Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #53, Glide Wax: Swix LF7, Grip Wax: Roode multigrade klister

With the reconstituted snow it seemed an ideal day for fast easy gliding on the 53/51 loop. Initially conditions were reasonably good on #53 with crunchy granular snow and tracks that varied from good to shallow depending on the amount of underlying ice. Things deteriorated on #53 at the intersection with #51 - from that point #53 hasn't been groomed and was icy and covered with considerable debris. It didn't look that bad so I proceeded on #53. Not a good idea: with klistered skis I began to quickly pick up debris. After about 100 m the base of one ski resembled a leaf museum - the other a bark museum. I cleaned the bases and headed back to P17. I could have proceeded on #51 without much problem and then continued on #50; but that wasn't the image of the day that I had in mind.

Perhaps I should concentrate on skating for a while until some snow comes along to cover things that stick to kick wax.













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