Mount Caubvick/Mont d'Iberville
(Elevation 5420', Latitude/Longitude 58.8874° -63.710458°, Map 14L13, UTM 590275)

Topographic Map of Caubvick/d'Iberville: Click for map.

Caubvick/d'Iberville from the south-east showing the Minaret, Koroc and North Ridges Photo: Hazen Russell, Iapetus Ocean Expeditions (1982)

The border between Quebec and Labrador is defined as the watershed divide between rivers flowing east to the Atlantic and those flowing west into Ungava Bay. (For an historical account of this much disputed border Click here.) This peak, the highest point on this divide, was unnamed until 1971. The name "Mont d'Iberville" was given to this never-climbed mountain by the Quebec Toponym Commision in that year to honor Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, a 17th century French-Canadian naval hero (but no hero to the English) and was then thought to be the second highest in the region (after the 5232' peak to the north which was subsequently named Torngasoak). In 1977 the mountain was remeasured from the original photogrammetric images and found to be the highest mountain in the region (a distinction which first belonged to Cirque Mountain and then Torngasoak Mountain, both entirely within Labrador). In 1978 Chipeniuk et al. (see below under routes) discovered that there was a higher point some 10 meters north of the watershed divide and thus entirely within Labrador. They dubbed this higher peak "L1" for Labrador #1. (Several of the climbing reports from the late 1970s use "L1" as the name of this peak.) So with the highest point in the region now back in Labrador, the Newfoundland Geographic Names Board gave it the name "Mount Caubvick" in 1981 in honor of one of the Inuit who accompanied George Cartwright to England in 1772.

So although most gazatteers refer to this as a single mountain with two alternate names, I have used the convention which is customary among climbers that d'Iberville (5419') is the high point on the divide (and the highest point in the province of Quebec) and Caubvick (5420') is the slightly higher peak entirely within Labrador (and the highest peak in the province of Newfoundland & Labrador). When I refer to the mountain as a whole, I will use the name "Caubvick/d'Iberville". When I refer to a specific peak, I will use the individual name.

Routes:

Route: The Minaret Ridge: (from the east) The Minaret Ridge, forming an S-curve to the summit viewed from the upper "football field" Photo: Chris Rush (2004) Christopher Goetze and Michael Adler, 1973, first ascent. A party of six (Christopher Goetze, Stephen Loutrel, Michael Adler, Elizabeth Loutrel, Bruce Jordan and Warren Hofstra) in 3 Klepper Kayaks paddled from Nain up the Labrador coast to the Saglek Fiord (about 250 miles). From there they trekked about 40 miles overland to the Koroc River valley. Originally they hoped to run the Koroc downstream to Ungava Bay, but finding little runnable water, they opted instead to climb some of the 5000' peaks in the region including d'Iberville. The team split up with Goetz, Adler and Jordan proceeding northeast over the devide to the headwaters of the McCormick where they set up a base camp and from which they would attempt the climb of d'Iberville from the east. (Meanwhile, the two Loutrels and Hofstra procceded west and north to approach d'Iberville from the west.) Prior to their attempt, the party climbed the 3900+ peak (now know as "Adler Lookout") directly east of the massif, to scout out routes and determined that there was but one ridge that reached the summit from this side of the mountain. From their base camp the party ascended the long east ridge which extends from the headwall of the Minaret Glacier eastward to the McCormick valley, a distance of about 3 miles. The headwall was traversed (about another mile) to the point where the ridgeline of the Minaret Spur comes in from the north-east, an uncharacteristically flat area now colloquially called the upper "football field". There they reached the technical part of the Minaret Ridge. Traversing this part of the Minaret Ridge to the summit was extremely trying given the weather and physical condition the climbers were in. The Minaret Ridge, From the summit Photo: Andrew Lavigne (2004) To quote Christopher Goetze: "The ridge along which we were proceeding, though leading fairly directly to the summit, was being undermined by two large glacial cirques, one on each side. The ridge became gently overhanging on the right and then narroweed to a sharp exposed ridge, given to gendarmes and minarets. We soon reached a point where we had to break out what rope we had and leave Bruce behind, since his experience did not cover this kind of climbing. We wound around pinnacle after pinnacle, glancing past our feet now into one cirque, now into the other, and belaying with our rear ends cold and wet from sitting on fresh snow which had fallen in the last two days. As we did not reach the summit for another three hours, there was ample opportunity to reflect on the exposed position we had come to. ..." "The Limmer boots that had carried me so far were beginning to delaminate in the soles. Our rope was a 100-foot piece of quarter-inch nylon braid knotted together from two 50-foot kayak painters. Of pitons, carabiners and the usual jangling paraphernalia we had none. But this to me was real mountaineering -- no EMS catalogful of shining equipment, no test-tube conditions of the Gunks climbs, no weather reports, no radio contact with a base camp, no flight checks -- just us doing our best to get up a peak probably nobody had ever thought of climbing before ... We were on our own resources and we knew it. And that's what this business is all about." "It was 5:00 P.M. when we got to the summit and the air was getting colder. We had nothing to eat and dinner was a long way off. Would bears have cleaned out our campsite while we were gone? ... Perhaps our boats were being destroyed this very minute by some arctic rodents. ... for the moment we put (these thoughts) out of our minds and leaned contentedly against the small cairn we had hastily built. To the east Bruce was a small red speck beyond the minarets. To the northeast we could see the ocean, covered with pack ice to the horizon. North of us were the calm shadowed waters of a large fiord 5,500 feet below us. To the west mountains became gentler, petering out to the ocean again beyond the horizon, while to the south we could follow the route we had walked through the interior rolling lowlands. It was a vast and beautiful land." (Goetze, Christopher, "Sketches of an Arctic Trip", Appalachia, June 1974)

Ray Chipeniuk, Ron Parker and Erik Sheer, 8/14/1978, second ascent, first Canadian ascent. Leaving their base camp at 5:00 AM, the team hiked nearly due south following the stream that leads between Adler Lookout on the east and Mount Erhart ("Margaret Toth") on the west, passing Stone Ring Falls before crossing Gneiss Brook (entering from the west). They followed d'Iberville Brook for about 2.5 miles (4 km) between the two mountains until they reached the foot of the Minaret Glacier. They decided to climb the Minaret Spur on the north (right hand side of the Minaret Glacier) rather than attempt a climb from Ice Blue Tarn. They followed the lateral moraine on the right hand side of the glacier and thence scrambled up onto the Minaret Spur. Once on the Spur they made rapid progress for about .6 miles (1 km) where they gained views of the Minaret Ridge and the peak beyond in the clouds. Between the spur and the Minaret Ridge was section of 30' or 40' of exposed cracks and ridge scrambling (YDS 5.0) beginning with a steep step. Then they gained the headwall of the glacier and soon arrived at another step and the beginning of the ridge itself. A cairn was found here, presumably built by the 1973 party. Climbing the final pitch of the Minaret Ridge to the Caubvick/d'Iberville peak Photo: Hazen Russell, Iapetus Ocean Expeditions (1982) The Minaret Ridge or arête had an appearance worse than the reality. It has a ragged crest and a number of gendarmes which overhang on the right hand (north) side. It was much easier going by tending to the left hand (south) side of these obstacles where the terrain consisted of ledges and broken rocks. The ridge was done unroped and (disregarding exposure) had a difficulty of not more than YDS 5.2. After about two hours on the ridge, the team passed a false summit and climbed the last steep pitch to the summit together, 7 1/2 hours after leaving camp. Quoting Ray Chipeniuk: "A glorious panorama spread out on every side. Eastward were sharp coastal peaks and icebergs on the blue Labrador Current ... Southward the vast trench of Koroc River ... Westward the Tallek Arm and rivers beyond ... Northward the dark blue of Nachvak Fiord on the other side of which marched one tangle of mountains after another ..." "There was something else ... The (summit) was the intersection of three ridges. Along two of those ridges, the Minaret and the Koroc, ran the Quebec-Newfoundland border. Some ten meters out along the third or "North" ridge, and by just so much in Newfoundland-Labrador territory, was the summit of the mountain, the highest point in Canada east of the Rockies and south of Baffin Island. ... someone proposed that, until such time the province of Newfoundland confers an official name, it should be called "L1" -- "L" for Labrador, "1" for highest." (This was peak was subsequently named "Mount Caubvick" in 1981) (1978 Torngat Mountain Expedition, A Report to the Newfoundland Dept. of Tourism, Ray Chipeniuk, 1979.)

Route: The West Face of L1 (Caubvick): (from the West Glacier) The West Face (right) and North Ridge of Caubvick/d'Iberville Photo: Geological Survey of Canada (1982) Brian Baxter, Marc Blais and Paul Laperriere, 8/17/1979, first ascent via this route. The team left their camp on the west glacier and began to climb towards the west face of "L1". Crossing a large bergschrund at the edge of the glacier proved problematical but the team was at the base of the rocks by 8 AM. The difficulties were concentrated in the first three pitches giving climbing up to YDS 5.6 or 5.7. The iced rock and cold made thes first pitches quite exacting. Above was easy climbing (5.0 to 5.3) over unstable rock, leading onto the North Ridge near the summit. The rock face was about 1000' in all. They descended via the Minaret Ridge at the end of which they met a film crew and returned to base camp via a helicopter. (Baxter, Brian, "Torngat Mountain Expedition 1979", CAJ, Vol. 63, 1980)

Route: The Newfoundland (North) Ridge: (from the east) Climbing onto the North Ridge at the col from the L1 Glacier Photo: Hazen Russell, Iapetus Ocean Expeditions (1982) Hazen Russell and Tim Kelliher, 7/29/1982, first ascent via this route. From their base camp just east of the Minaret Spur, Russell and Kelliher circled Iceblue Tarn and crossed the L1 glacier and gained the North Ridge at it's low point. Climbing onto the ridge with it's very steep scree slope was probably the hardest part of the climb. They then climbed the ridge itself, keeping to the west side which they found to be the easier route. From their base camp the team took 10 hours to the summit. The account doesn't specify, but it is assumed they returned via the Minaret Ridge. Hazen Russell writes: "I would not say that there was anything particularly hard on the north ridge. The one pitch we had was probably nothing more than a 5.7. Following the route we did, and for much of the way we were not on the top as the west side has a series of steps that you can make your way along. I would say that it is probably not a techncial challenge. The biggest issue is lose rock. It would make for a very satisfying traverse (from Peak 5100, "North Caubvick") as the changing vistas would be great." (Hazen Russell, private communication, 2004) Roger Rogerson (who missed out on the climb since he had to work on the glacier research they were doing) writes: "Anyway the boys got right keen on this climbing thing and Hazen and Tim downs their tools just two days later (after summiting via the Minaret Ridge) to up and climb Mt Caubvick by another ridge; the one we shares with no one. We hears she's called the North Ridge but to us she is the Newfoundland Ridge and always will be. She's a longish climb on loose rocks with the crux a single pitch at the bottom, just above the col. She'd be a real exciting climb if you stayed right on the crest but would take more time." (RJ Rogerson, "First Newfoundland Ascent of Caubvick, CAJ, Vol. 66, 1983)

Route: The Koroc Ridge: (from the south or west) The Koroc Ridge from the south showing Caubvick/d'Iberville Photo: Chris Rush (2004) Jack Bennett, Tom Bennett, Hope Bennett, and Tony Daffern, 8/14/1997, probable first ascent via this route. The party left their base camp at 6:10 AM And climbed a steep snow-filled couloir above their camp. Above the couloir the climbed over rocky slabs to the ridge crest. Upon gaining the ridge they could see the upper part of the ridge and the peak itself in the distance. They hiked along this ridge towards the north at a good pace for about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) where the met the east west ridge which formed the provincial boundary. A little farther on they found two cairns left by some earlier party (these may have been left by Stephen Loutrel's party in their 1973 attempt of this ridge). Past the cairns the ridge became narrow and exposed. Jack Bennett has said this portion of the ridge is "MUCH more exposed than the (knife edge on Borah or Katahdin) ... the Koroc Ridge is only inches wide and terrifically exposed. It takes a lot of macho to walk upright on that edge The Koroc Step Photo: Andrew Lavigne (2004) with even a little wind blowing. Most people would be on their hands & knees!" Finally the party came to a notch of softer orange-red rock (the so-called "Koroc Step") with a drop of about 30', requiring an anchor and a rappel down into the notch (YDS 5.6). Past the notch were two pinnacles which were passed on the right and left and then the final steep pitch to the summit. The rope was left in place at the notch for a top belay on the return. The time from leaving base camp to the summit was just over 5 hours. "Clouds were blowing on and off the summit at times revealing spectacular scenery ... A breathtaking drop on the north side fell away to Ice-Blue Tarn, still frozen in mid-August." (Jack Bennett, Not Won in a Day, 1999.) Before Bennett et al. summited via the Koroc Ridge in 1997, there were two earlier known attemps to climb this ridge. In 1973, Stephen Loutrel, Elizabeth Loutrel and Brian Moore hiked from Saglek Fiord (with Christopher Goetz, Michael Adler and Bruce Jordan) to the headwaters of the Koroc River and then approached Caubvick/d'Iberville from the south while the others approached and ultimately Goetz and Adler summited from the east. Loutrel et al. gained the Koroc Ridge and got as far as the knife edge section where they stopped. They found the route too dangerous with rotten rock and technical climbing, and without any climbing equipment, they left a cairn with a note and turned back. On 8/4/1979, the Dartmouth College group gained the Koroc Ridge from the north-east (from the Palmer River) and upon reaching the knife edge, found Loutrel et al.'s cairn and note. They also decided it was too dangerous to proceed. In John Stix's words: "a note insde (Loutrel's) cairn said the party had stopped here in 1973 rather than go on due to lack of climbing gear ... Well, we weren't much defferent, only we suffered from the willies and lack of climbing experience."