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Trip Report    

The Brothers/South Couloir

We headed up Fri/Sat to climb due to weather coming in, had a wonderful climb although the view was cloudy!

  • Fri, Jun 16, 2017 — Sat, Jun 17, 2017
  • The Brothers/South Couloir
  • Climbing
  • Successful
  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • Once past Lena Lake the trail had one area that was washed out and you had to do some routefinding to get through, otherwise route in great condition.

     

We left the trailhead about 2:15pm and made good time up to lower Lena Lake.  Crossed the bridge to the north side and went up the well market trial to the Brothers camp.  The trail is generally pretty good until a third of the way up or so - then, as indicated in other reports, you have to stay left over the moss rock to avoid working your way through the channel, or follow the channel flag markings back to the trail, in some regards this was the crux of the climb :).We got to the camp site about half way up the valley and wanted to avoid crowds so we camped here (it's just before the log crossing with the third bridge that's washed out a bit).  Arrived about 5:15pm. 

Left camp about 4:00am the next day, went by the main camp at 4:45 or so and then reached the burned out area about 6am.  We ended up crossing the burned area to the snow gully and made our way up - this area is a bit of a mix - on the way down we descended by coming directly down the burnout avoiding the snow gully, it was a bit faster and easier, but nothing is really trailed through this section.

Once on the snowfield we headed directly up the open slope area - followed the boot path to the right of the hourglass and up over and into the gully.  Up directly to where the snow ended and then followed cairns across the ridge to the actual summit.

Spent a bit of time up there and then headed down.  The snow was perfect for cramponing on the way up, and just soft enough to hold crampons on the way down without balling, perfect conditions.  Headed out with no problems and were back at the car by 4:30 having stopped on the way to visit with folks, etc.