Oncoman
Active member
The Uapishka massif is a remote huge 5000 square km plateau of taïga & toundra in mid-northern Québec, the 2nd most important alpine plateau of Québec, located between longitudes 67° 05’ and 68° 15’ and between latitudes 51° 25’ and 51° 50’. It’s located just east of the immense réservoir Manicouagan, a 600 km perimeter water surface created by a meteorite long ago, and easily recognized from space I read. Contrary to the Torngats, these are very ancient peaks, around 3 billion years old, with totally rounded summits. The term Uapishka signifies « White Mountains » in Montagnais.
After numerous hours of map analysis, I found 35 peaks of 1000 meters (3281’) or more with a min. of 100 m. of clean prominence, 15 if one uses 150 m. (492’) of clean prominence. If interested consult my Liste des sommets Uapishka. Note that in the European literature prominence is referred to as culminance, while prominence signifies distance between a given pk & its closest higher pk (Ref. Criteria for defining summits in the Swiss Alps ). My objective for my first visit to the Uapishka was to bag 8 pks but I only got 5.
This is very remote territory, located in complete wilderness, visited by at most 300 hikers per year. No rules, fees, rangers or parking fees here! You are totally on your own and must be fully autonomous and prepared for the worst Mother Nature can throw at you on very very exposed terrain. The plateau is at 3000’ or so of altitude and blizzards in Aug. do happen. You can hike for days here before reaching tree cover! The permasol (permafrost) I am told is only 3-4’ below the ground surface. Also the silence is impressive as there is no airplane noise pollution here; and no light pollution by nearby towns at night. On a cloudless night the stars are just out of this world and with a bit of luck you can even see some aurora borealis, the northern lights.
But the beauty of it all is that this wilderness is accessible by car! About a 15 hrs car drive from Montréal, 4 hrs from Baie-Comeau. The gravel road north of Manic-5 is however rough by moments and seldomly travelled. I managed to pierce one of my rear tires there. Truck drivers heading for Labrador don’t stop; so was I glad that I had brought along a spare tire mounted on a rim!
We were a group of 6 and had planned to do a classic north-south traverse of the western section of the plateau, representing approx. 10% of the total surface of the plateau. This gave about a 60 km hike over 7 days. Less than 10 people do a west-east traverse per year, a much more demanding 2 week trip, best done on skies. This may seem like short easy hiking but bear in mind that you are hiking in soft wet moss all day with heavy backpacks, like walking on a soft mattress.
Our group leader, Pierre Normandeau, has been to the Uapishka over 15 times in all seasons. His knowledge of the terrain, flora & fauna was extremely valuable and his stories breathtaking, like the time the wolves visited his tent at night on a -50° C winter night while he was trekking solo! HOUUUU…His first trip up here dates back to 1986, when the gravel road from Manic-5 to Labrador City was first opened. You could then approach caribou to within 50’ by crawling. Now the herds have moved more to the east, where hardly no one travels. Also it was interesting to hear his comment that the shrub is getting higher year by year, ankle high 20 yrs ago and now knee high if not waist high in spots; another tangible proof of warming temps.
Security was not neglected. Pierre had brought along a satellite beacon to call in helicopter rescue for extreme emergency. We also had a well furnished first aid kit plus 1 doctor, myself, & 2 nurses on the team. Our group leader was also qualified for field first aid measures. As for navigation, both Pierre & I were quite comfortable with map & compass, and we both had GPS as added security should visibility prove to be deficient as it turned out to be on day 6. BTW here is a valuable trick I learned should you get lost in toundra and want to be easily spotted from the air: bring along lots of orange-coloured garbage plastic bags, split them open to make large banners and fix them to the ground by rocks in triangle shape (the universal distress symbol).
Day 1 : Sun. 19 Aug.
Left a car at 335 km marker from Baie-Comeau along 389 gravel rd, our southern exit point. We had arrived there the night before at 23h15 after a 15 hrs car drive from Montréal and camped out in the woods under the rain. We then travelled north to 365 km marker to reach northern trail to climb up plateau. The N & S trails are the only easy exit points from the plateau as bushwhacking could prove very difficult & slow going due to thickness of spruce trees here. The 1800’ ascension to the plateau went smoothly with minimal blow-down on trail and nice waterfalls in first few km. Pierre was carrying a 55 lbs pack and I a 47 lbs one. As for the 4 girls their packs averaged about 35 lbs each except for my wife who carried only 25 lbs. Above 2800’ the trees tinned out and by 2900’ we were above tree-line. We reached the plateau at 3000’ by 14h00 and rested for lunch under a light but persistent rain. I tasted for the first time a delicious arctic fruit called Chicoutai (meaning fire in Montagnais). It resembles a big raspberry and tastes mid sugar-acid, like a lemon-tangerine mix. When ripe it is orange – too bitter when red. Very nutritious for bears. In French we call it Plaquebière from old French, plat de bièvre, meaning beaver food; and in English you call it cloudberry or baked-apple berry.
After lunch we headed S.E. towards mont Jauffret, at 3494’, reached near 16h00. The landscape was out of this world – toundra up to the horizon with bare peaks as far as you could see in the fading light and fog. WOW! Along the way we encountered grizzle. Gisèle, my wife, by now was quite tired and her pace had slowed down considerably compared to the rest of the group requiring frequent stops. But then the combination of rain & 25 mph winds mixed with grizzle made the risk of hypothermia imminent. By 17h00 all 4 girls were too tired to continue. We had only covered 7 km that day. At that pace we would never succeed to do a full traverse in the time allotted. Due to the rain we all ate in our tents and retired early wet, cold and moral somewhat low.
After numerous hours of map analysis, I found 35 peaks of 1000 meters (3281’) or more with a min. of 100 m. of clean prominence, 15 if one uses 150 m. (492’) of clean prominence. If interested consult my Liste des sommets Uapishka. Note that in the European literature prominence is referred to as culminance, while prominence signifies distance between a given pk & its closest higher pk (Ref. Criteria for defining summits in the Swiss Alps ). My objective for my first visit to the Uapishka was to bag 8 pks but I only got 5.
This is very remote territory, located in complete wilderness, visited by at most 300 hikers per year. No rules, fees, rangers or parking fees here! You are totally on your own and must be fully autonomous and prepared for the worst Mother Nature can throw at you on very very exposed terrain. The plateau is at 3000’ or so of altitude and blizzards in Aug. do happen. You can hike for days here before reaching tree cover! The permasol (permafrost) I am told is only 3-4’ below the ground surface. Also the silence is impressive as there is no airplane noise pollution here; and no light pollution by nearby towns at night. On a cloudless night the stars are just out of this world and with a bit of luck you can even see some aurora borealis, the northern lights.
But the beauty of it all is that this wilderness is accessible by car! About a 15 hrs car drive from Montréal, 4 hrs from Baie-Comeau. The gravel road north of Manic-5 is however rough by moments and seldomly travelled. I managed to pierce one of my rear tires there. Truck drivers heading for Labrador don’t stop; so was I glad that I had brought along a spare tire mounted on a rim!
We were a group of 6 and had planned to do a classic north-south traverse of the western section of the plateau, representing approx. 10% of the total surface of the plateau. This gave about a 60 km hike over 7 days. Less than 10 people do a west-east traverse per year, a much more demanding 2 week trip, best done on skies. This may seem like short easy hiking but bear in mind that you are hiking in soft wet moss all day with heavy backpacks, like walking on a soft mattress.
Our group leader, Pierre Normandeau, has been to the Uapishka over 15 times in all seasons. His knowledge of the terrain, flora & fauna was extremely valuable and his stories breathtaking, like the time the wolves visited his tent at night on a -50° C winter night while he was trekking solo! HOUUUU…His first trip up here dates back to 1986, when the gravel road from Manic-5 to Labrador City was first opened. You could then approach caribou to within 50’ by crawling. Now the herds have moved more to the east, where hardly no one travels. Also it was interesting to hear his comment that the shrub is getting higher year by year, ankle high 20 yrs ago and now knee high if not waist high in spots; another tangible proof of warming temps.
Security was not neglected. Pierre had brought along a satellite beacon to call in helicopter rescue for extreme emergency. We also had a well furnished first aid kit plus 1 doctor, myself, & 2 nurses on the team. Our group leader was also qualified for field first aid measures. As for navigation, both Pierre & I were quite comfortable with map & compass, and we both had GPS as added security should visibility prove to be deficient as it turned out to be on day 6. BTW here is a valuable trick I learned should you get lost in toundra and want to be easily spotted from the air: bring along lots of orange-coloured garbage plastic bags, split them open to make large banners and fix them to the ground by rocks in triangle shape (the universal distress symbol).
Day 1 : Sun. 19 Aug.
Left a car at 335 km marker from Baie-Comeau along 389 gravel rd, our southern exit point. We had arrived there the night before at 23h15 after a 15 hrs car drive from Montréal and camped out in the woods under the rain. We then travelled north to 365 km marker to reach northern trail to climb up plateau. The N & S trails are the only easy exit points from the plateau as bushwhacking could prove very difficult & slow going due to thickness of spruce trees here. The 1800’ ascension to the plateau went smoothly with minimal blow-down on trail and nice waterfalls in first few km. Pierre was carrying a 55 lbs pack and I a 47 lbs one. As for the 4 girls their packs averaged about 35 lbs each except for my wife who carried only 25 lbs. Above 2800’ the trees tinned out and by 2900’ we were above tree-line. We reached the plateau at 3000’ by 14h00 and rested for lunch under a light but persistent rain. I tasted for the first time a delicious arctic fruit called Chicoutai (meaning fire in Montagnais). It resembles a big raspberry and tastes mid sugar-acid, like a lemon-tangerine mix. When ripe it is orange – too bitter when red. Very nutritious for bears. In French we call it Plaquebière from old French, plat de bièvre, meaning beaver food; and in English you call it cloudberry or baked-apple berry.
After lunch we headed S.E. towards mont Jauffret, at 3494’, reached near 16h00. The landscape was out of this world – toundra up to the horizon with bare peaks as far as you could see in the fading light and fog. WOW! Along the way we encountered grizzle. Gisèle, my wife, by now was quite tired and her pace had slowed down considerably compared to the rest of the group requiring frequent stops. But then the combination of rain & 25 mph winds mixed with grizzle made the risk of hypothermia imminent. By 17h00 all 4 girls were too tired to continue. We had only covered 7 km that day. At that pace we would never succeed to do a full traverse in the time allotted. Due to the rain we all ate in our tents and retired early wet, cold and moral somewhat low.
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Your report and pictures are excellant.
