Did a day hike up on Sunday up to the summit of the Brothers' south peak. We left at 7:00 a.m. and were back at the car a little before 8:00 p.m. Navigation proved pretty clear in most areas, but we faced some confusion finding the trail from the climbers' camp, about 1/2 a mile above the burn and around the summit. I highly recommend making sure you have a GPS map downloaded for through and above climbers camp to help save time, we probably lost at least an hour in route finding errors.

It's still snow for 70% of the climb above the burn, and micro spikes or crampons are definitely still needed, especially as the snow was getting slushier on the steeper chutes. Also, note that the snow is getting THIN; my entire leg went through the snow in the middle of a 20-foot-wide area, and luckily, my body held me up. I looked back at where I had gone through, and the snow was only 5 inches thick, with a 10-foot drop onto rocks below. Be super careful and attentive to the snow your on as there are a lot of these snow bridges or overhangs that are really thin right now due to water running below, if you see any signs of holes stay away from that area. 

The trail is clear and marked up to 0.1 miles from the climbers' camp, where there are several downed pine trees. It's not super clear, but stay along the river on the trees, and you will regain the trail in around 30 feet. 

I brought a Nalgene of water and refilled it along the trail, and right after I entered the snow fields, that seemed to be the perfect amount. 

Overall, it's a great and fairly long hike for a single day, but truly beautiful the whole way. I would definitely camp next time due to how amazing and beautiful the campsites are along the streams!

Arrived at the trailhead around noon. Bathrooms were locked when we arrived but unlocked when we left the next day. Hike in to Lower Lena Lake was lovely. Lots of nice, big areas to camp and two nice pit toilets. We picked a good campsite and proceeded on to hike up to The Brothers. The first stream crossing over the sloped log with the blue hand rope is sketchy. The rope is not tight, just something to reach out and touch. I sat and scooted down since the slope made me feel weird.
The trail up to the Brothers was beautiful, until it wasn’t. There were so many downed trees and trail washouts that it was more like an obstacle course. We got to a certain point where someone had placed cairns along a route going up the creek bed. Here and there we would see the trail again but it was a lot of scrambling and log crossing. We ran into snow at the end and our app said we gone past the end of the trail but we had no view. There must be some small trail the climbers take to get to the rock face but we couldn’t see it due to the snow. This trail needs some serious love to come back fully.
The next morning, after encountering an unlikely visitor that seemed very use to getting handouts (don’t give in to the cuteness!), we started early to Upper Lena. We got 2-3 miles in before running into snow. The trail crossed a creek that we didn’t feel like trying to navigate because a big log didn’t quite reach the other side and we would have had some fancy footwork from the end to the opposite side (legs kind of shot from Brothers) plus we could see snow on the other side and weren’t sure we could go a whole lot further.
We counted it as a nice morning hike and returned to camp, packed up, and headed down. Passed a few backpackers on our way. The cutting of the switchbacks is more apparent on the way out. There are so many! Please don’t do it. It compromises the stability of the hillside and also makes an easier path for water to flow and damage as well. It was obvious that there has been effort to decommission a lot of them, but that is energy that could be better used in maintaining the actual trail so that it will be there for all to enjoy for years to come.

Snow starts on the trail to Lena Lake in the last quarter of mile. Not difficult, but can be slippery. Just a couple of small creeks to hop. We hiked past the rocky outcrop where others were lunching at the lake, hoping to continue up the trail toward Brothers basecamp.

The inlet is running strong and a too high for rock hopping. We looked a long time for a way across before scrapping that idea and heading up the trail to Upper Lena Lake. At this hour we didn't expect to make it but wanted to check out conditions.

We hiked maybe a quarter mile before things got really messy. Deep snow, trees down. It was worth checking out. 

The road to Lena Lake TH is in great condition. Plenty of parking. Outhouse open and stocked. Lots of people and dogs and kids out today having a good time. One group of backpackers hiking out and another hiking in to spend the night. The big composting toilets at the lake are closed.

We enjoyed a fun but tough summit of the Brothers in 2 days. The trail to the basecamp has a fair number of large blowdowns, one washout section (look for the switchback leading to a higher trail reroute when you hit this), and an extended segment of blowdowns and washouts that is marked extensively by pink WTA flags. The Brothers basecamp is notable in that there is plentiful freshwater and, at the moment, an all-you-can-eat berry buffet featuring salmonberries and blueberries. There were also many, many ripe thimbleberries and wild raspberries along the trail, especially throughout the Burn section. This probably added 30 minutes to our time from snacking. 

There is no snow, and the route to the summit is fairly well marked with cairns and orange flags. We put on our helmets fairly early and were glad for them as rock fall is a real risk with others on the route. As a rule of thumb, if you are doing more than class 3 scrambling, you are probably off route. It is not terribly exposed as far as high consequence fall risk, but we took it slow due to loose chossy rock, especially after about 6,300 feet. At around 6,600, look east for a small doorway in the rock marked by three cairns - this slot opens up to a ramp to the summit. 

This route is completely exposed to sun with no water sources after the Burn, so make sure to bring plenty of water - at least 4 liters. We left at 5:45 am and could have left earlier. It really started to get hot on the descent after the sun had cleared the surrounding ridges.

Basecamp to summit in 5 hours, 30 minutes at the summit, 4 hours 45 minutes down. Going down is precarious and takes almost as much time as going up. All in all, this is a challenging but rewarding scramble.