Brew Hut
Winter access: 7 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 reportLots of snow, hut is in good shape Bryce M
Stayed at the hut from Feb 28-March 3. The hike into the hut was very difficult due to all the recent snow fall. It took our group 3.5 hours from the Roe FSR to get in. In some wind protected areas, it snowed upwards of another 90cm during our time at the hut.
Everything is in good condition at the hut. Solar panel is clean and the LED light worked great. The wood shed was completely buried in snow, and we had to use our avalanche probes to find it. We dug it out twice during our stay. We restocked Brew Hut with fire wood, but the fire wood supply is down to less than 1/4. So please be conservative when using the wood stove.
We did not use the Coleman cooking stove, so cannot comment if it's working or not. We left lots of drinking water in the big pots and kindling ready for the next group. Avalanche conditions were a bit spicy, but overall, a great experience. We paid through the website.
March 3, 2023
Everything in good working order at the hut. Took about 5.5 hrs to get in on Friday March 3rd from the cat skiing parking. Wood shed was about 1/4 full and inside shelves were fully stocked with wood when I left.
Great skiing this weekend!
March 3, 2023
A buddy and I headed to the hut from the 20th to 22nd. Parked 1km past winter parking lot (must be able to pull over far enough to let ski cat by 15ft or so!). This is about where the snow line is. trail up is long, easy to follow and took about 6 hrs (we are reasonably fast skinners). only 3 or 4 open creek crossings left at this point. On the way up, around 1300m, you skin past the bottom of a 30 ish degree face, lots of evidence of old wet and loose avy debris on these faces. On the way back out we did see some cracking/evidence of instability on these faces as well. no other signs of instability during out time up there. Hut was in good shape. Hard to tell how much wood is left because wood shed is covered in snow! Currently wood is pack to the bottom of the wood shed door. no issues with the wood stove and didn't use the gas stove. Left 20 dollars in the can for my buddy who's not a VOC member!
Feb. 20, 2023
Hut was clean, trail was icy at parts but doable, snow was fairly crusty for most of it. Paid $30 to the cash box. https://photos.app.goo.gl/BX9qfA8KNBNoPeTG9
Also if you're looking for volunteers I live in Squamish and would be happy to help out with occasional wood hauling/maintenance/etc. I've been up to the hut three times now and I think it's great.
Jan. 30, 2023
About 5 Creek Crossings that required taking the skis off on the way up and down from Brew. Took about 9 hours to get to the hut from the Winter Parking lot with around 1 hour of combined breaks. Took about 4 hours to get down.
Hut was is good condition. There are about 5 or 6 blue mats that can be used for seating or sleeping. Had to dig out the woodshed to access wood to replenish the indoor stock. Do not rely on the stove, we tried to turn it on and couldn't get it to work. As mentioned previously, fireplace releases smoke at first but there is a string on the handle to tie and keep the fireplace shut while in use.
Jan. 29, 2023
10+ open creek crossings on roe creek fsr. Sledded to switchback with logs and skinned from there. Just under a 7 hour slog to hut. 10-20 cms of new snow fell from Sunday to Tuesday. Significant wind transport in the alpine with very poor visibility.
Jan. 17, 2023
On the schedule there are 15 people but actually it's only my husband and me that day. The group of 8 did not go to hut on Jan 13. The ice was melting during the day time on the road which made it very hard to walk. Before enter into the woods, there are total about 30 creek to cross and about 15+ was open.
the snow was pretty deep since there are no one before us for several days. My husband and me are not strong hikers so the deep snow made us not reached the tree line before sunset. After keeping hiking for 3hrs we decided to go back.
Jan. 14, 2023
7 hours in, 4.5 hours out. The logging road had many creek crossings that were fully open. We had to take skis off 10-12 times each way. Not much snow down low, but snow base was ample starting at around 1200m. Rained to 1200m, snow afterwards. Faint skin track from logging road to hut. Nice run down after leaving hut. Good snow from 1700m to 1400m.
Hut was in good shape! Lovely new outhouse (compared to my experience of a decade ago). Two things to note. The LED light for the hut was very dim, probably about 1/4 the light of a headlamp, so we used our headlamps. Also, the wood stove released quite a bit of smoke into the cabin every time we opened the door. Not sure why this was. This got better the longer we used the stove, but still released some smoke. Perhaps snow blocking the chimney but not sure.
Jan. 7, 2023
It took us about 7.5 hrs to the hut. Thin coverage near the parking lot, deep snow up high (40 cm in the most recent storm). There are 5-10 open creeks past the Roe Creek bridge that mean taking skis off a lot. Past the road, the route is not always obvious and trail markers are often hidden by snow or branches (plus blizzard). The way out took around 5 hours because we had to break trail downhill. We fixed the opening mechanism of a window at the hut and carried out a big pile of garbage and abandoned gear. Highlights included a quarter of a bag of pasta, a dog leash, and a 9 lb, 4-person Coleman summer tent. While we appreciated the additional exercise, there is really no reason to leave anything in the hut that you carried up!
Dec. 30, 2022
Long ski in from the cat parking area - it took our group ~7.5 hours, breaking trail the entire way. Some of the water ditches still have exposed rock & water, making for a sporty ski out. Hut is generally in great shape. Some garbage and food was left by a previous group. Don't be noodles! Pack it out. We (sort of) got the stove running, but were very glad to have a couple backup stoves. Thanks to the VOC for this lovely little mountain haven!
Dec. 11, 2022
Dec 2-4, set a skin track through lots of unconsolidated snow. Trail was sharky below the lake but we skinned/skied from cars at the Powder Mountain lot. Coverage above the lake was fabulous and skiing was amazing.
Dec. 4, 2022
Brew Lake trail is nealry impassable in the current winter conditions. Roe Creek trail is provides easy access to the hut, but even the winter parking now requires a sporty vehicle (drive over snow and ice). Forest service road is closed beyond this point, blocked by large rock mounds and felled trees. The hut is tidy and in good condition, plenty of wood, and the outhouse is well. Not quite enough snow to ski down fully from hut to parking if you care for your skis, but getting there. Brew Lake is frozen.
Nov. 11, 2022
Had one 4wd drive and a 2wd car shuttle 21 VOCers and their packs to the bridge but all others parked at the winter parking resulting in an 8+ hour approach. By Nov 7 2wd should not attempt further than the winter parking. In the end there were 26 people at the hut overnight which made for some creative sleeping solutions, I think we accidentally broke the record (this is a friendly reminder to check if there are any people signed up on the registration calendar before making hard plans, even though the hut cannot be reserved, 21 people is a good indicator that it will be packed). Got lots of snow overnight, it's definitely not a hikeable approach anymore so we were grateful for our snowshoes. Window has been fixed as of Oct 29, and the woodshed is now FULL as we chopped a lot that had been up there. That being said, please still use firewood sparingly. As mentioned in the previous report, hut could be less cluttered, I think a previous VOC trip left some non-perishable food items.
Nov. 5, 2022
Used the winter access . 5km from the hut you will reach snow. Once you hit the lake your in 1-3 feet of snow. Overnight the wind was howling and snowing. One of the windows doesn't shut properly in the cabin. Someone has rigged up a old sleeping bag preventing heat loss that works ok for the time being.I didn't want to risk breaking the mechanism on the window frame trying to fix it in tough conditions so I left it be. Bring extra clothes as it got chilly Overnight. The cabin was in worse shape than my last visit, seems people are leaving more random shit /items. I brought a few down to start the de-clutter. My nicest memory from previous visits were how "sterile",clean and clutter free it felt, compared to other cabins/huts. The wood storage shed is about half full. I'd suggest anyone with any free space in their bag to bring wood. Even 1 log per person would create a surplus at some point. That aside it's still a magical place . Thankyou VOC . Trip pics on insta @simi604
Oct. 25, 2022
Water
We were very surprised that there was no water at Brew, both of the lakes are completely dry. The nearest liquid water was in the upper basin above Brew Lake, about 700 or 800m back down the trail (here). There's an old snow patch about 400m from the hut that we used as well, but neither option is nearly as convenient as the lakes right near the hut. When we left there was about a cm of snow on the ground, so not enough snow near the hut for melting, though perhaps that will change this week?
Window
While up there we noticed that the window on the ground floor of the hut, furthest from the entrance, was not closing properly. The mechanism wasn't working so when we left we disconnected it from the window to be able to close it as much as possible, but the issue was that the mechanism was not working when it was still attached to the window (photo shared with upcoming workhike leaders. )
Oct. 24, 2022
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
Weekend of Jan 22/23. Started our skin from the parking lot at freeman lake (49.969472, -123.166511) There's a large mound of snow that made heading up the FSR on skis the only option. ~7h50m up via Roe Creek Trail at a mellow pace with lots of breaks along the way. The road was brutal to skin up, just overall unpleasant chunky and hard snow. Exactly what we expected. Our experience sounds similar to Emily's on Jan 15/16.
Snow got significantly better for skinning near Brew Lake. Mediocre at best for skiing.
Took us 1h40m down. Quick pace and did not put on our skins. Shuffled up the uphill portions of the FSR which saved a ton of time. Would recommend.
Jan. 23, 2022
Headed up to Brew Hut for an overnight trip weekend of Jan 15/16 2022. We knew the conditions would be bad going in (warm, high freezing level, and lots of rain the previous week), so weren't expecting much skiing, and thus were not disappointed.
FSR was reasonable. Some tricky-ish creek crossings just before the summer parking lot (only had to bootpack one). Forest section was a hard, icy, debris-filled mess. Lake and ridge ascent were crusty with a dusting of new snow on top. Had to dig out the hut and woodshed (and un-jam the frozen outhouse door). Of the 22 people booked that night, only our group of 4 made it up. Hut was tidy, lots of wood, tuned up the guitar.
Descent was a mess. Left the skins on for a significant portion, as the snow was so packed and icy that you couldn't really ski. Saw one other group of 2 attempting the trail, plus lots of snowmobiles on the FSR. Up in 8 hr, down in 4 hr. Good workout, bad skiing.
Jan. 15, 2022
Our group headed into the hut on December 31st under cold, sunny conditions to find skin track to the hut, and we passed a group of two heading out. The new Roe Bridge is in place and travel for our group was good. We found the hut and privy to be dug out. We used firewood sparingly, and found the hut to be cozy during our stay, thank you to those volunteers that have carried in firewood! Snow was generally wind affected around the hut, but we found good tree skiing on south facing trees north of hut, and Baldwin's trees south of hut. We headed out January 1st in stormy conditions and did not see any groups parked or en route to hut when we exited. We expect the skin track will be fully covered now after the 80cm+ storm that followed our exit.
Despite having a Coleman stove expert with us, we were unable to get the Coleman stove working. There appears to be a leak or frozen blockage connecting the gas to the element. We cleaned and removed some accumulated items from the hut.
Dec. 31, 2021
We chose to reframe our failure to get to the hut as "exercise, and training breaking trail with an overnight pack." We turned back at the summer lot once it became apparent that our pace (1km/h) was not going to get us to the hut at a decent time and decided to come back when there is not as much snow. 200 branch is still heavily de-activated, but we confirmed that there is a brand new bridge over Roe Creek.
Dec. 18, 2021
The new bridge over Roe Creek was getting installed this past weekend. The guys said they would keep working until it was done. There were two excavators at the creek and the bridge was mostly constructed, but not in place yet. I would suspect it will be in place by next weekend. The construction workers thought we were a little nuts when we forded the creek in our boot shells. Creek was not more than mid calf deep.
We did check out the cable on the way home but the pull lines were underwater and very tangled in alder downstream so we just walked back across the river instead.
There is still a huge pile of dirt and several log blockades at the R200 turnoff.
We had about 40-50 cm of new snow over the weekend, so coverage was a lot better on the way down, but still had some rock sharks in the forest.
Dec. 12, 2021