Gatineau Park

Trails Skied: Fortune Pkwy, Champlain Pkwy, #1, #24, #40, #1 (blue), Glide Wax: Swix LF7, Grip Wax:

Oh to be in the Outaouais now that February is here! This was an ideal February day - great temperatures, great sun, vivid colours, and great conditions.

My skating tour was: P10 => FP => CP => #1 => #24 (flat section) => #40 => #24 => shortcut across the beaver pond { timeout to sit in the sun for 30 min. } => #1 => Wolf Ridge => #1 => CP => FP => P10.

This morning the FP and CP were ground and the skating & clsssic tracks were redone. I totally agree that grooming is an art - whoever did the parkways this AM is on the level of Rembrandt. The surface was almost powder - the tracks were as good as they could be.

Off the parkways the trails were good but hard-packed and fast. On these trails the classic tracks appeared to be the best option. With a hard wax over klister they would have been great. I was told by a reliable source, however, that without a good binder or klister they ate kick wax.

Crust cruising isn’t there yet - I was breaking through the crust on the pond. Beside ridge road there is still 40 cm of snow. Bushwacking would OK but a bit of a slog with the crust on top of the snow.













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