Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: North Loop, Glide Wax: Swix LF6, Grip Wax:

This AM while preparing my skis I did something to my back as evidenced by a mild pain in the lumbar region that was reminiscent of previous battles with the back. So, rather than choose trails with grunt climbs I was a baby and chose the North Loop (known to the more performance-inclined as the “Doldrums”). The tracksetting was superb - fast and hard but soft enough on the surface that I could ski through the corduroy rather than being controlled by it. So with three iterations of it with easy slow skating I was cured. So, whenever your body talks back to you I recommend that you consult Dr. Gatineau and take three Doldrums.

A few reports back I went on a bit about the changes/omissions that showed up in the ski report on NCC web-site. Primarily the removal of the “precipitation in the last 24 hrs” entry. Talking to other skiers I find I’m far alone in criticizing this omission - that information was quite important in deciding how to prepare your skis for the day. Take for an example last Sunday: on Saturday the conditions were hard, fast, and granular - i.e., klister; Sunday morning there was about 5 cm of wet snow that fell in the park providing soft, high-humidity conditions - i.e., fluor kick wax. Since no snow fell in Ottawa/Gatineau, using what was known, it would have been normal to use klister which would have been less than ideal for soft wet new-snow conditions. If you agree with this view perhaps a comment to the Visitor’s Centre to bring the web-site back closer to what it used to be is in order - you could also balance your comment with an observation that the tracksetting has been better this year.













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