Brew Hut, January 5, 2013

British Columbia Region

@PaulK - 342 Posts

Created: 13 years ago

Max and I skied up to the Brew Hut from the east on a snowy Saturday. Highway traffic was a bit slow being single lane in moderate snow. The snow began in earnest at Cheakamus Canyon although it was slushy as low as Brohm Lake.

The approach is from Portal Way just north of Brandywine Provincial Park. A short distance up Portal Way, the Brew Creek Main branches left. This is the fifth or sixth approach we've done this way and we're continually refining the approach. I think the route we took this time is the best approach route under all snow conditions and snow depths.

This year the road is not plowed except for a snowplow turnaround right off the highway. There is an RV park up the road but this winter it is closed for the season. This added a couple of extra kilometres to the approach. We negotiated a confusing set of roads around Brew Creek and taking a couple of useful shortcuts through riparian management areas that cut off significant up and down and around. The second shortcut brought us to the base of the rockslide that we used on several previous trips. The snow depth, while good, was not enough to inspire us to climb the rockslide on skis. We continued on having recalled that there is a switchback beyond that would get us quite a bit higher. Indeed, the upper cutblock ended at 800 metres.

A couple of hundred metres of easy climbing through forest next to a creek in a shallow gulley brought us to open ground at 1000 metres. We were a bit south of the route from the rockslide and from experience we knew it was the most viable route to the hut from this side. A bit of climbing trending to the north through wideopen terrain and moderate slopes brought us to the iconic volcanic outcrop that is a landmark of the approach route. From here it was another 500 metres of climbing to the hut through pleasant subalpine terrain.

The hut was shrouded in cloud and blowing snow. It was a welcome respite from the elements. We lit a small fire using a single chunk of sawn off two by twelve and managed to dry off. Both of us were quite wet from the exertion of the climb, which was five hours from the highway.

Skiing down, the conditions were excellent except for a minor section of mild sunscrust near 1200 metres. Back at the vehicle shortly after 4 o'clock. It was at least as long skiing back on the undulating logging roads as was the descent from the hut to the upper cutblock.