The combination of amazing people, high water, an intense yet amazing river, reasonably cooperative weather and billions of blueberries made this by far the best canoe trip I have ever done.

The Broadback or “Chistamiskau Sipi” (the deep river) to the Cree First Nation, flows through the Eastern Canadian Shield region of the subarctic taiga across northern Québec. Our route ran 532km east to west across from Lac Frotet, about 150km north of Chibougamau, to Waskaganish in Rupert Bay.

Waskaganish, is the location of the first James Bay trading post built by the Hudson’s Bay company. Known for centuries as Fort Rupert but first built as Fort Charles in 1668, Waskaganish today is a Cree community of approximately 2500 people at the mouth of the recently dammed Rupert River.

The damming of the Rupert River was completed in 2009. The dam has brought financial benefit to many across Quebec, local and export hydro power and financial compensation for Cree peoples whose trap lines were disrupted by the dam.

Hydro Quebec stated in a 2010 pamphlet that the river was navigable after the completion of the project. Yet George, a Waskaganish Cree man, born below Tupatuakshish falls on the Broadback during the winter of 1949, told us the damming of the Rupert River has impeded mobility and effectively cut off vast swathes of territory home to James Bay Cree. He explained they “had to cancel the annual youth expedition” that ascends the Rupert, and that “the Bay (Rupert Bay) is much harder to navigate, because there is so much less water flowing from the river.”

The initial plans for Hydroelectric damming in the James Bay area were drafted under the James Bay Project in the early 1970s, a plan that would have dammed more or less the entire watershed. Many of the proposed rivers were dammed, but the Broadback in the end was not. Though there was significant political pressure to halt the project, from Aboriginal peoples and environmental groups, the Broadback was liberated because its muskeg shores are very difficult to build on.

For paddlers, the Rupert Dam has destroyed one great river but made another even bigger; with constricted flow to the Rupert much more of the watershed empties into the Broadback.

Look here for action shots I couldn’t take myself.

First run we skied a funky chute followed by some rather crusty trees into the valley bottom. Drastically overheating, I got fully naked to take off my long underwear. This was a long process.

Our next line was even better than the first and ran out onto Upper Joffre Lake. We ate, made countless immature references to my bag of nuts, and I struck a deal with Ian that for $5 he would wear his Mom’s balaclava for the remainder of the day.

We then followed a nice middle aged couple up the Harp Strings. They were beasts. We were humbled. We saw a large piece of the Matier glacier  collapse and trigger a sizeable slide where two ski touring enthousiasts (VOC?) towing gear toboggans had just passed. We skied down to Lower Joffre Lake, Hereward and Ian killed it, and Julian and Guillaume got temporarily lost; but victory was had by all.

We made it to the parking lot and hitched down to the cars. Sam was happy to get his jeep, Terry, back as she was left all day by the side of the road with the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked. We were all happy to get Ian and Peter back as they got picked up by a man with no shoes and a surf board who was higher than Charlie Sheen off mushrooms, driving a 4runner with a tree branch bumper, with two grand in twenties on the dash seat, and didn’t know the way to Pemberton (the only town within 100km).

Back in town at the Pemberton Hotel, beers were had, the Poor Judgement Ski Club gained invaluable new members and the Unnecessary Rappelling Club was born.

We woke with the sun and drove to the airport to meet more crew for our drop. We flew to the top of Mt. Matier with clear skies and light winds. Our first pitch flowed down a ridge from Matier peak that closes out into large cliffs and the rappel into the Twin One Couloir. The Twin One Couloir is around 1500 feet of sustained 50 degree slope. The entrance is blocked by hundred foot cliffs.

As we dug down to rock to set up an anchor, clouds rolled in around us left with our bluebird conditions. Tim lowered as the winds picked up, unsure of whether our 70m rope was long enough. It was, which was good. We all got down without incident, and the skiing was blind but still radical.

We stopped for a moment to put food into our faces and take some self-absorbed group photos and portraits. Next we skinned and booted up Vantage Peak in under about an hour. Ian unsurprisingly dropped his skin bag down into the valley. Vantage was sliced into shreds, a flask of Jack Daniel’s was skulled , the Cerise Creek trail was skied without any skinning or falling the in river. Success was had.

6,200 foot of descent with only an hour of hiking is THE way to ski.