Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: North Loop, Glide Wax: Vauhti glide One Wet -1 to +10, Grip Wax: skins

Fair conditions on the north loop this morning. It's strictly classic and on the grassy shoulder. Enough skiers had made good tracking. Slow and sinky but was worth a run. Started to rain just as I got to the car at 11:00. Thats the season for me. See you all back here next winter!

Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, #1, Glide Wax: , Grip Wax: waxless

A nice evening ski last night on some heavy, wet but deep snow. The trails were ungroomed but someone (Demsis?) had driven a truck up to Gossip corner and left deep ruts in the snow which made for a passable classic track. There were a number of other self groomed tracks beside the ruts as well which were quite nice. At Gossip corner I turned up Ridge to Huron which had a nice track. Now risk of touching rocks as the snow was deep enough but there were a number of downed trees along here and a lot of branches bent over the trail from the heavy snow collecting on the limbs. Apart from one tree across the middle of the Khyber pass, you could weave around most obstacles. Jumped back out on the parkway at Huron and skied up to the lookouts where the snow was good but decidedly thinner. Descent was relatively easy though it started to snow quite heavily as I came down which made things a bit difficult to see in my headlamps beam. Fortunately my skis know which way to go..

Snow should last a day or two so time to get out and enjoy. Expect it to be slushy but there will be tracks to follow.
Gatineau park map


Gatineau Park is ski paradise! The network of ski trails offer machine groomed skate skiing and classic skiing as well as little groomed backcountry trails. Multiple access points allow skiers to access a variety of terrain and scenery. The NCC offers season or daily pay rates.

Gatineau park map

For suggestions on where to ski, excellent trail descriptions, photos and maps checkout Michael McGoldrick`s website about recreational xc-skiing in Canada`s National Capital Region (with an emphasis on the Gatineau Park).

Gatineau park map