Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: Gatineau Pkwy , North Loop, Glide Wax: CH8, Grip Wax:

According to the Gatineau Park official website, the parkways had been groomed for skating this morning. However, when I got to the Doldrums around 9:30AM I found only one pass had been done, giving a center lane just wide enough to skate on. Of course given the amount of traffic on the Doldrums this meant one had to pull over to the side frequently to allow skiers coming the other way to pass. The classic tracks (and the border near them) were hard and glazed with freezing rain. I can't imagine how anyone could classic ski on such a surface. The congestion was compounded by about four groups of Chelsea Nordic skiers practicing skating. At one place they had placed cones across the track to create a slalom course. They were very polite, but they really shouldn't have been blocking the road in such a busy area on Saturday morning. I next skied up the Gatineau Pkwy from P8 to Mica. Conditions here were much better. There had been two groomer passes, creating a nice wide skate lane. However, the classic tracks had not been touched, and were still completely glazed over with wet ice. There was also far less traffic on this section, making for a very pleasant exercise skate ski. The grooming appeared to extend up the Champlain Pkwy and also down towards Pink Lake. The temperature was exactly 0C when I started, and the snow was hardly wet. I felt a blast of warm air coming in at the ridge above P5, so the melt will probably begin this afternoon. In the meantime skate skiing is great- but stay away from the Doldrums! I found CH8 and rilling gave very fast skis.













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