Gatineau Park
Trails Skied: #24, #40, #1 (blue), Glide Wax: LF 7, Grip Wax: K15 with a colder cover
Exhilarating, beautiful ski to the Fire Tower today. Although Gatineau Park trails were all listed as "Not Recommended" following last night's snowfall, we found fresh grooming all the way. Trail 40 was very fresh, very soft and chopped up by the first group up the hill ( a large group of lucky high school students), but elsewhere the grooming was firmer. One thing I have noticed frequently this year, and it was very noticeable today, is that the classic shoulder was extremely soft. Poles often sank over a foot making it tempting to ski out of the tracks! At one point my ski buddy moved over to let the groomer by and sank up to her hips.
By the way, there are now classic tracks on both side of trail 1, all the way to the Fire Tower. Not much to add - great skiing! Thank you Demsis!
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).