April 22, 2025
The south side of Brunswick lake has some of the best alpine skiing terrain on the North Shore. I’m sure it would see far more ski traffic if it wasn’t for the steep hike in from Lion’s Bay.
We started off from close to sea level, hiking in our trail runners. We took the standard route up the W ridge of Brunswick. We traversed the ridge over the true summit and to the east summit. Be wary of the cornice while walking along the ridge. The entrance to the couloir isn’t super clear from the top. Ski directly north off the east summit down a short 30m pitch of snow. Then drop in to skiers right at first notch.
The snow was a pretty brutal and bulletproof melt freeze crust. It was hard to hold an edge, and I side-slipped much of the couloir. The line was a little steeper than I expected, but then again hard snow always feels much steeper. Once the angle eased off we enjoyed wide turns down the bowl below.
Afterwards we traversed over to Hanover and skinned up to the base of the climber’s right couloir. Donning crampons, we started making our way up. The couloir is pretty moderate with the late season coverage, never getting much steeper than 40 degrees.
After enjoying the views, we clicked in to our ski’s on the summit. The couloir skied great. We had timed it nicely with the sun’s warming. The corn snow was forgiving and we slashed out very fun turns down to the bowl below.
Afterwards, we joined the Howe Sound Crest Trail. Skinning up through Hat Pass and returned to the trail below Brunswick.
Sandro Summits 
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