Canadas high points

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NW

 
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Canadas high points

by NW » Mon Aug 23, 2010 7:45 pm

I always hear about people doing the high points of the U.S. but don't often hear mention of people doing the Canadian ones. At least not as much. Have many people here done them or are doing them currently? I know that many are a bit tricky to get to, attaining transportation to the mountain or near it I mean. I'm researching a trip to the high point of Newfoundland and Labrador (and subsequently Quebec since it's the same mountain). It's called Mount Caubvick in Newfoundland and Mont D'Iberville in Quebec. I'm not trying to do the high points but am interested in this mountain because of it's location, scenery, experience level required, etc. I've had a hard time finding possible ways to get near it though. So far the only guy to respond to my inquiry said he could fly out of Goose-Bay direct to the landing strip but cost would be $12000. But he also said that because of the 2 people that went up and died in 2004 (reports say because they headed up in bad weather then there was an accident leaving one injured and the other fell when she tried to descend the mountain herself). He said he refused them too. I have also found a way to get to Nain from Goose-Bay but that still puts me 300km away from the mountain! I've found one mention of a man who will take you up to the coastal area near the mountain once you get to Nain by boat for $800 per person. But that was over 10 years ago. There are tours that go up to the area but not to the mountain itself and so far none have answered questions about hitching a ride to or from the mountain with them. I have read the book "Not Won In A Day" by Jack Bennet. He flew up then came back to civilization via the Koroc River, which isn't much of an option for us since we aren't white water experts at all! I guess I sort off wandered from my main question about Canadian high pointers but it's sort of related since if there are any here then maybe they could drop me a line about how they got up there. I read the article here on the mountain which has some good information. I could really use some specific information on names of places that for sure have transportation available and it would be nice if they were ones who would actually respond to inquiries. I've been in contact with pretty much every airport in the region but very few actually offer transportation up there ( some fly from Kuujjuak Quebec but it's alot of money just to get there from Montreal and that's before you charter a flight to the mountain if they agree) and I all ready mentioned one's response. I have talked to one person in gov't there (I'm working on learning the language of the Inuit people there for fun) and she didn't mention any red tape as far as people not being allowed up there anymore so it must be possible, just alot of effort to make certain arrangements.

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Re: Canadas high points

by James_W » Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:05 pm

For that much money you could visit the west. Any Canada high point list would be quite hard. The list would require Mount Waddington or Fairweather for BC, Logan for Yukon and Robson for AB.

That list would keep the hikers doing the 48 far away.

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by surgent » Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:10 pm

There are two known completers of the Canadian provincial (and territory) Highpoints: Jack Bennett and his son, whose name escapes me at the moment. I met Jack on a hike a couple years ago, a real nice guy with lots of good stories as you might imagine. I think Jack is from Ohio.

There was supposedly a team of Canadian climbers attempting the highpoints, but I do not think they succeeded. I have heard no news, and such a feat would generate a lot of news.

The Quebec/Noof HP is just one of the tricky ones. There's also Mt Logan (Yukon and National HP) and Fairweather (BC) to deal with. The Nunavut HP is way up there on Ellesmere Island but supposedly not too technically difficult, other than getting there.

edit: I got his name wrong (corrected it)

Also:

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Won-Day-Climb ... 0921102704

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by NW » Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:23 am

Yes as soon as I discovered that book last year I bought it. Good information and stories. I'm surprised so few have done the high points of Canada. It seems fairly often people go after the American ones and I mean you would have to fly to Hawaii to finish right? One of the ones that gave Jack Bennett trouble was the one in NWT , Mount Nirvana. I believe he had to try that one twice whereas the others he got first try. I'm amazed that no one else has been successful! I think his sons name is Tom Bennett.

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by NW » Tue Aug 24, 2010 2:00 pm

I figured that since it's the topic, might as well list the high points for Canada:

Yukon- Mount Logan, 5957m (19,545ft)
Image

Northwest Territories- Mount Nirvana, 2773m (9097ft)

Nunavut- Barbeau Peak, 2670m (8769ft)
Image

British Columbia- Mount Fairweather, 4663m (15,300ft)
Image

Alberta- Mount Columbia, 3747m (12,294ft)

Manitoba- Baldy Mountain, 832m (2729ft)
Image

Saskatchewan- Unnamed point in the Cypress Hills, 1392m (4567ft)
Image

Ontario-Ishpatina Ridge, 693m (2275ft)
Image

Quebec- Mont D'Iberville (Mount Caubvick, point which isn't actual summit), 1652m (5420ft)
Newfoundland & Labrador-Mount Caubvick (D'Iberville in Quebec), 1653m (5423ft)
Image

New Brunswick- Mount Carleton, 820m (2690ft)
Image

Nova Scotia- White Hill, 532m (1747ft)
Image

Prince Edward Island- Unnamed point, 149m (457ft) (off this field abit)
Image

**edited to remove 2 pictures**
Last edited by NW on Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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by surgent » Tue Aug 24, 2010 3:25 pm

Great photos!

I am actually surprised the MB and SK ones are actually hilly and even mountainous.

I admit I'm too far south to just pop up there to start visitng these HPs. Plus, just looking at Fairweather gives me the creeps.

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by NW » Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:09 pm

Yea and from what I read the name Fairweather is absolutely not a hint to any weather found on the mountain.

We went to the one in PEI, it's kind of become a bit of a running joke between me and my husband. Anytime we're planning a hiking trip or mountain trip we'll usually say " Well we made it to the summit of the high point of PEI, in winter none the less, surely we can make this trip!" or something along those lines.

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by Bill Kerr » Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:11 pm

Better image of Mount Columbia

Image

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by Teresa Gergen » Tue Aug 24, 2010 5:11 pm

Rich McAdams from Colorado is working on this project.

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by James_W » Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:05 pm

NW - The pic you posted for Mount Columbia is actually Mount Chephren.


Mount Waddington is the highest mountain 100% in BC.

Image

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by Bill Kerr » Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:07 pm

Thanks James - I wondered why I could not recognize the angle on Columbia!

Is this the Waddington pic you were trying to post?

Image

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by James_W » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:42 pm

This is the pic I was posting, really shows off Waddington.

http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/73079162

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by rasgoat » Wed Aug 25, 2010 3:15 am

WoW, Canada is tough!

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by Damien Gildea » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:19 pm

And that's not Mt Nirvana for NWT, that's a regular pic of the Cirque of the Unclimbables. Nirvana is about 15 miles south (left out of the pic).

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by Holsti97 » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:26 pm

For you county highpointers a list compiled by Greg Slayden:

Over the past month I finished a first attempt at listing all 297 Canadian County-Eqivalent High Points:
http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid ... geogsc&u=m

There are also links to lists for each province/territory on this page:

http://www.peakbagger.com/ListIndx.aspx
(left hand side, about 1/4 the way down).

Thanks are especially due to Don Desrosiers (QC), Gabriel Couet (QC), Ken Heaton (NS), Marc Moisan (NS), Derek Standen (ON), Adam Lingenfelter (ON), Dan Kachur (ON), and David Olson (BC, NS, NB) who all helped with this project.

Unfortunately, the county-equivalents are nowhere near as stable and well-known as the US Counties. I think we sometimes take for granted that our hobby gets much of its appeal from the relative permanence of counties in the USA. In many nations, local administrative divisions are redrawn all the time, making it hard to get excited about chimeral high points that may be gone the next time there is a re-org.

Canada is not too bad in this respect. What counts as a "county" varies by province. The Canadian census bureau (Statistics Canada) defines "Census Divisions" (CDs) for the whole nation--they are generally the same as counties where there are counties, and, where counties do not exist, they serve as a reasonable replacement.

The provinces break down like this:

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and P.E.I.: These have well-known, stable counties. I have heard that these counties are kind of like the ones in CT and RI, having no governmental function, but they are still used by locals, and by the census as CDs.

Quebec, Ontario: These 2 provinces have some "counties" plus a mixture of urban counties, districts, territories, etc. These divisions are real governmental jurisdictions. They are mostly equiavalent to CDs. They do change, though, in these provinces--counties are combined or redrawn with some frequency. In Quebec, they have too many counties for the CD code scheme, so CDs combine several counties into bogus CDs--I ignore the CDs in this case and go with the "real" counties.

British Columbia: divided into Regional Districts, which are also CDs and a good county equivalent. There is some churn here, too, with splits and combinations occuring every few years.

Yukon, N.W.T, and Nunavut: Divided into districts, except for the Yukon, which is composed of just one CD that covers the whole territory.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland: No counties or governmental equivalents exist in these counties. So for the high point lists, the Census Divisions (CDs) are used. The CD boundaries generally follow municipality and township lines, except in Newfoundland.

So a big challenge in finding these high points (or checking my work) is to get a current set of boundary lines for these county-equivalents, and overlaying that over the topo maps, which often have outdated boundaries or none at all. Also, the topo maps in Canada are 1:50,000 scale and don't have many spot elevations. For BC and ON, the provincial governments have superior online mapping data, and I used that for those two provinces.

As for the Front Runners List, it appears that Ben Lostracco of Montreal (who has finished the VT and NH CoHPs) is crushing the competition with 52 of the 297. I know that Don D. has a fair number, and I'm in the mix with 15 total.

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