Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, Champlain Pkwy, North Loop, #1, Glide Wax: CH8 plus rilling, Grip Wax:

P10 was full at 9AM, so I started from P9. I did a warm-up lap of the Doldrums, then proceeded across the Connector, up the Fortune Parkway, east on Ridge to to the top of Penguin Hill, back along Ridge to Huron, out on to the Champlain Parkway to the lookout, then back to P9 via Ridge and the Fortune Parkway. Conditions could have been excellent if there had been more grooming, but I can only rate them as fair to good. The Doldrums were completely ungroomed, and were quite bumpy. The snow surface alternated between icy in the shade and wet in the sunnier sections. There was some evidence of grooming on the FP, although the snow was still lumpy on the sunny stretches. In the shade the snow was still quite flat and fast, making for pleasant skating. Ridge was also ungroomed, but the surface was fairly flat and the skiing quite good. In some sections the snow was quite badly contaminated with pine sap and needles. As usual on a warm day my skis picked some of this up and became noticeably slower as the day progressed. On the Champlain Parkway I found evidence of fresh grooming- and the best skiing so far- then I finally met a small groomer heading west on Ridge Road near Huron. Skating was great on the freshly groomed surface. I'm not sure how much more grooming there will be this afternoon. P7 might be a good starting point, and I would definitely avoid the Doldrums. If there is grooming overnight there could be excellent spring skiing tomorrow morning. There is still lots of snow in most places, although pavement is now visible through the snow on the exposed parkway between the Huron and Champlain lookouts. The snow surface is starting to transform into a granular texture.













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