Pascale Marceau, from Canmore, Alta., holding The Royal Canadian Geographical Society expedition flag alongside fellow explorer Lonnie Dupre, from Minnesota, celebrating on the summit of Jeannette Peak.
A small contingency of mountain climbers led by Grand Marais cold weather adventurer Lonnie Dupre recently did something no other climbers had ever done before when they summited Jeannette Peak.
On April 2, 2018, at 5:10 p.m. PST, Dupre and Canadians Pascale Marceau of Canmore and Vern Stice of Edmonton reached the summit of Jeannette Peak. At 3,089 meters/10,135 feet, it is the highest summit in the Selwyn Range, situated in the northern Canadian Rockies, in eastern British Columbia, Canada.
This peak was chosen because it was at the top of the list of unclimbed peaks in British Columbia due to its ultra-prominence, meaning it is a significant stand-alone peak. At just 45 kilometers southwest of Jasper, Alta., it is hard to believe that such peaks have remained unclimbed. After an extensive search of the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia Bivouac.com, Canadian Alpine Journals, American Alpine Journals, and after speaking to local area guides, the expedition team found that there were no records of an ascent on this mountain.
This towering mountain peak has remained unclimbed until now likely due to its narrow avalanche-prone valleys and a perimeter of smaller knife-edge mountains at its base.
“To place steps and to pioneer routes up an unexplored mountain was truly an honor and an adventure. To add icing to the cake, we even had a wolverine visit our basecamp,” said Dupre.
Currently, the mountain has no officially registered name. On Bivouac.com, the mountain is named after the ill-fated USS Jeannette, an Arctic exploration ship that became trapped in sea ice from 1879 to 1881 in an effort to use the ocean current drift to traverse across the pole.
“As a young explorer, while researching sea ice drift for my North Pole expedition, I read The Voyage of the Jeannette by George W. De Long. Climbing Jeannette Peak seemed a fitting coincidence given my polar exploration background,” added Dupre.
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