Brandywine Mountain

We departed Vancouver around 9:00am on a glorious sunny day. After rushing red out of her house in her socks, carrying her boots in her hands, we picked up jerperkins and we were on our way on the sea-to-sky hwy. It was a warm autumn day with reds and yellows peeking from every mountain forest and traces of new snow visible on Garibaldi Mountain and its distant neighbours. Three kms past Brandywine Falls Provincial Park we turned left and went up a logging road and stopped about a kilometer or two from the trailhead. We navigated the beautiful forest up towards the meadows through deep muddy sections, climbed over huge fallen trees and tiptoed over slippery logs trying to avoid the mud.

We reached the meadows and were greeted by wide-open fields of green with traces of red and yellow from the changing leaves. To the west we could see the ridges surrounding Brandywine Mountain, and its companion glacier. To the east the Tusk, Diamond Head and Garibaldi Mountain. We stopped for a snack on top of a large boulder, taking in the many sights and resting for the climb ahead.

Our destination was the peak of Brandywine mountain so we crossed the remaining meadows, jumping over dozens of rivulets and started the ascent up the loose rock. The way up isn't marked too well but it didn't really need to be, since visibility was perfect. We only saw a couple of cairns at the beginning of the climb. The rock was extremely loose in most parts and we had to climb on different paths to avoid getting hit by the many falling rocks. Other parts of the ascent involved a bit of a scramble (barely a class 2) up smooth granite walls with lots of holds and steps. Red was laughing at me as I confessed my love for granite and its smooth, cold, comforting feel on my hands.

We finally reached the snowfields or glacier and started walking up it. Jer has done this hike a bunch of times and each time he was able to just walk over the snow towards the Brandywine peak. This time however we were quite surprised to find that the whole section was deeply crevassed. As me and Red saw this, we also noticed that Jer who was a bit ahead of us had walked right next to the edge of a small crevasse without realizing it. We stopped. Red and me quickly decided to get back to the safer rocks below and walk around up the ridge while Jer said he'll meet us on the ridge and he continued walking on the ice towards it. Leaving the snow, on my last step, I could hear the ice bending underneath me. After a bit more scrambling we got to one of the peaks where Jer was at and had lunch. Red was kind enough to share these delicious chocolate chip cookies she baked. Yum!

On the ridge we tried to figure out what to do next. It was getting late, about 2:30pm or so and we didn't want to brave the crevasses. Another option was to walk around the ridge surrounding the glacier to get to where the Brandywine peak started. We figured it was probably too late to make it but we were going to try anyways. We continued on the ridge, descended from the peak we were on and started climbing the next. The terrain changed somewhat though. Instead of the nice smooth granite walls, we now had these huge boulders that looked as though were placed there by someone playing Jenga. I was getting a bit nervous that those big rocks would come crushing down and I guess Red was having the same thoughts as she said she'll stop there and wait for us. The Brandywine peak was calling to me but I decided to stop too. Too dangerous and it was also getting late and our progress wasn't too fast. Jer was a bit disappointed. He even told me later he was considering continuing by himself but decided against it. I guess the peak was calling to him even more than to me.

We headed down. It turned out to be a lot more difficult than going up. We were creating small rock slides all over the place and slipping often. We took a slightly different path too as we couldn't quite find the same route as before (note for another time: build cairns!). Once back in the forest it was time for more slippin' and slidin'. This time due to the mud, the many slippery roots and perhaps the fact that we were a bit tired. We reached the car safely and stopped at the Howe Sound Brewing Company for some beers and dinner.

I found it quite surprising how devoid of people it was. There were only two other hikers there and they went somewhere else. Yet another awesome hike with great company and for the first time without a rainy cloud hanging above me.