Gatineau Park

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

I set out today hoping conditions would be good enough to get in some exercise skate skiing on the Doldrums- I really wasn't expecting anything more in view of the 10cm snowfall in the morning and temperatures rising through the freezing point. Leaving P8 I found there had been some grooming of the center of the skate lane, although the classic tracks hadn't been touched and were not in good shape. The snow was surprisingly dry and powdery, giving excellent control and reasonable glide. On my second hamster lap a groomer came past, working on the skate lane and one classic track. This improved conditions to the point that I decided to cross the Connector and head for the Champlain Lookout. The Connector and the Fortune Parkway had both been groomed and although the climb was a bit slow it was quite manageable. Ridge Road had not been groomed at all, and skating through the thick fresh powder was tiring. For this reason I turned around at Huron and retraced my route to P8. I met the groomer once again doing a second pass on the FP.

As mentioned the snow was surprisingly dry and powdery. At the end of my ski I could feel it hardening a bit, but even without additional grooming it should be reasonable tomorrow on the parkways. If Demsis splurges on another grooming pass in the morning I would expect superb midwinter conditions. Not bad for the last week of March.













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