middle is, uh, this pass was pretty sketchy. Then this snow looks like avalanche debris, which usually firms up quite well. We are here after successfully climbing the brothers. This was my first time, but Damon first climbed it four years ago when he was just starting off mountaineering. Damon, what was different today versus four years ago? Well, I'm four years older, so it took us a little while to make it to camp, for example. But then I have a lot more experience and I also have boots and a crampons and a real ice axe. That went up being pretty important today because the snow was a little bit squirrely in places it was steep and firm and places it was loose. But both times it's a great climb. Not easy, but it's not way hard or anything. Just take it seriously and it's so beautiful back here in the Olympics.