Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, Glide Wax: , Grip Wax:

Skate ski from P10 to Fire Tower via FP - CP to Huron - 1 - 1B - 24. Same way back.
What a difference a day makes! With no grooming and the effect of thaw and freeze, conditions are a real mixed bag, ranging from poor to excellent. Basic rules of thumb:
- anything that is south facing, or generally exposed to the sun, is either grey ice or slush (or the frozen version of that if you start early). (note that grey ice is actually nice and fast once it has softened enough to get a decent edge)
- most of trail 1 beyond Wolf trail is good to excellent, with 99% coverage. Just a couple of easily avoidable bare patches
I did not have to take my skis off at all, but some sections are getting very precarious (e.g. trail 1 from Huron to Champlain) and their hours are counted. Overall, an enjoyable ski, with some great sections and others where the snow is more liquid than solid :-)
If you are on classic, don't count on great tracks, although there remain well-defined shallow ones on many stretches.
Several days of skiing left, providing you are willing to contend with not-so-great conditions + some portage in order to get to the remaining good stretches. We're in April, so no big surprise there, and it's better than last year!













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