Brohm Peak - July 8-9 2022
Coast Mountains, Squamish, British Columbia
1948m
Before our upcoming trip to the Rockies for a month of (less than anticipated, thanks late-season snow) shenanigans in a different locale, Logan and I decided to knock some glacier training out of the way. Of course, just taking a course is boring, and doesn't involve bagging any peaks, so we decided to get a guide to teach us on the way up Mt Garibaldi, because why not bag peaks in the process when you can do so instead? As for Brohm Peak, that's en-route, so we weren't going to skirt around it for no reason when it's right there, so this was accomplished on the way up during our expedition for that. Massive shoutout to our guide, Seb, who put up with our BS for 3 days, and even managed to teach us some stuff in the process.
Now, onto the TR! We met up at my place around 8am, did a quick gear check, got some last minute supplies, and set out. After scoping out the drive a couple days before, I already knew how far my 2WD sedan could get, so we parked about 780m above sea level along the Brohm River FSR, right before a fork to an unmapped trucking road and a steep/rutted/loose section I did not have confidence I could make it past. So, at about 9:20, we set out from the car.
The journey is largely uneventful for most of the FSR-walking, it's just walking up a forest road. Nothing super special. So we just trucked along uneventfully until about 11:00, where we took our first big break. At this point, we'd rejoined the Cheekeye FSR (which was a non-starter w/ respect to trying to drive it w/ my car), and were making our way up toward the chalet. This was just over 5.5km in, and about 500m of elevation gained. So not a bad pace considering our rather heavy packs. Especially Logan, idk how but he managed to pack a 75L bag and have a summit pack strapped on to it as well. This is also where I realized the rock I felt in the back of my shoe wasn't going to go away naturally, and I picked it out only to discover 2 layers of skin torn away. Not a great start, and sadly it'd continue to be a painful annoyance for the rest of the trip (but thankfully still ignorable pain).
After a 15 minute break to rest and get rocks out of our shoes, we continued on. Despite the small amount of snow seen here, it wasn't on the trail for a litte bit longer. However, you could have put boots on (which Seb decided to, while Logan had his on from the start), as the snow started shortly within about 10 minutes (though not enough to make me regret the hiking shoes I kept on). From here, it was again just more road-walking, for another hour and twenty minutes til we got to the snowmobile chalet at about 1500m. Even here, the snow was "mostly consistent" on the trail, but not very deep, and you could wear water-resistant shoes til this point without trouble.
Despite normally being much faster than me on the uphill, Logan was feeling pretty gassed, so we decided to hunker down here, set up camp, eat lunch, and do skills work for the rest of the day. Since the forecast called for rain that afternoon, we figured this also allowed us to hide under the shelter(s) should we need to, so we called it quits after a pretty light 3ish hours of hiking.
Now, a quick interjection into the trip report itself for a personal anecdote about the Brohm Ridge Chalet, and the Black Tusk Snowmobile Club:
I had previously been a bit sympathetic when I heard about the Garibaldi at Squamish Ski Resort plans to take over this area for a ski resort, as these people would lose their area to have fun without being beholden to a company's rules and pricing, if they could at all. However, after our experience here, that sympathy is gone. There were empty beer cans all over the place (dozens), various motor fluids seeping into the snow and ground, garbage strewn about, some food stored without being locked away in a bear-safe manner... not really something I would prefer over having a ski resort. Moreover, the people we saw up there weren't the most welcoming, the first person told us we can't camp on/around/under the buildings (so we had to tent up on uneven ground without cover for the night, which is just not the most hospitable course of action), and then later that evening a group came in for a fairly loud party it seems like, and left. Those aren't as damning "bad things" as the former infractions, but don't exactly contribute to garnering my sympathy. Anyway, enough whining, back to the trip report.
After lunch, we got our harnesses strapped on, and went over some crevasse rescue skills. This was obviously informative, and also pretty fun, as we got to haul ourselves up a rope, do fake rescues, etc. Given we'd had to carefully avoid glaciated terrain to this point, it definitely felt good to learn about and practice the skills that'll enable so many more ascents. I'm also glad to say I had a much smoother time hauling myself up than Logan did, though we both struggled with disengaging our progress-capture devices when transitioning to descent mode from ascending (in my defense, those teeth bite in hard!)
Somehow despite the forecast, we managed to stay dry the whole time, which was pretty nice since we were standing around, working with out hands, etc. for a lot of it. After we finished with skills for the day, we set up camp, got yelled at for setting up on the porch/balcony of the empty chalet, moved camp to the trees, then made some dinner (at least Logan and Seb did, I was on an all-peanut-butter-sandwich diet for this, which was at least moderately successful at holding my colitis symptoms back. Plus, no prep-time for meals). We hit the hay pretty early, as we figured lots of sleep before the next day would be good, as would adjusting our schedules to lean towards an alpine start on sunday for the big summit push.
The night was filled with loud partiers, me trying to not roll out of my tent, and not a whole lot of actual sleep, but we were in there for long enough that I rested enough to be able to put some more hours into my legs the next day. Plus, the sunrise at 5:40 was definitely something to be appreciated. We even got to (mostly) see our objective!
Since Logan was feeling his pack weight something serious, we decided to stash some stuff in the trees at camp before heading out. We stashed some extra clothes/food in his summit pack (which was left here, very much not at any summit), my tent (we decided to share for the high camp), our unnecessary ice tools, and some other bits+bobs. And so, we headed out before more snowmobilers could get mad at us for stashing stuff near their lodge😅
For the most part, this leg of the journey wasn't much to speak of either. Once you head out from here, the snow is more consistent and deeper, but still supportive and for the morning hours, even kinda crusty. We gained about 250m of elevation in the first hour, and made it to the end of the snowmobile tracks the path turned eastward along Brohm Ridge. After that, it's basically just "wander about rolling hills that go slightly uphill until you hit the exposed rocky ridge to Brohm Peak". The weather was at least decent, so it wasn't unpleasant wandering.
After maybe an hour of walking up these rolling hills, you arrive at a narrower snowy ridge, and shortly thereafter, the exposed rocky ridge up to Brohm Peak itself.
Once you get to the rocky section, it's not long, maybe 10-15 minutes on either side of the peak, but it's a fun little hike. I don't know if it's exposed enough to really be scrambling, but you do use your hands to navigate the tight turns and a couple thin ledges here and there. It's a nice break from the snow walking from before, and the summit has some decent views.
With the cloud coming in, and the forecast calling for wind+rain, we didn't linger here for too long, and instead we left fairly quickly to try and get to high camp for tomorrow's summit push to Mt Garibaldi.