Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: Gatineau Pkwy , North Loop, Glide Wax: LF 7, Grip Wax:

Garry and I took advantage of the time change to enjoy a late afternoon skate ski. It had warmed up from this morning's minus 16 all the way to minus 6! We saw a flock of turkeys as we set out.
Conditions were very fast, and hard - quite similar to concrete. I may have broken my personal speed record today thank to the spiffy boots I finally bought last year. My old boots gave so little support that I probably would have whined about icy conditions and gone home without skiing at all, but I actually enjoyed the unyielding conditions today, at least on the gentler terrain of the north loop. The classic tracks were very firm and distinct and quite a few classic skiers were out enjoying the late afternoon sunshine. I was happy to be skating, as classic would have involved hours applying a cold klister binder and umpteen coats of grip wax. It would have been fun, too, but the skating was so no work at all!
The only negative this afternoon was a snowmobile that came out of nowhere and passed us at what seemed like 100kph. Perhaps he was heading out to rescue an injured skier, but I almost had a heart attack when he came up so quickly and noisily beside us.
It looks like spring is really coming this week. Time to get out and enjoy the last couple of weeks of skiing in our wonderful park!













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