Home > Trip Reports > April 16, 2017, The Brothers

April 16, 2017, The Brothers

4/16/17
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Posted by powersa on 4/17/17 10:35am
Left the car at 4am, hit lower Lena Lake as the sun rose around 6am. The sun stayed with us all day.

Transitioned to skis at 3,000 feet just before the route trends climbers right at the base of The Brothers.

Travel in the steep terrain to access the upper basin was complicated by very soft solar affected snow. Once in the basin, travel was quick and relatively direct.

We booted the last couple hundred feet to the summit col in pretty great conditions, top 12 inches were well consolidated pre-corn.

Turns off the top were steep, the setting spectacular.

We saw widespread evidence of a wet/loose avalanche cycle that was at least a few days old. We didn't see any slides occur while out there.

Overall, very cool tour. The terrain is distinct from what you find in the Cascades, and you have a new perspective on the region. Give the approach special consideration. Car to car in 14 hours. Less than half of that was spent on snow.
Nice! Climbed this back in 1973 with the Olympic College climbing class with Kent Heathershaw, Harold Pinsch and a bunch of the Ur-Olympic Mountain Rescue crew.  It was a 2-day trip for us.  I remember, dimly, the long glissade off the summit. 

Thanks for the snow line info. Been thinking of giving this one a shot soon.

Nicely done! 

I, like glenn_b, have history with this one--first mt. I ever climbed out here. Saw it from the ferry and thought I'm going up there and so I did. 1989. Never skied it tho.

I like your compact description -
author=powersa link=topic=38327.msg155264#msg155264 date=1492479341]
Give the approach special consideration.

funny

Must have been windy at the top that day?

glenn_b, Norseman, cumulus thanks for the notes!

We've all seen the mountain from afar for years, very fun to finally get up close :). Gaining the upper basin definitely challenged my mental model (built from 40 miles away) of the terrain.

cumulus, there was a very light wind on the upper mountain. I think that helped a lot with the snow quality. Down low the air was stagnant, contributing to the poor snow quality, even by 9 or 10 am.

Thanks for the TR and pix.
From your writeup and the first photo, it looks like you climbed the North Brother?
We got to the top of the East Basin in a whiteout in 2012; amazing location regardless of the views, and it sure is nice to look at that cool mountain after being up there  :)

telemack, that's correct, we skied the North Brother. Took the central line visible in the first picture. We discussed taking the line climbers right but decided not to due to its aspect and strength of the sun. Pretty sure we made the right call.

Must have been kind of intense to be there in a white out. The terrain is very tight and steep, would be tough to know what's above and below.

David made a video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTJqE6GA-_v/?taken-by=peakoftheweek

Thanks for the TR and video. I've never skied it, but at the top of South Brother there's a nice flat spot with enough room for 2 or 3 to sleep. It's quite a light show. We were jealous of the people who slept there a few weeks earlier on the 4th of July. 

Awesome pictures and TR. I sent you a message and would love to discuss offline if you wouldn't mind. Thanks.

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april-16-2017-the-brothers
powersa
2017-04-17 17:35:41