Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, Champlain Pkwy, #1, Glide Wax: , Grip Wax: waxless

Skied out of P7 today. Conditions were pretty good considering it's mid April. For me it was just nice to be skiing in the sunshine. Ridge road has been well "walked" by hikers but surprisingly I only saw 2 small groups of walkers while I skied. By contrast I saw more than a dozen skiers along this stretch and, despite the uneven surface, all of them had smiles on their faces. The first climb out of the lot is getting pretty dirty. Friday's snow is no longer hiding the debris but it was still skiable. Both the steep climb at Wattsford and trail 31 have some gravel showing through but you can ski around them for now (probably changing by the minute!).

Once on top of the ridge the snow depth improved and skiing was pretty decent despite the (many) hikers shallow boot prints. There was clearly some fresh grooming on the Fortune parkway up to Huron but by the time I got there it was pretty slushy. Interesting to see tire tracks on the parkway at the "T" coming from (and headed back to) Black lake. Maybe a truck "jumped" a barrier somewhere (P6?) and went for a "drive" to the lookouts last night?

Anyway, another nice ski on what is likely the last day of grooming. I can't imagine they will groom much tomorrow morning except maybe the Fortune parkway and after that the "season" is over for the groomers. This week has warm rains in the forecast so skiing may become difficult shortly. I'd wager Paul won't get a ski in next weekend but I would have lost the bet that we wouldn't have skied this weekend so I'll keep my money in my pocket. If there will be any snow next weekend... it will be out of P12 .













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