Ascent of Mont Jacques-Cartier on 2010-06-25

Climber: Gabriel Couët

Others in Party:	Luiza Manceau
Date:	Friday, June 25, 2010
Ascent Type:	Successful Summit Attained
Motorized Transport to Trailhead:	Bus
Peak:	Mont Jacques-Cartier
Location:	Canada-Québec
Elevation:	1267 m / 4160 ft
Ascent Trip Report Luiza and I decided a while ago on some dates for hikes in the summer. We didn't plan any locations ahead of time though and when one of her colleagues said she was going to Gaspésie exactly the weekend we were leaving, we decided to carpool with her. We left Québec on Thursday and arrived at Gîte du Mont-Albert's camping around 3:30pm. After setting up our accomodation plans with Sépaq, we went to our camping spot and setup there. We dozed off for a while and then prepared our meal. Shortly after, we were sleeping soundly. Our newly made friend wasn't going to follow us in our crossing of the McGerrigle plateau so next morning, we said goodbye until the next day when we'd meet her again right here at the camping. After walking to the interpretation center and leaving some of our extra gear in consignment, we had to wait until 9:00am for the bus shuttle to leave for the trailhead. It was packed with tourists, so we hoped we would just leave them behind and ascend quietly. After the 40km ride, we stopped 15 minutes at camping du mont Jacques-Cartier where more people hopped on the shuttle. The bus was almost full. We climbed 4km in the bus all the way to the trailhead, at an altitude of 850m. From there, we quickly disembarked (we had chosen some seats in front) and put our packs on. We started walking almost immediately, trying to gain some ground. Some groups were quite fast and the first few kilometers uphill were a bunnyhop of people waiting for their partners being passed by others and so on. Just before we hit treeline, we saw some caribous over the horizon to our left. Shortly after, we rejoined the park naturalist who was monitoring them and since they were directly in the trail, we had to all clump together and wait. Now there was close to 20 people all packed together, being slowed down by the caribou herd refusing to vacate the trail. It lasted for about 25 minutes until we were able to resume going uphill. Of course, we were already close to the summit and it took around 20 minutes more to reach it. There, we sat on a bench, sheltered from the very strong wind, to eat our lunch. It was now noon. We went inside the shelter for a few minutes, then left the crowd to continue on our way. The next leg would bring us on the slopes of mont Comte and down into a lower spot on the plateau where our camping spot was. Mont de la Passe as seen from its col leading to mont Jacques-Cartier. From atop mont Jacques-Cartier, we can see mont Comte still covered in snow, mont Richardson to the far left, and mont Xalibu as the shelf to mont Comte's right.

Summary Total Data
Elevation Gain:	466 m / 1535 ft
Elevation Loss:	281 m / 928 ft
Distance:	9.3 km / 5.8 mi
Grade/Class:	Class 2
Quality:	6 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)
Route Conditions:	Maintained Trail, Open Country
Weather:	Cool, Windy, Partly Cloudy Generally sunny with some clouds
Ascent Statistics
Elevation Gain:	417 m / 1371 ft
Distance:	4.2 km / 2.6 mi
Route:	Standard west/east trail
Trailhead:	Abri-bus at J-C Camping  850 m / 2789 ft
Time Up:	1 Hours 30 Minutes
Descent Statistics
Elevation Loss:	281 m / 928 ft
Extra Gain:	49 m / 164 ft
Distance:	5.1 km / 3.2 mi
Route:	Standard west/east trail
Trailhead:	Col before 'La Camarine'  1035 m / 3396 ft
Time Down:	2 Hours 40 Minutes
Ascent Part of Trip: Gaspésie (June 2010) (3 nights total away from roads) Complete Trip Sequence: Order Peak/Point Date 1 Mont Jacques-Cartier 2010-06-25 a 2 Mont de la Table 2010-06-25 b 3 Mont de la Table-Sommet Nord 2010-06-25 c 4 Mont de la Table 2010-06-25 d 5 Mont Xalibu 2010-06-26 a 6 Mont Richardson 2010-06-26 b 7 Mount Olivine 2010-06-27

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