[Gimpilator]

In an attempt to get away from the smoke in the Cascades, Bryan, Dave and I hiked to Upper Lena Lake in the Olympics and made camp. After dumping the overnight gear, we went on to attempt Mount Lena East Peak. There is very little information on this peak. It's not even mentioned in the OMCG, even though it has 640 feet of prominence. What I could find mentioned something about a knife-edge on the south ridge and the possibility of bypassing it on the west side.

Mount Lena

Mount Stone And Upper Lena Lake

Mount Lena From East Lena

Mount Bretherton North Face And Milk Lake

We followed the trail back down from Upper Lena Lake and cut up the open scree slope leading to the lowest point in the Lena / East Lena ridge. From there we scrambled and hiked up to where we could see the knife-edge. It didn't look friendly and there were too many loose holds for us to feel good about scrambling across.

Bryan Scrambling

The Knife-Edge

Dave Considers The Knife-Edge

We descended a little and then made a traverse on the west face staying below a rock wall. Beyond the wall I found a series of steep heather ledges which allowed us access to the upper south ridge, above the knife-edge. We scrambled the rest of the way to the summit. It was exposed and there were a few short class 4 sections.

Steep Ledges On The West Face

Finally The Summit

The Brothers

Brothers Zoom

East Lena Summit

Fay Pullen Register

We found another Fay Pullen register up there. It looks like we were only the 4th ascent since 2006. We were hoping to find a safer way down so we explored the north ridge. This turned out to be much safer with less exposure and easier moves. The topo map is totally wrong because it shows 4 contour lines close together on the north ridge, and that just isn't so.

Mount Bretherton Sunset

Bryan At Upper Lena Lake

Upper Lena Lake

Sunrise Light

Reflection Image (flipped upside-down)

The next day we started with Mount Lena. I was hoping to find a boot path on the south ridge of Lena. We followed the Scout Lake trail for a half mile but nothing on the south ridge ever materialized so we eventually left the trail. There was a lot of nice open country on the way up to Lena. We made sure to visit both summits before taking a more direct path of descent back to the lake.

Lena East Peak Above A Small Nameless Lake

Mount Stone

Mount Lena Summit

Mount Anderson

At this point Dave decided to get home a little earlier and so we bid him farewell. Bryan and I hiked up to Milk Lake to attempt Bretherton. I kept saying "come in with the milk", which is from the movie The Aviator. Bryan said he wanted to watch it when he got home.

Milk Lake

We spotted a very large goat in the basin above the lake. In the fog it was hard to find the correct gully which is briefly mentioned in the OMCG. We ascended very steep loose talus to the head of the gully. Just when it looked like a dead-end it turned to the right and got steeper. We scrambled up a bit further before we agreed that we didn't like the terrain and decided to call it quits. I believe we were on route but I can't say for sure. Has anyone completed this route?

Giant Billy Goat

Near The Top Of The Gully

Back at camp we packed up quickly and hiked the 7 miles out without a single break. My feet still hurt.

[Bryan K]

What an awesome trip!!!!!!! I haven't been so challenged and had so much fun in quite a while. Adam and Dave were great partners and I think we all worked out well together.

Up to the left!

Adam leads the way

Part of Mt Lena East Peak

Brush hiking

Dave ponders the knife edge ridge

We went this way instead

Adam suggests this gully

The route leads along the top

Dave waits for us

They bid me farewell as I recon a new route down

Heading down

Evening light

Morning light

Dawn over the lake

Peak a boo!

Into the light

Foggy Upper Lena Lake

Adam and Milk Lake

Light, fog, trees and shadows

Loose talus makes for tough footing upward

Milk Creek?

Upper Lena Lake fogged in

[Bryan K]

[puzzlr]

Never heard of these peaks. What motivated the long drive over there to climb these? East Lena looked "interesting"

[Gimpilator]

We started out by talking about where we could go to get away from smoke. These peaks share the same initial approach as The Brothers. I got interested in them from SummitPost pages several years back. Come in with the milk!

[Magellan]

Beautiful pictures on what looks like a fun pair of routes.

[ranger rock]

Thanks for the TR. I really enjoyed watching your video.

[IanB]

Great video Bryan. It looks beautiful up there - especially the morning pics of your second day.

[Go Jo]

This is just silly good. Wow.

[silence]

sweet ... that's been on my bucket list .. though i thought there was a much ezier approach??

[Scramblin_james]

Simply awesome trip report!