Brew Hut
Winter access: 6.5 hrs
Hut fee: $10 per person per night
About Brew Hut
About Brew Hut
This hut was built in 2005 and sits at 1686 m on an exposed alpine ridge just south of Mt. Brew. It sleeps about 12 people comfortably, but it has fit as many as 20. The hut is open to non-motorized, non-commercial users.
The Brew area receives huge amounts of snow in winter and is a popular destination for backcountry skiing. In summer, hikers visit the heather meadows around Brew Lake, swim in the tarns, and walk up nearby Mt. Brew.
The hut has a wood stove (winter use only), a solar-powered light, and an outhouse. Firewood should be used sparingly, because it is carried in by volunteers. There are small tarns west of the hut for drinking water (no swimming!), although in winter it is sometimes necessary to melt snow. For more information, see the VOC Wiki.
How to get there
Turn onto Chance Creek FSR from Hwy 99 (1.8 km south of the Garibaldi Rubble Creek turnoff). The road is rough but passable for 2WD vehicles. In winter, park in the ploughed parking lot at km 1.6, shared with snowmobilers and Powder Mtn Catskiing. Continue up the road and keep right at major junctions. In summer, park at the new bridge over Roe Creek (km 5.9). For the next 2.5 km, the road is heavily deactivated and is slow travel on skis (but fine in summer). Stay right at major junctions until the trail leaves the road in a cutblock (50.00728, -123.18716; easy to miss). Walk through the forest to Brew Lake, then follow gentle slopes northwest then north to a col. The hut is just east of the col.
In winter, this route is 13.2 km and 1300 m elevation gain. In summer, it is 9.0 km and 990 m elevation. The last section of trail is in open subalpine terrain, is unmarked, and is covered by snow well into the summer. Whiteout conditions are common in every season, and you should have a GPS or be proficient navigating with a map and compass to reach the hut. In winter and spring, there are a few short sections of avalanche terrain.
2022 Brew GPS track
Conditions reports
New reportGreat Conditions at the Hut, Trail a bit Overgrown Lara de Beer
The hut was in great condition when we arrived. However the trail condition was a bit challenging at times. We opted to take the route from the Brew Creek FSR and found the signage/trail markers were not the best in sections of the trail and often had to stop, re-assess and find the trail. Three sections stand out the most which were:
1) Trail marker indicating when to turn off the FSR road onto the trail. We continued up the FSR for 300 m before realizing we were going the wrong way. The turn off on the left side was a quite easy to miss.
2) The boulder fields section was hard to navigate if we were on the trial. Cairns helped as there was minimal flagging tape or trail markers around.
3) Coming down we struggled to find the route out around Brew Lake as there were many "paths" made by people walking but we got a little turned around trying to find the way we took in to take out.
All in all still a 10/10 experience on the trail and at the hut.
Oct. 1, 2022
It was a gorgeous hot September day! We packed to heavy so the trail seemed harder than it is. Definitely really dry and slippery at points from the loose dirt. Brew lake was in perfect shape for a brisk cool off. It was around 4.5 hours to the hut. We got a little off trail a few times but managed to find our way back to it with little detours. Some places are poorly marked but luckily it’s a hike with wifi to get back on track.
The hut was in great shape and we tidied up the books, shelves and wood piles too. It was fun to read some of the log book entries. Sounds like people have had quite the adventures finding the place esp in the winter!
Sept. 28, 2022
Hiked up via Roe Creek.
Roe creek deactivation limits access. We got half way up the deactivated road after the bridge in a truck, but didnt push on. Another truck got up to the first turn off. Need a high clearance 4x4 for the deactivated road. SUV wouldn't make it.
Trail up from Roe creek was in good condition up to the lake. Not the clearest route up to the 2nd lake and hut, but pretty difficult to get too lost.
Hut in great condition and quiet for a Saturday night. Great trip!
Sept. 24, 2022
We had to park at the road deactivation sign right before the Roe Creek bridge and walk the rest of the way up the logging road to the trailhead, but the access to the trailhead was very well marked. The rest of the trail looked like it was newly cleared and freshly marked from a work hike that happened about a week ago (based on the logbook in the hut). No bugs this time of year, maybe because the wind was howling enough to rattle the roof.
Sept. 18, 2022
The hut is in excellent condition, with a decent amount of firewood, and the outhouse is in good condition. However, both the FSR to access the trailhead and some parts of the actual trail or significantly overgrown.
Sept. 3, 2022
The hut was amazing. The only issue we had was young men coming up with every kind of alcohol and drug to party. They were not happy when we wanted to sleep.
Aug. 28, 2022
Drove past the deactivation sign on Roe Creek FSR and made it to the log Barriers at the start of R200 , Dodge Ram 1500 with lift, not recommended but doable. 30 big cross ditches in total. Shorter wheel base high clearance 4x4 would be better or just walk and save your bumpers.
We Gave the Hut a clean upand did a temporary fix on the front step. The views from the hut are amazing. Pretty buggy up there but to be expected.
Thanks for the great stay.
Aug. 17, 2022
Driving:
Chance Creek FSR to Roe Creek Bridge: passable in 2WD with care, no problem in my 2009 Subaru Forester
Past Roe Creek Bridge: we did not attempt as it is full of water bars and has been deactivated right before the beautiful bridge (sigh...) but we did see a Toyota Forerunner that made it all the way to the cutblock
Hiking: TH is very very easy to miss (we did), a future work hike to clear underbrush and mark the right turn off the FSR. Trail is otherwise in OK condition, some minor bushwacking needed below treeline. Mosquitos were atrocious on the FSR and through the trees, better in the alpine. Didn't make it to the hut, lake is still mostly frozen. Patches of snow on the trail are minor before the lake, snow melt and creek runoff creates muddy and wet patches.
July 22, 2022
All cars we saw this weekend got parked before the bridge. Maybe some 4*4 can drive pass the bridge till the junction with R200, but not on R200, as it was blocked. Buggy in the forest, but not on the top. Spotty snow on the boulders(tricky but manageable), boots were good enough all the way up. We didn't use or check the hut, as it was packed with a large friendly family group when we arrived. The older outhouse was full. Beautiful weather great views. I was so surprised seeing 4 snowmobiles drove around the hut though...
July 2, 2022
Roe Creek Road in good shape until the bridge (branch R100). We parked there due to impassable ditches across the road. Road is melted up to branch R200. From there we skin up (there are multiple spots where you have to carry skis). Trail have a good snow coverage and is well marked. In hut is still enough fire wood, few sleeping mats and two luxury pillows!
May 22, 2022
We made it to the hut in 7 hours with lots of breaks, hut in a good condition, just the axe needs to be replaced as it is difficult cut wood with the one at the cabin. Had a great time!
April 30, 2022
Our visit went smooth. We got 1/3 of the trail/gravel road by car, the rest by skies/split board. Even thought the trail was not used for couple of days, still find our way up easily.
Hut was clean and cozy. We repaired book shelve and tune the guitar.
Thank you for nice memories !
April 24, 2022
Can drive to ~1km past the roe creek/chance creek junction. Alternate between slushy skinning and walking for ~1km before putting on skins permanently. Only one small creek crossing on the way up, but more opening up soon. Hut is in great shape.
April 10, 2022
We parked about 1km before the new bridge (summer parking spot) due to snow. we where a mixed group skiers and snow showers and it took us 5 hours to get tot he hut. Trail was in good conditions no problems. We had a late lunch in the hut and did a small tour around the lake in the evening great weather, about 10cm of nice snow on top and snow pack on the gentle slopes we skied was stable. The hut was in good condition no issues, one other group of 4 arrived late in the day. On Sunday weather was overcast, we summited Mt Brew and skied out the snow pack at lower elevations was hard and crusty. Thanks VOC for the great hut.
April 9, 2022
Snow was skiable from about 1km up from the Clear creek/roe creek fork, and would be easy to drive to this point. We broke trail after turning off the roe creek rd which was quite chewed up by snowmobiles. Coverage was excellent with only a couple exposed streams on the way. Hut was in good condition, no evidence of rodents. One notable item was that the outhouse door seemed to have expanded a little and was unable to be latched shut. Fair bit of recent avalanche activity in the area, we stuck to low angle terrain.
April 6, 2022
The bridge is back in over Roe Creek! No wading required, but also lots of snowmobile traffic on that section now. Trail markers were easy to follow after the logging road, the transition point from road to trail took a bit of route finding but any trail app (we used Gaia and Fatmap) showed the way easily. Hut was in great shape, no problems.
March 5, 2022
Logging road was well compacted from the catski machines. We were able to skin/ski over half of the water bars. VOCO left us a nice skin track to follow, so navigation was easy. The hut was in good shape, except I don't think the last group swept before they left. There are 4-5 thin blue mats that serve well as butt insulation on the benches or emergency sleeping pad if someone forgot theirs. With the wood stove, 4 VOCers were plenty comfy in -20C. Outhouse in good condition. Yellow pee everywhere on the pee side of the hut, mainly because we didn't get much fresh snow while we were up there. Please bring an extra garbage bag for hut floor sweepings instead of chucking bits of dirt and plastic and who knows what else outside. Plenty of firewood left, but we used it conservatively. We made sure to shut the hut door quickly to not loose heat. The solar light works well. The storage area could use some tiding and cleaning. There are 2-4 hut booties, leftover wool socks, and cheap sleepbag
Feb. 26, 2022
After reading other trip reviews and having hiked to Brew Hut last May via the old Brandywine entrance, we figured this hike would be totally doable. However, with 40lbs on our backs it took us 9 hours to reach the hut, and we were beyond exhausted. Then we faced a whiteout this morning when we left the hut to ride out. It took us 6h to get to the parking lot after riding down the Roe Ck FSR.
Great weekend, but not for the faint of heart!
Feb. 7, 2022
The logging road was pretty chewed up from snowmobiles but wasn’t too bad for skinning. Ran into very bad trail conditions once we got onto the Roe Creek Trail. Skin track was melted out and/or very icy in spots. Had to bootpack through some sections which made our trip take a lot longer than planned. Made it to the hut after dark. Hut was in great shape and there was lots of wood to get the fire going. Despite the inversion and some aspects having a pretty good melt crust we found great snow on W to SW aspects. A few pockets of wind slab could be found but nothing major. Totally worth the hike up. Thanks to all the volunteers who keep the hut up and running. Cheers.
Jan. 28, 2022
Nothing is broken, the trail is covered with snow from the Roe winter parking lot trail head, need to have snowshoes. It is great condition trail.
Jan. 23, 2022