Ultra Maligne Lake -- July 4-5 2007

Top: Ultra Maligne with Llysifran Peak in background. Middle: Me standing on the edge of the 'balcony' overlooking the 'hall of the gods'. Bottom, Neil and his quick swim in Ultra-Malinge... doubt many have ever done that before.

Neil and I embarked on a journey to a place that many people have talked about, but few have ever seen... Ultra Maligne Lake. When we both worked at Maligne Lake, it was common knowledge that there was a lake high above Maligne Lake that had the deepest blue colour that would make even Maligne look drab in comparison. The only people who had been there was a long term resident, Floyd and the warden Mike Westbrook. Other people had tried to get there, but they were stopped by the technical nature of the trip. We planned this trip the night before we left.

Wednesday we departed Jasper at 14:30 and reached the lake by 15:15. We took out Neil's Jasper Canoe... the Sunwapta which had a questionable haul. Although the water tightness of the canoe was questionable, it did cut through the water unlike any canoe I've paddled before. We reached Spirit Island by 6pm and our pull-out 17.5 km down the lake at a day use area by 19:00. We stashed our canoe and set off up the creek leading from the Ultra-Maligne area. Progress was slow due to excessively heavy packs... climbing gear, tent, too much food, etc.

We had to climb a small rock feature (about 50 m) and then ascend a steep snow slope, climbing about 250m. All of this took time, and it wasn't until 23:00 that we reached the plateau and set up camp about 100m from Ultra Maligne Lake. We were quite surprised to find that Ultra Maligne was still mostly frozen. That evening we cooked up some food, drank some Johnny Walker Green label, and turned in by 01:30.

The sun was batting in the tent by 06:00. We got up, ate breakfast, and explored the area. Neil went for a swim in Ultra Maligne's 0.5'C water... but not for long. We descended down the snow slope at roughly 11:00 and were back to the canoe for roughly 14:00. Tired and really sun burned we paddled back to Home Bay, pushing the tour boats off line, and getting more and more burned along the way. We had a great tail wind most of the way and made it back for 17:00, and into town 18:30. Unloading our stuff was a real chore as we were a: exhausted, and b: the weather was so hot that it felt like our skin would peal off.

All the same, a very nice super trip in a super short amount of time.