TR: NE face of Mt Brew (Lillooet)

[Cheesestoff]

Wasn't originally planning on posting this as I didn't get much in the way of skiing pics, but i was pretty bored tonight!!

Target: Mt Brew NE face, not to be confused with the Mt Brew near whistler
Partners: Kevin and Chris

Since moving to Lillooet last summer i've stared out my front door at this



Mt Brew's north ridge, it tops out over 2500m above my house (the true summit is hidden from view).

I was always surprised when asking around that nobody ever skis up there. Mt Brew is one of the higher peaks in the Southern Coast range, topping out at 2891m.
Turns out a couple of the local guys have been trying to ski the stuff there for years, but have never got around to it, surprising when you consider there is great access only 10mins from town.
One of them, Kevin, is credited on bivouac.com with the first ski descent of the NE face off the true summit. He in fact never skied it and has been waiting years to try and correct this. My other ski partner Chris has been drooling over the NE face since he took this photo last year.



NE face of Mt Brew, 600m vert of 45degrees



Mt Brew massif seen from the NE, the NE face is on the left starting in the clouds.

over the last few weeks we've started exploring more of the slopes around this mountain, including getting in a of couple of dawn patrols... perfect when it's only across the highway from home.



a beauty 800m vert ski before work

May 5th, Kevin and I made an exploratory trip behind the north ridge to look for the best access route to the true summit of Mt Brew. Unfortunately we ended up following the wrong drainage and summited a sub-peak, however it was still a good scouting mission.



some good skiing was had.

Finally last sunday everything came together, forecast was for sunny skies, and below freezing over night. Kevin and Chris somehow managed to convince their wives to let them go skiing on mothers day while they stayed home with the kids.

3am came around way too soon, by the time we 4x4'd up the old logging road, through the odd snow bank, and then started to hike it was almost 4am. When Kevin and I had been in the area the week before we had spotted some huge bear and cub tracks.. most likely Grizzly. This was in the back of my mind as we made our way further into the bush. So it was probly a good thing we spent an hour swearing like filthy sailors as be bashed through alder in the dark.



Finally the alder ended and we could see our target. Still have over 1500m of climbing to go however.

we reached the lower couloir that needed to be climbed in order to reach the base of the NE face and found a ~45degree frozen slope... time for crampons





the couloir above Chris' head made me drool, probly 600-700m of vert... next year





kevin popping out into the first sun of the day



we now could get a good look at the face we had come for

once on the face we spent an hour and a half moving from sheer ice to wind buff and back to ice and finally just after 10am we reached the summit. Because it's one of the larger peaks in the area the views were ridiculous... a galaxy of peaks stretched off to the West, North and South, and to our East there was a 2600m drop to the Fraser river below and the interior plains beyond that





Kevin on the last pitch



Chris taking a break looking south towards the stein



Joffre and Matier



Whitecap

We knew the NE face was still firm, however we didn't want to wait too long for it to soften up as the the lower couloir we had climbed was E facing and at a much lower elevation. The approach to this couloir was very steep and ended in a cliff band so we wanted to be through there before it became dangerously sun affected.

I dropped in first on the face, making sure to head for the area which had seen the most sun. The top half was awesome windbuff that stretched away for ever... i would have loved to have opened it right up and crank massive super-g turns... so i started to....
and then the firm snow started and I had to shut down the speed in a hurry. Once at the bottom of the face my legs were jelly after climbing it and then surviving the last half on chattery firm snow. It was still an amazing run, the sheer size of the face was mind blowing



from the bottom



Chris was next



Kevin at the top





milking the wind buff



looking back at the face and the surrounding bowl



out through the exit couloir nice corn

The good skiing ended up lasting over 1300m of vert as we cruised over a perfect meadow of corn before ending up bushwacking through a clearcut and being forced into attempting mandatory pillow lines off stumps into 6 inches of rotten slush... good times.

arrived back at the truck at 3pm and have never tasted a better kokannee in my life!! It's 3 days later and I still feel that climb every time I stand up!



Our route red is ascent, blue is ski

[Idris]

Nice one lads

[squirrelmurphy]

awesome.

that face is huuuge

[LeeLau]

well could you have skied down to your house or biked to trailhead? That would have been a hell of a cool trip - see emails btw

[Cheesestoff]

Lee,
We had thought about taking the bikes once we got back to the truck, as there is a trail that drops down the treed ridge in the first pic. Our summer project is to fix it up, extend it higher up to treeline and then down lower to the cayoosh... giving a ~1000m descent

[Squirrel99]

quality spring tour right there!

[postman22]

damn chris im very jeoulous all of a sudden
that looks awesome

[MakersTeleMark]

This is a great TR. Nice objective and execution.

[goldenboy]

Awesome!!

Does that really nice looking face (looker's right side) on whitecap all cliff out, because if it doesn't, that looks like a great objective.

[Buster Highmen]

Looks like:

[Buster Highmen]

and for those interested in the actual music on that record (caution: old SF rock style) http://www.audiolunchbox.com/album?a=35563

[powder11]

way to motivate up that Chris and a nice solid descent as well

[LeeLau]

Awesome!!

Does that really nice looking face (looker's right side) on whitecap all cliff out, because if it doesn't, that looks like a great objective.

No you don't. That one's all mine. It's got rabbits with big awful teeth at the bottom of it.

[Buster Highmen]

No you don't. That one's all mine. It's got rabbits with big awful teeth at the bottom of it.

Around the PNW there's a name for them: Dangerbunnies.

[byates1]

fuck.yes.

[Tri-Ungulate]

5/5 :yourocks:

[beaterdit]

Fuck yeah, gotta love getting THAT monkey off your back!

[Cheesestoff]

Fuck yeah, gotta love getting THAT monkey off your back!

It was a great feeling to tick it off the list, but three more lines up there were added to that same list! thank god two of them are easier to access though.

[goldenboy]

No you don't. That one's all mine. It's got rabbits with big awful teeth at the bottom of it.

Oh, it's just a harmless little bunny

[shirk]

Don't Eat the Yellow Snow.

Or atleast I think thats what we are naming the line we skied up there yesterday.

[LeeLau]

fingernails on chalkboard couloir

[adimmen]

Those are some monster faces. Nice work.

[hafilax]

No you don't. That one's all mine. It's got rabbits with big awful teeth at the bottom of it.

Not the Snafflehounds?!

[Northway]

Pretty!!!!

[matosan]

That looks like a great objective! Nice work, I hadn't seen this post until just now.
Did you access the NE face from a trail that leave Purvis Road?
What would access from the Enterprise Creek Road be like?
matt