Climb of Mont Provencher, Groulx / Uapishka Mountains - part of 'Overland to the Rock - A Road Trip to Newfoundland via the recently completed Trans Labrador Highway' - June 2011

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The next morning dawned... not rainy. It wasn't clear, but it wasn't raining. We had a higher overcast, probably around 6,000 feet or so, and we had a ground layer that topped out at about 2,500 feet. In between those two elevations, it was relatively clear.

Viewing mountain scenery when there are 'clouds below' is usually a recipe for some nice scenery. So, I got up before Jenn did and spent a good hour watching the morning clouds slowly dissipate. To the south and west, where the Uapishka Plateau ended, the lower cloud deck filled in valleys and low-lying areas like the shoreline of a white, fluffy pond.


Morning Mists	Morning Mists	Islands in the sky

In the other direction - to the northeast - was the summit of nearby Mont Provencher. As sunrise approached, I did see a bit of pink glow, and managed to capture a few pictures of the sunrise reflecting off of the upper cloud deck.


Uapishka Sunrise	Pond and morning glow	Reservoir hidden


Mont Provencher	Valley Mists	Ridges in the distance

We had been fearful the day before that the drizzle and rain would persist for our entire backpack. So far, though, the morning was dry and the skies did show an occasional break. The lower cloud deck prevented us from having any view of the Manicouagan Reservoir, but that was an acceptable trade-off. We decided that we should quickly get on with our climb of nearby Mont Provencher while the weather was in a decent state.


	Pond of Water, Sea of Clouds	Visibility improves

It was a about a 1.7km hike from our tent to the summit of Provencher (2 km from treeline). The tread of the trail is visible faintly here and there, and there are sometimes cairns. The route of the trail followed a ridge system to the northeast, occasionally descending into and back out of small hollows and ravines along the ridge.


Sunrise at camp	Wet tundra	Hiking to Provencher

		courtesy JInnes
Finger of Snow	Finally, some sun	A bit of steep snow

As it nears Mont Provencher, the trail turned from north-east to directly east, and crossed (as of late June) a few small snowfields. It then started to climb a final fairly steep slope up to the summit. There was a larger snowfield when we were there in late June, and it would almost have been preferable to have an ice axe (but could relatively be easily be done with care without one).

		courtesy JInnes
Nearing the top	Mt Provencher Summit	Andrew, Mt Provencher

By 7 a.m. we were standing on the alpine-tundra covered summit of Mt Provencher. The sun was shining through some half-formed cloud that was clinging to the summit, making it bright but obscuring most of our views of the wider landscape. I had hoped to get a decent overview of the terrain of the Uapishka Plateau from here, but it looked like it wasn't going to happen at that moment. We didn't have time to wait around for the cloud to dissipate, so we headed back down after about 15 minutes.


Alpine Flowers, Mt Provencher	Alpine Flowers, Mt Provencher	Descending Mt Provencher

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