Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #2 (blue), #1 (green) (#2 - #24), #2 (from #40 to #1), #1 (blue), Glide Wax: LF the yellow one, and lots of rilling, Grip Wax: waxless

Trails 40-24-Ridge to the top of Wolf Trail - trail 2 to Western, trail 2 to 40.

I read Laura's report with great admiration for her perseverance in skiing with her toddler. I had a very difficult day and had only myself to propel forward.

It was to be a ski to the Fire Tower while there was still snow. Ha ha ha.

At 10:00 I started up trail 40, with some rarely-used skis that had been oh-so-carefully waxed, rilled and klistered. The trail was still icy from the night before, but the real problem was that one ski had a persistent loud squeak in the binding. By the time I reached the top of the first set of hills, it was driving me crazy and I had to return to the car to get my waxless skis.

Take 2: With the squeak gone, I could now hear Pileated Woodpeckers in the trees, calling and drilling. The water was roaring as expected. The snow was still very icy, and these skis grip only in warm, soft snow. This was the slowest trip I can ever remember! I must have stopped a hundred times, and began to realize that at this speed there were not enough hours in the day to make it to the Fire Tower and back. A new plan!! To ski around, to visit every bench within striking distance and to stay out for hours and hours. The first bench was near the top of trail 40, and I sat for 30 minutes waiting for the ice to soften up!!! It was lovely there. There were more pileated woodpeckers and one skier went by.

It took forever to get to the bench at the top of the Wolf Trail. By this time the sun was out in full force so another long sit was in order. Some hikers came by.

About noon, the skis began to work beautifully. And the sun disappeared. The downhills were especially fun because these skis run evenly on wet sunless snow.

Sticking faithfully to the new plan, I headed to the intersection of Ridge and Trail 2, and happened to encounter Paul along the way. Still following the plan I sat for a while on the bench near 24, but the BENCH at trail 2 WAS OCCUPIED! So the only alternative was to check out Western.

There was a bit of agonizing about whether to take 24, 2 or 33 and 40 back (whether to make the downhills last longer, or to enjoy the steeper shortcut down trail 2.) Trail 2 won out. It is such an innocent looking trail for the first kilometer until it suddenly drops and drops. It was in great shape.

It ended up being lots of fun, although I didn't really end up going anywhere. There were no bare spots, no rocks, just deep snow everywhere. And Pileated Woodpeckers.













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