Mount Brennan is an absolute beast of a day hike. Monstrous. Sitting on the edge of Goat Range Provincial Park, Mount Brennan dominates the area’s views at over 2900m. It is the highest point in the Southern half of the Selkirk Mountain Range. The summit is an obtainable, but challenging hike.
Do NOT do this one hungover. You won’t even be able to get halfway if you make that mistake.
To be honest, for its height, Mount Brennan is a relatively easy hike. But, the 1600m elevation gain and 20km round trip burns the legs. It may also cause tears.
We started the day early and caught the first ferry from Kootenay Bay to Balfour. From there, you make your way to Kalso before heading West towards New Denver. The main road to the trailhead is Rossiter Road. You should reach it a little over 30km from Kaslo. The road is on the right, right off the main highway.
The road is in decent condition and a low-clearance vehicle could probably make it to the trailhead, but no promises. The trailhead is just past Rossiter Creek Bridge. The parking area used to be near the bridge, but is now closer to the highway.
Public Service Announcement: If you are reading the hike is around 15km THIS IS NO LONGER TRUE. This is the estimate from the original parking area and doesn’t include straying off the path around Lyle Lakes at all.
From the new parking area the trail goes left and on a deer trail for about 100m before coming out on the road again. From here, follow the road another 800m or so to the original trailhead.
You can see right at the start of the trailhead how you gain so much elevation on this hike. The trail starts climbing up right away and doesn’t stop until you reach Lyle Lakes and the basin below Mount Brennan.
After hiking another kilometre or so you will see the first waterfall coming from Lyle Lakes.
You think the trail was steep to here, but that was nothing. The trail heads left and begins a steep ascent up the notch to the left of the waterfall. Over the crest and out of sight is Lyle Lakes and the Mount Brennan basin. After about 4.8km you reach Lyle Lakes.
Lyle Lakes are amazing and photos don’t do them justice. The water is the coolest pale greenish blue. It looks sort of milky. We took a snack break here and wandered up to the largest lake. Across the lake you can see the largest waterfall hitting the lake.
Admittedly, this exploration to the largest lake added some time and distance we didn’t expect. We were both a bit grumpy by the time we got back to the car because of that.
From the lakes the trail follows left up a creek. After another kilometre or so you reach a nice viewpoint after the trees disappear.
From here, you follow the yellow brick road to the summit. This is the coolest hiking trail ever. Reading about it, it sounds fake, but the natural yellow rocks form an obvious route to the summit.
You can see the summit soon after you begin climbing on rocky terrain. But, while it seems close, it still takes around two hours to reach the summit.
Once you get high enough to see over the back side of Mount Brennan the glacier is visible. Even in the end of August there is ice and snow nearing the summit. Be careful here, as a slip on the snow could lead to a long slide.
We had to stop around half an hour from the summit because our legs were cramping so bad. After popping several Advil each and downing some Gatorade we pushed on.
Finally, you summit after around 5 to 6 hours of hiking.
The peak is a nice spot for lunch. There is a lot of room to sit around and enjoy the views. It is very unlike some smaller, steeper peaks such as Mount Loki.
After spending half an hour at the top for lunch, we booked it down. Storm clouds were rolling in and we had to make sure our Advil and Gatorade boost didn’t wear off.
We were back at the car within two hours, which was quite fast. It started pouring just as we were past Lyle Lakes on the way down. A good friendly reminder to be weary of weather on hikes. Be prepared to tun around if it starts to turn. Don’t risk your life for the summit.
As we were driving back down Rossiter Road we could see lightning strikes near Mount Brennan. After a long 7 hours of hiking we finally were back on paved roads. In total, the Mount Brennan trek usually takes 8 to 9 hours.
It is an absolute grind of a hike. The climb itself isn’t what’s bad, but the total distance and elevation gain is hard on the body. Give yourself a full day if you plan on going to the summit!
Last piece of advice: bring Gatorade, and maybe stretch before so you don’t hurt yourself mid-hike and need to take an Advil break…
Details
Total distance: ~19km
Elevation gain: 1600m
Max elevation: 2902m
Total time: approximately 8.5 hours
Kootenay Hiker 