Gaspesie Ice

[peter]

My fall pornography this year is the Lapierre/Gagnon, "Guide des cascades de glace et voie mixtes du Quebec" (2004). It is a good way to improve my grip strength, if nothing else.

Has anyone in NB climbed any of the longer, semi-alpine routes in the Gaspe, like on monts Albert or Nicole-Albert, or further north on the NW face of Mont Saint-Pierre?

Thoughts? Beta? Comments? I am thinking February ...

[Stef]

Chuck and Joe went up there. I heard stories about long runouts on crumbly shale, "seat belays" and other semi-alpine fun. Dave I went up a few years ago and played on the little stuff around St. Anne des Monts. Fantastic ice...

I am glad I am not the only one getting sweaty-plams thinking about the upcoming ice season

Cheers,

Stef

[Fred]

I don't care how you write out the equation, runout and seat belays does not equal fun....

[mathieu]

I've been to Gaspesie twice to ice climb and we only succeded once due to a zero visibility blizard.

The route on Mt Albert seems to be a long approach to climb a snow slope. Did not see much ice in there but we were there to ski not climb. I think its more of an early season low snow cover type of climb

The longer 'easy' routes on the coast are the ones that involve thin ice on crumbly rock. The ice in Gaspe is renowened for its Pillar, daggers and huge mushrooms. In other words multipitch steep ice. When we went we manage to find one route that sneaked up on the side of one of those overhanging mushrooms.

But don't take my word for it. Drive up there and scope it all from your car. That's the beauty of this place, lots of ice and minutes from the car. The questionable ones are the ones inside the Parc De la Gaspesie (ie mt albert, chic chocs area). The stuff on the north coast is gold I say, gold!

[peter]

Thanks for the beta. The comments all match what I have read, so I guess I had better just go and see ... Peter

[Joe]

We did one line on the North Face of Mt. Saint Pierre. It was very alpine-like, a long narrow runnel up WI 4 ice with snow fields between, followed by crap rock. We simu-climbed it, but it's around 6-8 pitches. We picked the most obvoius line, but there are 3 or 4 others I'd like to do this winter.
The pure ice lines in the area are stunning. We did Corneille and Blue Stratos, clearly visible from Mt. St. Pierre. Tons of others nearby too. We stayed at a little motel in St. Pierre which was very convenient. The Gaspe ice is highly under-rated. It is world class, and very deserving of a road trip. You'll enjoy it. Joe.