Gatineau Park

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

Skate ski from P10 to end of 24. Up on 1 / Khyber, back on parkways. Did a couple of km on 1 towards Penguin too.
A spring ski with winter snow: the fresh snow that came down in the last few days (up to 5ish cm past Champlain) covered what was previously bare. No portage required. However, unlike "usual" spring skiing, the fresh snow makes it difficult or impossible to "read" the difference between old snow covered with new and gravel or asphalt covered with a thin layer of new. So you do break through on occasion, but not nearly as much as I feared. A few new holes in my rock skis but nothing terrible. Need to ski light, and better not pick up a lot of speed on the downhills...
All in all, an unexpectedly enjoyable outing. Given the cold temperatures, conditions may linger a couple of days, but there will be bare pavement.













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