For the ladies, the field was also big (about 40 competitors!), including none other than Thomasina Pidgeon from out west and a whole group of super strong women! Every year the women’s field gets stronger and more impressive! Iyma Lamarche continues to impress on the Tour scene, taking her first win (yep, she beat Thomasina by 7 attempts). Way to go Iyma! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any decent pictures of the women’s finals .

Congrats to Voltan and Iyma for their amazing performance at the Climber’s Rock competition! Here are a few photos of the men’s finals!

Fred on problem #2 and #3.

Matt on problem #2.

Eric on problme #4.

Here are the official final results:

A few more pics:

For the others interested in climbing pictures, stay tuned, there is a climbing comp coming up in January and, in February, we are going on a three month road trip to the Southwest. I can’t wait! Until then… indoor studio shots. Enjoy!

More splashes from today:

This competition also proved to be interesting because there were so many new faces to the finals! My two favourite competitors to watch on Saturday were Kacy Wilson and Fred Charron. They both put up super impressive performances, gave it their all, and showed that they are real contenders for the number one spot. Also, I particularly enjoyed women’s and men’s 3rd problem, because of their very intricate beta reminiscing of the European-style problems we are used to seeing on the World Cup series (Thank you Tonde!). It’s unfortunate that no one could manage to finish men’s third problem, but great fun nonetheless!

Here are the final results:

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

As I promised many of you, here is a sneak peek of the finals problem:

As I said, this is only a small token of my appreciation. If I learned anything throughout this whole ordeal is that we need to be more generous and open to the people around us. After all, that’s all we really have: friends. When we are gone, they are the ones keeping the memory of ourselves alive. We absolutely need to give back while we can. You can be sure of one thing: I will give back. You are all amazing!

I debated whether I should include names in this post, but I decided to try to include people who helped throughout the official searches, the events following the searches, and the volunteer searches! I am sure I will forget some of you, but know that we are forever grateful!

as well as the many, many, many of you who donated to the cause. We couldn’t have done anything without your generous donations. If I forgot a name, please post a comment and share them with us so we never forget those who have helped our cause. Thank you! 

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

Our fourth, and last, expedition took us to the North side of Saxifrage, much closer to the peak, but not quite at the peak. Seeing as this was our last day hike on the mountain, we really wanted to have a chance to take a look at the other side of Saxifrage, the side where we can see the White Lakes. That view gave us another idea of the mountain ranges behind there and gave us a new viewpoint of the uncovered areas in the mountain range. We took a long route (sorry no map), contouring the peak on the west side, through the forest, and then going up a huge bowl behind the peak. In the picture below, you can see the bowl where we walked up, towards the col on the left. The right side is the ridge we walked on our way out towards lake Valentine and camp.

On our way to the bowl, we had the chance to see a few very cool mountain ranges on the horizon, through the trees. Walking through the woods is not always fun, but the views that you get every now and then are magnificent (see below). I loved walking around there , except for the abundance of mosquitoes!

The peaks through the large overgrown forest were superb!

Flowers in an elevated field with the mountains.

The first thing we all noticed when coming in the bowl behind saxifrage was the amount of bird activity above the forest and near the Saxifrage peak. The birds were all turning around a snow cornice (see pictures below). We noted the approximate coordinates for some of the search teams to go check it out on the next day. They ended up checking on the bird activity and didn’t find anything of interest up there (sigh). In any case, we kept walking up towards the col, and this time around we split up so that we could cover a little bit more terrain, seeing as this space was never fully searched in the past searches. My dad walked up closer at the bottom of the cliffs, I went more in the forest, and our guide stayed between us (keeping an eye on us at all time!).

Birds circling around at the top of the mountain (nothing was found there though).

The snow cornice on top of the mountain.

Once we reached the top of the col, we could see very well behind the Saxifrage peak and beyond. It was super cool to see the White lakes, and once again, we took a moment to appreciate the type of hiking Jon and Rachael enjoyed. The scenery was beautiful, calm, and peaceful. I found those moments to be very helpful and wish I could go there more often, to sit and think a little bit. We had the chance of having a satellite phone with us, so we made a call to my wife, pregnant at the time, to tell her where we were and that we were safe. making a call from the top (almost) of the mountain was pretty surreal. Here are a few shots of the things we got to enjoy while up there.

The cliffs on the way to Saxifrage Peak. It look super dangerous, but in fact it’s probably quite safe as the path as quite large on top.

Dad looking at Saxifrage Peak in wonder.

One of the few wildlife signs we got to see from up there.

This fourth and last hike was our longest walk, but also the most rewarding in my opinion. It gave us an opportunity to walk on the mountain, alone, see a new side of Saxifrage, and also spend a lot of energy. Having said that, we were sure glad that our guide found a shortcut for us to get back to camp as fast as possible (thanks Eric!). We got in time to camp to enjoy one last evening of dining, mosquito-free, around the fire, and enjoy the stars above our heads. Again, at night I got to shoot a few more pictures of the camp, Cassioppe Peak (during the blue hour — see gallery below), the stars, the fire, the sunset, etc. Basically, i tried to capture the best the campsite could offer, before we left. I would love to go back and take more shots, as it is a truly unbelievable place to be. I hope the pictures I took helped motivate people to hike up to the Peaks next summer as it is truly worth it. I know I want to be back next summer!

Cassioppe Peak at the blue hour.

Stars above Blaire’s tent!

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

Before I continue with the story and pictures of our third expedition, I recommend you read a few of the related articles I’ve posted over the past few weeks, if you haven’t already:

• Pique Magazine’s article on Jon and Rachael
• Tim’s press release before the searches
• Day 1: Bushwhacking near Peq Creek
• Day 2: Cassioppe’s Ridge

View of the clouds in the lake Valentine area from helicopter.

So, our third expedition took us to an even better place than the first two. As the map above and the image below show, we walked all the way up to the col between the two peaks. It’s easy to see the area from the Lake Valentine pictures, which show the two peaks. It doesn’t look very far in the photos, but as we learned during this trip, mountain walks are always longer than they look. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to the col, but it gave us the opportunity to see the huge cliffs that are hiding behind Cassioppe Peak. We also saw the whole valley behind the col, which is one of the possible exits off this mountain ( though a somewhat hard one due to some swampy areas). We also saw (partially) the glaciers behind Saxifrage, which is another potential route people take on this mountain (en route to Cirque Pique).

We chose to go to the col to get an idea of the alpine terrain and also to explore an area we hadn’t had a chance to see already. We did the contour of Lake Valentine on the north side and found a nice campsite at the edge of the lake (see pictures below). This area seemed like an obvious place to camp for a couple, which made us wonder if Jon and Rachael could have camped there. In fact, we found a few items there that will be sent to a DNA lab to find out if they belonged to them. We also found a fire pit and some nail clippers. We’ll hopefully have news regarding these items this winter.

View from the campground on the North side of the lake valentine.

After looking around the north side of the lake, we crossed a stream and basically walked up all the way to the col. There were many snow patches, which we had to cross with care because one slip could take you all the way down to the rocks below. (You may notice that the snow has a funny reddish color; this is because of some fungus).

After taking a few stops for photo opportunities (flowers!) and to listen to a few rock avalanches (sorry no pictures!), we finally reached the col between the two peaks. It gave us a really good understanding of why people love to hike and what Jon and Rachael loved so much to do. Even though the clouds were taking over the peaks, we could still get a very good idea of their majesty (and it added a bit of mystery).

Cassioppe’s hidden cliffs behind

Panorama from the top of the col, Cassioppe, Lake Valentine, and Saxifrage to the right (in clouds).

Startrail over Cassioppe’s col

I had time to shoot another star photo while sitting by the fire that night. The nights were cold but mosquito-free (the bugs were *heinous* during the day) and they gave opportunities to shoot some pretty awesome star pictures. Please take time to check the photo gallery below, as it will show the high quality pictures in a large format.

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).

The trekking on that day was pretty easy compared to our previous walk where we went bush-whacking near Peq creek. We started with a short walk to the north side of the ridge, where the terrain got steep pretty quickly. However, we were on top of the ridge in about 30 minutes. The vista on top of the ridge were unreal; we could clearly see the meadows down below, leading to Lake Valentine, and could also see the two smaller lakes. (See the next few pictures).

The meadows coming to Lake Valentine.

Cassioppe Ridge (and peak) with both lakes (Valentine on the left).

We reached the other side of Cassioppe Ridge (south side) in no time and found another beautiful meadow with two smaller lakes. Compared to Lake Valentine, it is a much more arid environment (because it’s closer to the alpine), but it is also a very beautiful place to camp. We found a bunch of old things near the lake, like the old oil barrels, but nothing that seemed important for our searches. It took us about 6 hours to do the whole tour and we got back to camp just in time to prepare dinner. At the end of the day, I indulged in an hour or two of night photography. The stars were unbelievable up there.

The MSAT communication tent under the stars (with Cassioppe Peak).

In a few days, I will share some pictures from our third day walking, which was up the ridge between Cassioppe and Saxifrage. An incredible view awaited us up there. Stay tuned.

* click an image for larger size, if you are reading from Facebook, you should visit my site directly to get higher quality pictures. (cliqué sur une image pour la voir en grand format – si vous lisez directement de Facebook, vous devriez visiter mon site directement pour voir les photos en meilleur qualité).