Home > Trip Reports > April 28-29, 2012, Olympics, Brothers/Great Basin

April 28-29, 2012, Olympics, Brothers/Great Basin

4/28/12
WA Olympics
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Posted by telemack on 4/29/12 10:55pm
Five climbers set off for North Brother,
To ski it if we had our druthers.
No summit---we bailed,
Through Great Basin we sailed;
It was bad-a**, but don't tell our mothers.

:) :) :) :)
Nice poem!  When I get home tonight I will post some pictures of the Brothers Great Basin Ski!
It was nice "threadin the needle" with everone!

Nice!! can;t wait forsome eye candy.


And yeah. momma doesn't need t know about that stuff.


Some details for those who may be drawn across the Sound:
     Saturday Animal, Scott, Les, Cigdem and I headed up to ski on the Great Basin, the big snowfield on the E face of the Brothers, and hopefully summit the North Brother, which is less climbed than the higher S peak and infrequently skied.  We figured 2 days would give us a better chance at being on the Basin before wet slides started. 
     Oodles of snow up high, but much melted out from the S Brother TR 2 weeks ago.  The trail from Lena Lake to Lena Forks took a lot of effort, with downed trees, a washout or two, intermittent rotten snow, and balancing above the creek.  We set up a nice snow camp on the E side of the creek at Lena Forks, then went for a recon. before cocktail hour.  The mountain was socked in all weekend, but we could scope out a route through much of the cliff bands.  There is a good place to camp less than a mile above Lena Forks that is open upper mountain.
     Off at 7 Sunday with a touch of drizzle, and soft skinning due to above freezing temps, we weaved a line trending left across ramps, back right to a couple of steep bootpacks in decreasing vis., and hit a big open snow slope.  The Great Basin at last!  Some of us had dreamt of this for years.  With map, GPS and an occasional sighting of ghostly buttresses, we got to the base of the N summit gully.  Due to softening snow, a few pinwheels, no idea what was above, and sounds of a loose-snow slide or 2, we choose reasonable skiing over a risky summit attempt.  We leapfrogged down through the murk, setting off sluffs at times but getting quite a few good turns.  The best snow was just above and below the cloud ceiling.   We were all smiles and pole-high-fiving as we broke camp.  This turned to grimaces and trudges reversing to the car, but it was a cool trip to an amazing locale and we almost topped out. 
     Now when I gaze at the Brothers as I wash the dishes at home, I’ll no longer say, “ I wonder what it’d be like to ski that thing?”     8) 8) 8)

Way to go, guys - I also have looked and wondered about those huge white slopes.  Nice!  30 years ago I climbed the S peak a couple of times, and glissaded down (pre ski days for me).  Thanks for the stirring up the old dreams!

Les hiking up the Lena Lake Trail.

Mack hiking up the trail!

Traveling through a previous flooded swamp area.  Lots of trail damage.

More of Mack!

Our camp, Tibetan flags compliments of Scott!

Mack and our camp mascot, Tony the Wombat!

The lobster claw!

Scott on the up!

More of the up, but booting this time!

Almost to our high point of around 6,100 feet before we could not see anymore!

Threading the needle on the way down!

Cigdem (aka one ____) on her way up from a small but fun slide backwards!

The nifty bridge!

THE END - - - Resting in the Road
:) ;) :D ;D ;D :D ;) :)

Cigdem, Les, Scott, Mack, Kevin

The before shot...

Data & Animal, The Brothers Wilderness

Daddy Wompat keeping the troops entertained at camp...

oooh, far out! :)

author=telemack link=topic=24634.msg104124#msg104124 date=1335829600]

     Now when I gaze at the Brothers as I wash the dishes at home, I’ll no longer say, “ I wonder what it’d be like to ski that thing?”     8) 8) 8)



I've wondered the same thing--I look at the brothers everyday during my morning run.  I'll ski it with you if you wanna try again.  What a cool trip.

Reply to this TR

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april-28-29-2012-olympics-brothers-great-basin
telemack
2012-04-30 05:55:32