Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #1, #6, #30, #17, #31, Glide Wax: Vauhti blue, Grip Wax: vauhti carrot

Tired of reading the "best ski of my life" reports while I sat at my desk at work so I decided to head to the park this morning and check things out before the weekend gets too warm/wet. Skied out of P7 and went up to loop 6 before heading along 17. The carrot wax might have been a bit cold but worked reasonably well for the conditions. Best ski of my life?... umm, no - but excellent conditions none the less. Skyline was nicely skied in but the downhills are getting a little washed out. Overall still quite good though. Same can be said for 17... but since it was my first trip down these trails this year I enjoyed every minute of it regardless.

I did try and ski out 34 from the back end of 6. No signs of it being closed and some fresh ski tracks so I headed in. It quickly became apparent that it hasn't been cleared yet. The tracks I followed got off course pretty quickly and led into a maze of dead ends and side tracks. After my third blind alley blocked me out I decided to return to 6 and carry on. On the given day this might have been a fun quest to snake my way through the brush... but I opted to head to the cleared trails instead.

Found trail 17 interesting (and many thanks to those who cleared it). In some cases though they piled the slash just off the track in thick piles of branches. This should rot and "compress" over the summer and not be a problem next year but for now... watch your line! If you get a little off the main track you could find yourself wrapped up in the tangle quicker than Steve McQueen trying to escape to Switzerland.

Should be good skiing this weekend if the rain holds off. Might be better to skate as grip wax could be a chore in the warmer temps... but we'll see what transpires.













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