Sisters do the Brothers

The prevailing opinion among The Mountaineers is that all-women’s climbs don’t work well. Non-specific comments abound about the dynamic among the climbers being bad, women not being able to carry all the gear, etc. Having organized an unofficial one before with partial success, I was game when Rena called one day out of the blue asking me to put another one together.

Rena is a basic student this year and noticed the glaring disparity among the sexes in our chosen sport. She wanted to meet other women – both experienced and new – and develop a camaraderie that would hopefully foster more women climbers.

I was three weeks away from finals, so the task of recruiting people fell to Rena. And boy did she do a great job! By the time I emerged from my study marathon there was an enthusiastic group of ladies signed up to climb. I was especially thrilled to have the opportunity to climb with long-time friends (Marilyn and Marla), reacquaint myself with a gal I had scrambled with before (Carolyn), and meet fantastic new women (Rena, Cathy, Wendy, and Didi).

We met at the civilized hour of 8 a.m. in Renton (no 4 a.m. start at Greenlake for this group!) and took off for the Olympics.

The hike to Lena Lake went easily enough. We stopped to admire the views and examine the campsites which are under water!

From here we began our invasion of the Valley of the Silent Men. Between eight of us, we successfully turned it into the Valley of the Chattering Women.

Very few obstacles stood in our way and before we knew it, we’d reached the river confluence marking camp and the start of the climbing route. Rather than walk upstream looking for a log to cross the river (that would be too easy) we crossed what looked like a shallow part of the river on semi-suitable rocks. I don’t think anyone’s feet got too wet from the experience.

Camp was set up by 4:30 p.m. which gave us plenty of bonding time. In the few hours before dinner, we managed to cover just about everything from things that might be unsuitable for boys ears to things that were completely unsuitable for boys ears. It was so nice to see everyone come out of their shell and just be.

By dinner camp included a large college climbing class from Port Orchard and a small group of Mounties friends (Lynn, Ken, and Chuck) on an unofficial climb. We chatted for a while and retired to bed not long after with hot water bottles for company.

We left the following morning at 5 a.m., hoping that the early start would enable us to take a relaxed enough pace such that everyone would have plenty of time to make it to the summit. Flags left by the previous week’s group made the walk through the forest a piece of cake.

We reached the meadows soon enough and Marla offered up a modest long-john strip tease that most guys would have killed to see.

From here, the route was incredibly straight forward – one mega snow slog to the final 100’ scramble at the top.

For a while we followed goat tracks, which Marilyn was convinced were too big belong to a goat. I suggested that they might be from the rare Olympic alpine elk, but no one believed me.

Didi and Marilyn stopped just above lunch rock. We were sad to lose them, but it seemed like they made the right call for them. The remaining six soldiered onwards.

Kudos to Carolyn who kicked the steps up the steepest part of the climb near the top. The snow was hard; we had no crampons; but we made it!

On the summit, the celebrations began – for Cathy’s first summit as a basic student, for Carolyn’s first goat sighting, for Rena doing such a great job of organizing the trip, for our luck with the weather, for everyone pitching in to make this such a great climb.

After an hour of picture taking and snacking we headed back down.

The snow had softened considerably, making our descent a piece of cake. In fact, we glissaded down in a minute what it took us hours to climb up.

Back at camp, we packed up and made haste for the trailhead. The weather was moving in and we wanted to be out before it really started raining.

Now you might think this is the end of the story, but it’s not. Climbers are always looking for a good meal to satiate their appetites after a climb, and boy did we ever find one. The consensus was burgers, so when I dove past the Eagle Creek Saloon just outside Lilliwaup, which has a 10’ burger on the roof, I knew we’d found our place.

Clearly not many people from out of town stop in there. And when eight hot women show up, it’s a particularly special day. The whole bar went silent when we walked in. Before long we were being treated like celebrities for our accomplishment. Tina, our lesbian waitress from the Midwest, told us that if we’d ever had a better burger she’d buy us dinner. Not willing to pass up a challenge like that we ordered bacon cheeseburgers and Oh … My … Goodness! It was the best burger I can remember eating at a restaurant. Fresh, hand-formed patties, grilled to perfection. Yum! (Oh, I want another one now!)

Tummies full and reveling in the greatness of the weekend, we finally called it a climb and went home.

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Comments:

Wow!!! When I lived in West Seattle, I would look out the window at The Brothers (when it didn’t rain, of course) and dream about this climb!  It sounds like you all had a fantastic weekend climb without any hurries and without any distracting testacles getting in the way.  Still, I wish I could’ve been there just the same. The long-john show sounded almost as good as the climb.  And the views and the glissade (noticed the track while you were climbing up - NICE!) looked saweeeeet.  And then to top it off with those fabulous cheeseburgers.  Ahh...I am full with envy for all of it.  We don’t get burgers like that in Japan.  I can only throw on some Jimmy Buffet and then dream of having one in a paradise like Olympic N.P.

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