Trip Report: Brandywine Mountain Squamish BC Aug 1, 2011

To celebrate the summer, we decided to climb Brandywine mountain, a 7260 ft mountain south west of Whistler. Even though it was August, conditions were early summer/spring like, so we got an early start. Following the series of logging/snowmobile roads, and up a final rough steep rocky section (thank you Subaru Forester!) we arrived at the trailhead and started out at 9:15am.

It wasn't too far up the trail before we hit snow - fortunately it was well consolidated so we were able to walk on top of it the whole way. Before long, we arrived at the Brandywine meadows (all under snow), with Brandywine mountain just poking out at the end of the valley. Not a person was in sight and we had the whole valley to ourselves! As the entire route was covered with snow, we opted to take a short cut which was more direct than looping around the ridge, and after kicking steps up the snowslope we were able to connect with the ridge proper just below the main summit block.

Magnificent views of Cayley and Mt. Fee, as well as the Black Tusk and Garibaldi! After clambering our way up the summit ridge, we popped up to the summit, at 1:15pm. What a beautiful mountain Brandywine is! After signing in the summit log, snapping a few pics and eating our lunch, it was time to begin our descent. Snow conditions were mostly perfect, and we were able to bootski a great deal of the descent. Another awesome day in the Coast Mountains - how lucky we are!!

My GPS coordinates for Brandywine (pls note this is the winter route and therefore will be a bit different than the normal route):

Brandywine TH: N 50'04.683 W 123'11.130

Brandywine Meadows: N 50'05.636 W 123'11.217

Brandywine: N 50'06.259 W 123'12.529

Brandywine: N 50'06.400 W 123'12.689

Brandywine Summit Ridge: N 50'06.612 W 123'13.191

Brandywine Summit: N 50'06.874 W 123'13.271