Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: #1 Penguin Climb, #1, Gatineau Pkwy, Champlain Pkwy, Glide Wax: Blue, Grip Wax: Blue

We skied on Sunday afternoon.

I read the various reports about lack of grooming on Saturday. To some extent I understand not grooming the trails with uneven surfaces, but was surprised they did not groom the parkways on Saturday. Anyway, was hoping they groomed on Sunday which they did.

We headed out from Gamelin up the Parkway to Asticou and then took Trail 5 to Trail 29 to the bottom of Pinks. This trail was in great condition. the only place where it was close to the pavement was the corners on the steeper downhills. The conditions on the parkways on the way out were windblown, loose and dry snow, but 100% coverage for classic and skating.

Penguin was "just passable". I certainly don't blame the grooming, it looked more like all the guys coming downhill who had snow ploughed had scraped the snow down to the rocks....lots of rocks and gravel. Turning right onto the main part of ridge road, the final 20 of the climb had a lot of rocks and gravel. I chose to take of my skis and walk up rather than wreck them. Those heading downhill on this section, I'd strongly recommend to remove the skis and walk down to the lookout and then put skis back on for the rest of the descent. Stay to the outside where there is fluff white stuff rather than inside line where there are rocks.

The rest of Ridge road to gossip corner was in good shape. Champlain parkway had full coverage throughout. The Gatineau Parkway from the T junction to Gamelin had become "skier groomed" harder packed by the time we returned and was quite fast (or perhaps it was the 50 kph wind gusts blowing us back home).

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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