Chic Chocs (Round 3) Week 1 at Mines Madeleine

The preparation for this trip was extensive.  It was going to be our third time in the mountain range, but this time with plans to spend a week camping in the reserve and than a week staying in a cabin at the Gite du Mont-Albert.  It would be the longest back country ski trip any of us had ever gone on. There was four of us, Alex Gemme, Reese Freeman, Spencer Fitz-Gerald and myself, Chris Cullaz.  We had received a grant from the Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation to help with food and gas, as well as some professional leadership funding from the UVM Outing Club.  Without the support of these two organizations the trip probably wouldn't have happened.



   Our plan was to leave on Monday at 2 o'clock as soon as Spencer was done with his presentation for class. It was a little stressful for myself because the Saturday and Sunday leading up to our departure I had the final two days of the ice climbing leadership course that I coordinate for the Outing Club.  Luckily Alex, Spencer and Reese took care of the food while I took care of the gear we would need to borrow from the Outing Club.

"Claire" packed up and ready to roll

   We knew that leaving at 2 was gonna have us arriving at 2 am but Spencer couldn't get out of his class. The drive there was relatively uneventful, we crossed the border quickly enough and then settled in for the long haul.  We arrived at Saint-Anne-de-Mont right around 2 and the empty light had been on for awhile.  Its surprisingly hard to find 24 hour gas stations in the Gaspiese Peninsula. Lucky for us there was only one in the entire town.  Getting out of the truck we realized it was really, really cold.  Definitely below zero.  So we decided to utilize the warmth of the gas station so we could layer up.

The attendant certainly looked at us funny as we walked in with packs and gear

   We got to the parking lot of the campground and decided it wasn't worth setting up a tent or anything.  So we just packed down some snow, laid out our sleeping pads and slept under the stars that first night.

   The next morning I awoke to snowflakes falling on my face. I was roasty toasty in my neg 20 sleeping bag. Anyone who has winter camped will tell you the worst part about it is getting up in the morning and getting out of your bag.  We got up and repacked, thinking about the long skin ahead of us.  We had decided we couldn't get out to our base camp in one day so we had reserved a night at Le Roselin.  

My first attempt at hauling the sled  Photo: Alex Gemme

We quickly realized it would be a team effort Photo:Alex Gemme

      Our night at Roselin was relaxing.  We met Vince Grondin, a solo snowshoer who was very friendly and excited to show us some of the photos he had taken. I learned Vince was the chief engineer on the icebreaker the Amundsen, which is responsible for bringing some of the top climate scientists up to the Arctic Ocean for research. Vince was very passionate about his job as well as the importance of the research on climate change that the scientists were involved.  While his English certainly wasn't perfect, he was very clear about the effects he had personally seen after working in the Arctic for over 20 years.  As an Environmental Studies major I know too well the negative effects that climate change is wreaking on the Arctic Circle.  As a backcountry snowboarder and ice climber, I fear the future will hold severe changes for my favorite season. 

Left to Right: Myself, Vince, Spencer, Alex, and Reese

The next morning we said goodbye to Vince and begin the second leg of our journey. If you ever want a metaphor for struggle, consider breaking trail with a 50 pound pack while hauling a 100 pound sled.  Our pace was slow, but deliberate.  Sadly my camera couldn't handle the negative temperatures too well.  Good thing Alex's camera could.

Around 2 pm we reached the backside of Mont de la Table   Photo: Alex Gemme

The rare moment the sun shone was a welcome reprieve from 

the consistent 10 to 30 below temps

Photo: Alex Gemme

Reese digging his tube/getting in touch with his inner sled dog

Photo: Alex Gemme

   We saw three very distinctive chutes that we wanted to ski and the next morning got after it.  After skinning for all of 20 minutes, it was obvious we would be boot packing these lines due to the steepness and vegetation density.

Myself, Spencer and Reese headed up the center gully

Photo: Alex Gemme

 Reese and Spencer working their way up
Photo: Alex Gemme

Alex snapped this pretty epic shot of me struggling over a wind lip

 The view from close to the top.  We wanted to summit, but the winds were picking up and the upper snowfield looked pretty wind scoured.  I actually managed to set off a small wind slab during my first turn.
Photo: Alex Gemme

Definitely got some face shots during this run

Photo: Alex Gemme

That day we ended up getting two big lines in and that was plenty for us.  Unfortunately Alex had gone into this trip with a an ankle issue and it was bothering him.  For the second line he ended up staying at the bottom, skinning around in circles on the lake to stay warm.  We spent a lot of our trip just fighting off frostbite, but by the end, Alex, Reese and I had received mild cases.  Reese on his fingers, Alex on his toes, and me on my nose.

That night the mercury on Alex's thermometer dropped below negative 25.  His thermometer only went that low.  We predicted it was probably along the lines of 30 below, without windchill.  We definitely maxed out or sleeping bags' comfort rating that night.  In the morning we woke up to more light snow falling. 

The boot dance was imperative to keep toes from freezing

Photo: Alex Gemme

We agreed to get after one more line and then pack up and head back.  With the combination of intolerable temps, Alex's ankle and the improbability of doing the whole 15k in one day, we decided to try and get back to Roselin that night.  

Hittin the road

Photo: Alex Gemme

The only thought going through my head for that last 36 hours was how badly I wanted to sit down in chair and drink a cold beer, without my fingers freezing off.  We had pushed ourselves to our limits, enduring the most bone-chilling cold for five consecutive days.  We were all starting to go a little crazy and topics of conversation went all over the place.  Skinning was done mostly in silence, with the only sound being the scrape of the sled and chirping of the occasional bird.  

We reached the Roselin hut right around sunset and the two current occupants were happy to share with us. Her name was Laurie and she was ski-touring with her father, Peter.  He spoke very little English but she was pretty fluent.  Turns out she was a total bad ass who had lived in South America for ten years, spending five of them in Patagonia helping her now ex-husband start a mountain guide business in a tiny little town.  She now lived in St. Anne-des-Mont and worked for a watershed protection agency.  

Meeting both Laurie and Vince made me think a lot about my future in the environmental field. I will be graduating with a degree in Environmental Studies with a focus on Sustainability and Outdoor Education.  My parents think I'm graduating with a degree in rock climbing, ice climbing, and back country snowboarding.  They might be right, but don't tell them that...

Back to the front country, we made it!

So ended our epic back country ski expedition, but we still had a week left.  Only now we would get to return to the shelter and warmth of a cabin, as well as the company of eight more friends.  Stay tuned for the next post about our foray into ski mountaineering.