Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #50, #54 (green), #55 (green - shared), #54 (black), #56, Glide Wax: blue, Grip Wax: VR40

Similar outing to Rick so I'd echo his comments (in fact I crossed path with him on 54) but I was skiing classic so have a few additions. The wax (VR40) was fine although all the sand and gravel here and there in the tracks worked well at removing it. Not sure a binder would help much but stopping once to re-wax wasn't a big chore on such a nice day.

I also skied along Lusk lake as there were lots of tracks out on the ice. (which seemed solid). I backtracked to the Lusk trail on 54 black (where it parallels the lake). That was skiable but needs a LOT more snow to make it enjoyable. Lots of roots and rocks exposed made it a chore to pick my line while avoiding the worst of the obstacles (I didn't avoid them all :( but had the "lesser" of my classic skis on today.

I also skied out across Taylor lake and then up to the Pontiac lookout on 56. At first I wasn't planning to ski far up the trail (based on my experience on 54 black) but it was actually in great shape. Two nicely skied in classic tracks in a reasonable depth of snow. No signs of rocks or gravel all the way up and the ski down was fast and easy. A few signs of walkers along that trail but they had very politely walked along the side of the classic tracks so no issues there either! Happy I ventured up it to take a look.

New P20 was about 1/2 to 2/3 full which is a lot of cars (its a BIG lot) but the trails didn't seem too crowded as a result. Just a typical "sunny Saturday" crowd. By contrast, P19 (as I drove past) only had 5 or 6 cars... so most people are clearly continuing on to the new parking area. Forecast looks like more snow by next weekend... but its looked like that all season so we'll just keep hoping for an Alberta clipper or Colorado low to venture our way and increase the snow depth.













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