COMP Brew Hut buried

My wife Jen and friends Denny and Sierra and I made a long weekend trip to the Brew Hut in the Coast Mountains near Whistler. Unfortunately, the cat ski operation at the road had a mechanical breakdown, meaning we had to ski the 12km (or whatever it is) to the hut instead of getting a lift partway.

Nobody had been to the hut in a while and so we broke trail through heavy snow much of the time. We had been warned that the hut can be difficult to find, even with a GPS, and especially in a whiteout, which eventually descened on us.

After what seemed like an eternity of skinning, we reached where the hut should have been, +/-150m, according to the GPS. Only when we were within 50m, did we see the hut, very well camouflaged behind a little hilltop. Once inside, we built a little fire and rapidly went through the tiny pile of scrap wood in the hut. The hut instructions said that there was a woodshed outside, but we couldn't see anything aside from the outhouse. Confused, we kept rereading the instructions, just in case we missed something. What is that saying? "Insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result". Anyway, Jen suddenly remembered she had her iPhone with her and checked the reception. A few minutes of Googling yielded a summer photo of the hut, showing the location of the elusive woodshed.

After probing the area, we'd found the woodshed! Of course, it was buried under several meters of snow, and took some time to dig out.

The next day saw the complete spectrum from absolute whiteout to almost-bluebird, and we ended up with a five stupendous powder runs - including perhaps one of the best of my life - before heading back for the night.

Brew Hut is certainly a place I'd certainly revisit, but with all the digging that's involved I'd probably stay a few more nights.