Élie & Menaud Monts
Climbing two of
Charlevoix’s peaks
Élie & Menaud Monts
Climbing two of Charlevoix’s peaks
The trail, forming a loop between the summits of Mont Élie and Mont Menaud, is a 16 km hike, that starts at the Lac-au-Sable ZEC [protected area for fishing and hunting]. It’s a steep route, where a variety of weather conditions and landscapes follow one after the other, none the same as the one before it. Here, a wall of fog. There, a sunburst, its bright light reflecting off of enormous cumulonimbus clouds. Alpine lakes, dense boreal forest, streams drenched in the green of moss and vegetation, and tundra above…
One thousand metres up, on Mont Élie’s bald summit and as far as the eye can see, is backcountry that looks even more beautiful as the day dawns. But because the alpine flora is fragile in this place, we make camp at lac Éclair, 2 km from the summit, to better climb the summit by the light of our headlamps, just a few minutes before taking in what will be the most exhilarating sunrise we’ve ever seen!
Did you know? The two mountains take their names from Félix-Antoine Savard, a man of the cloth and author of Menaud Maître Draveur [Menaud, Master of the River] who, long ago, explored the backcountry and its peaks guided by Clermont resident Élie Dufour. That explains that!
