Gatineau Park
Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, Champlain Pkwy, Glide Wax: -5, Grip Wax:
ROUTE: Went from P10 up to the Champlain Parkway and then over to the Lookout. The latter half of Champlain was not groomed.
SKATE: Well groomed on a very hard base - remarkably, there seems to have been little new snow in the Park. The grooming cleaned up the ice but there was very little depth meaning that the track was very fast. High winds meant that a lot of the new snow was blown off the icy corduroy. On part of the Champlain Parkway, you could actually see the yellow road lines below the ice. Since the track was hard, coming back down was treacherous - there was little snow to give you control. There is also a lot of trail trash (leaves, twigs, needles etc.) on part of both Parkways.
CLASSIC: The classic tracks are deep and are very icy in many places.
WEATHER: It was quite cold and very windy. It was nice to have the wind at your back going up but it made for a cold descent.
TRAFFIC: No one else in P10 when we arrived at 8. The lot was about one third full when we left at around 9:45.
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.
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).
