Sorry this is late!!!!! My Fault – Jacob
The 2018 Brew hut debacle consisted of 3 main elements:
Outlandishly beautiful weather that we did not deserve
Trucks
Faffing
Like any good trip this trip starts at 6:00 am Saturday the 17th at the second Tim Hortons in Squamish. There was a lot of energy, questions and ambitions about what we were going to be able to do with the coming weekend. Brew hut is a beginner friendly trip, that offers a great opportunity for people to learn how to Alpine Tour (AT), teleski, etc. However there are experienced AT ers who come along to show the newbies the ropes. Like Rob Shilton for example who started his trip by forgetting snow pants.
After a some coffee, donuts and bagels, we got started on the logging road. We had two 4WD trucks, two Subarus, and a Hyundai. There was much debate about how far we could get up, how much we would have to hike would there be snow, etc.
This is where the first major element of our trip comes in, trucks.
If you own a truck you get it, if you don’t own a truck, your goal should one day to own a truck. Having a truck increases your ability to master the wild and assert your dominance. We probably spent close to a hour faffing around trying to get over these ditches in the road where deactivation ditches had been dug to stop people from going up. Below is a picture of Jasmine and Bye Bye directing Lewis onto the thoughtfully crafted bridge they thought would help get the truck across. They were ultimately wrong, this is as far as we got the truck, but keep an eye out for how trucks come back into this story at the end.
This is Faffing comes into play. One of the struggles of touring is that it requires quite a bit of time to switch between doing one thing to the next. Whether it is putting your skis on, putting skins on, a water break, or whatever it is, it becomes all the more cumbersome with skis strapped to your bag. After a good amount of time off faffing the group of us looked somewhat like this:
From Right to Left: Jacob Earley (me), Abbi Chapman, Rob Shilton (forgotten ski pants), Sander Keill, Lewis Arnold, Jasmine Tordenro , Bei Bei Morrison Evans, Alister White, Hannah Bates
From Right to Left: Jacob Earley (me), Abbi Chapman, Rob Shilton (forgotten ski pants), Sander Keill, Lewis Arnold, Jasmine Tordenro , Bei Bei Morrison Evans, Alister White, Hannah Bates
We reached the trailhead and began hiking at around 10:30 am.
The hike itself was beautiful. Walking through the cold, and lush forest where only the trees had been left with green shrubbery felt really special. And then you remembered you had come to ski and were carrying skis and boots on your backpack that was getting caught every 100 meters on a branch and what not. For someone who was doing this for the first time it took some getting used to, but eventually the extra weight and coordination started to feel natural.
We were gifted with uncanny weather the entire weekend. We had sunshine, breeze, clear skis, a bright moon. In fact for the majority of the weekend, I was too hot from all the layers I had brought that I would think I would need. NOTE: you should always pack extra layers, even if you don’t use them always have extra layers, its way better than not having them and injury resulting because of it.
We probably hiked ⅔ thirds of the trail up to brew hut, we stop for break at the lake. This is where we also put our skis on. During this break Jess took no time to start going to town with a snow saw on the lake to make a nice swimming hole for those wanting a nice dip to cool them off. Almost everyone took a “cheeky” dip, in the lake, literally. Below is a nice photo of Jess taking a dip:
After a good hour break we started making our way up the mountain via skinning. It was probably between 1 and 2 at this time. The entire group did really well skinning up, we stuck really close together and everyone seemed to enjoy the effort and skill it took. We arrived at the hut around 3.
After everyone took off the packs and organized themselves a bit we got 2-3 hours of some really fun lines. The snow wasn’t great, but the beauty and feeling of being on skis was more than enough to tide everyone over.
It started getting dark before 5 and by 6 the sun had almost completely set and the stars were out. We had a half moon which was bright as ever in the cloudless sky. The dinner festivities involved boiling snow, which is the world’s longest task, to cook some food. After everyone had settled in the night was composed of Wine, Cards, and Stars (WCS). This just turned the already beautiful day into a serene night filled with laughter, and friends.
Speaking for myself, some of my most memorable sleeps have come from sleeping bags. Waking up and looking out the window on to snow covered peaks of black tusk, was no exception.
The views from the hut.
A beautiful day.
In the morning we hit a few more runs, and than by 12 we had cleaned the hut and were headed down. My journey down involved falling to stop myself and continuous variations of the pizza. We descended the mountain by 2 and faffed around some more to get going. On the way down we passed by a handful of group coming up for a quick early morning hike, once we got down to the trailhead we saw that there was 5 cars that had made it well beyond where our trucks had made it. Some of the cars were way more equipped than ours, but just as many were equivalent or less. This created quite a bit of discussion about weather Alistar and Lewis really deserved their trucks. All jokes aside the fact that those cars made it past the gulley we got stuck at was mad impressive.
By 4:30 pm Sunday I was in Mag’s 99, with a hot steamy chimichanga in front of me.
There is something about being in the mountains that just makes you feel small yet powerful. When you wake up and feel the cold start to crawl over your skin, and than step outside and feel the air reach every single nook and cranny of your lungs. You see the silence that is displayed by the vast stillness of mountains, yet it’s not quite quiet inside each and everyone of us that morning we felt empowered, glory, happiness and serenity. This is why I go outdoors, to feel this contentment that I have only found to be in association with the outdoors. Skiing is much the same you float down mountains with complete control of your world, there is this option of creative expression that makes it an art form, but also this rush of adrenaline and speed that could only be accompanied with risk and danger. The combination of these makes a truly unique and memorable experience that once you feel what it’s like once makes you want to come back for more.
Thank you to the VOC members who came up. Thank you to everyone who help put the trip together.