26 Feb from P6 to Fire Tower

From P6, down the parkway then up Penguin, Burma, Ridge, 1b and 24 out to the Fire Tower was all freshly groomed.  The snow ranged from slow to very slow with some improvement as the day went on.  It was a great day, the trees were once again lovely with all the fresh snow.  Frankly the grooming is below par. (At least for skating)  Deep snowmobile ruts up Penguin and  the Demsis ridge (sometimes a ledge) has become more of problem with the softer snow.  Plus this ridge has now been moved closer to the center of the skate lane!  Still, another wonderful day to be outside.

25Feb-Pine Road

At 9am the website claimed that 50 had been groomed "1 hour ago" so I headed out to P16.  I think it had been groomed but it certainly had not been in the last hour.  There was 3-5cm of fresh snow but it was still skatable.  At Herridge a snowmobile had been by.  There were no  ruts to speak of and it had been pulling one of those cages.  This improved the skating a fair bit but did nothing for the classic track.  It was like this until the junction with 55.  From 55 to P19 there was one narrow skate lane that was not in good shape.  Grooming is required.  55 had not been groomed.  However on my return trip I passed the heavy groomer coming toward me by the lake.   As it turns out it had come from trail 52.   I assume that by now 55 etc has been groomed.  This means that the section between P16 and Herridge still needs to be groomed.  On the return trip, near Herridge,  I came across a very large tree that has fallen over the trail requiring one to take off the skis to climb over or crawl under.  By now it likely has been cut up and removed.   Things were slow but not as slow as I was prepared for and with the snow in the trees it turned out to be a lovely day.

23 Feb night ski from P10

Skated from P10 to Ridge to just past 24.  Conditions range from very hard packed to thin powder closer to 24.  As reported on other sites the Demsis ridge has appeared closer to the center of the trail in places.  When its hard packed like this it is not too bad but with the new snow......  Given the forecast hopefully this will all be a moot point.  Hopefully the snow will stop soon enough later Friday that all the trails can be groomed Saturday morning.  It could be a fantastic weekend.

Night ski V-Day

My usual Tuesday ski from P3.  Like last week it seems the parkway between P3 and the fork was not groomed however between the fork and P8 was fresh.  Trail 5 was in good shape and trail 26 was excellent.  The snow is still nice and fast.  Preparations are obviously underway for the big races, including Danger signs at the bottom and top of Pinks.

12Feb P10, Burma to Fire Tower

I arrived @ P10 @ 7:40 to meet my friends and I was the first car there.  There was fresh grooming likely done late yesterday because there was one skate track coming toward us and it looked like there had been a few hikers on the trail.  Still the grooming was good.  Burma had been freshly groomed and was absolutely fabulous.  Flat, wide, fast and fun; in the best condition I have seen it in years.  Ridge 1b and 24 were likewise freshly groomed and fantastic.  The great grooming continue until Ridge turns blue and then it stopped.  It was ok with day old grooming but it was still a disappointment because of how nice it was until then.  Ridge was good to the Fire Tower with it improving from McKinstry just because of the lower level of traffic.  We were surprised by how few people we saw.  When we arrived back at P10 it was full but not packed.  It was cold but not frigid, with the sun and grooming ranging from very good to fantastic it was another great day in Gatineau Park.

11FEB P10-Penguin, Race Trails

I got off to a late start today and was pleasantly surprised that the grooming was still evident.  Penguin was in good shape ie. not too icy.  There is the "ridge" appearing on Ridge that is effectively reducing the skate lane a bit but this was only a minor inconvenience. The race course had seen little traffic but was flat, nice and wide-very well groomed.  It is a real pleasure to ski on those trails although I still find them confusing.  I was very surprised that on parts of the course there were only two other skate marks and this was after 2pm.  Conditions were fast with very good control. 

Night ski 7Feb from P3

I made the mistake of parking at P3.  If the parkway had been groomed they certainly did it at the wrong time-it was rock solid.  I saw a few fellow skaters simply pack it in within the first 200m.  I was hoping that if I could get to 5 things would improve, and they did.  5 was skiable but it was very firm.  I got off 5 just below Pink and the parkway was better than it was closer to P3 but it was not really much fun.  At the T the good grooming started and lasted until P8.  Seems the grooming around the loop is a lot fresher and more enjoyable.  For tomorrow I would suggest limiting yourself to the P8/Fortune area unless there is fresh grooming.

5Feb Pine Road + 55 & 54

Grooming for the most part was good again today.  Just a small amount of snowmobile and hiker traffic but nothing to really complain about.  However trail 54 had not been groomed in some time between the cabin and the hay bales.  Last week it was pretty nice, this week it was forgotten.  The best parts were 55 and the portion between P19 and 55.  When I finished around 11:45 P16 was full such that cars were parking on Cross Loop and Pine however the trails themselves never felt crowded.  One of the great things about trail 50.

Feb 4 Ridge to FT, Burma etc

I skied the parkway from P6 down to Penguin then up Burma, onto to Ridge to the Tower including 24 and 1b.  On the way back I checked out 33, 2 and 40.  Grooming ranges from 7/10 to 10/10 depending on the snowmobile traffic and size of the "ridge" in some places. (I suspect that our classically trained friends would give it a 10/10 everywhere.)  Burma is coming along very  nicely, #24, 33 and portions of Ridge were really excellent.  With the fast snow and bright sun this was really a fantastic day to be out there.