I just got back from a exploratory ski/snowboard trip to Labrador, Canada. Drew Pogge from Backcountry Magazine, who wrote the article on last years ski mt. course, invited me to join him to explore the Labrador coast!
Labrador is in North East Canada (up by Baffin Island) and the Northern region is completely unpopulated. Most of the providence is a windswept landscape that is flat and barren, with part of it being above the arctic treeline. This is a beautiful untouched wild area of North America, mostly with no skiing terrain. However, the geography on the Northern coast is very rugged and mountainous, and thats where we were headed. Fjords from the Atlantic cut deep fingers into glaciated mountains, giving them a dramatic steep appearance, which is obviously why we went! This range is called the Torngat Mountains and is a newly established National Park and Preserve with no roads or park headquarters in the mountains and for hundreds of miles!
We got to spend time at an Inuit rendezvous, ski from 5,000ft mountains to sea level, climb and ski/snowboard couloirs with blue ice bulges down to the frozen ocean, ski beautiful aesthetic ridges above fjords and polar bears, and make turns off the shoulder of the highest peak in the range. The article will be out next winter….keep an eye out. Special thanks to Drew, Dugald from Cruise North, Angus and Gary from the Parks, the native Inuit (who’s camp we stayed at), Silla from Kuujjuak, Christof the Vermonter, Torngat Mt. National Park and Pierre from Nunavik Parks.
-Clark