Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #1 Penguin Climb, #3, Glide Wax: Swix purple , Grip Wax:

Skate skied from P8 up Penguin to Gossip Corner, then parkway to Burma, up Burma to Ridge, then back to Gossip Corner and Ridge, Penguin finally to P8.

Ridge Rd and the Parkway were amazingly wide and well groomed. There are still a few rocks or stones sitting on top but if you pay attention, they can be avoided. Unfortunately, I lost myself in thought once and stepped on one rock, and now have a large groove in my good ski. Drat!!!

To confirm Jo-Anne's report from yesterday, Burma (3) was interesting. I much prefer skiing up it since the final downhill to the Parkway is often scraped to nothing or grooved like a parallel luge course, and today it was the latter state--the grooves were closer to ditches (15cm deep and 30cm wide) and frustrating to no end to skate ski on. Mercifully, we trudged on to the top where conditions improved immensely and it was glorious skiing from then on. ŁThough it did not seem groomed, the classic skiers who opted not to ski in the tracks smoothed things out nicely. Had it frozen that way, I would have turned around, but as it was soft and maleable snow on a firm surface, it was good skiing from then on.

All in all, another fine day for a ski.

Then again, if it was not a fine day for a ski, I would not have gone for a ski, which may explain why so many of my reports are often optimistic ones.













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