What to Expect
The NCC maintains a ski trail conditions page usually updated 3 times a day. I’ll often include a summary here with links. XCOttawa draws on reports from skiers’ on-trail experience. Those reports are automatically added here and we're working for even better integration. Other people post information in other places and this page will attempt to aggregate links to those reports as well.
2010-03-26 by Ron Lorenson from P12 [Meech]
The sequel: As reported by Jo-Ann I skied yesterday, via Fischer Crown waxless, to the intersection of #1 blue and the old #10. I could have done the additional 1km+ to the tower without problem. Up to the Wolf Ridge I found conditions difficu. . .2010-03-25 by Jo-Ann Holden from P12 [Meech]
P12-trail 40, 24, Ridge to Wolf, along Ridge to trail 2 to P12. Having almost skied yesterday, Ron's last report inspired me to get out today for a final farewell ski. Now that I've seen how much snow is left on the "dark side" of the . . .Reality Check
I've seen a number of tweets, trail reports and TriRudy submissions in the last few days talking about how the skiing is still good if you get high enough into Gatineau Park. The NCC trail conditions page even showed the Fortune Parkway as skiable as recently as yesterday (today they show zero percent of the trail network open).
So today I went to find out for myself.
There is still skiing. There were 10 cars in the parking lot (P10) when I arrived. The people I met were all wonderfully happy that there was still skiing.
They were also willing to put up with plenty of very large patches of asphalt and a number of places where the snow was so scarce that it was like a Scottish highland road; one lane with passing places.
Here's what it looked like just above P10.
There were certainly areas like this, just above Keogan
and I was told by numerous people that once you get past the few hundred yards of snowless parkway at Huron, the conditions are great out toward the fire tower.
But frankly, the season is over. It only the keenest and most enthusiastic skiers who would be willing to take on the walking spaces to get to these dwindling ribbons of last winter's fun.
No Grooming This Week – No Trail Reporting Next Week
The NCC website reports today that after Friday they won't be updating the trail conditions unless there is another dump of snow.
Oh, and their server is on the fritz again and doesn't seem to be listing which trails are which that can't be skied on.
Ah well...
2010-03-24 by Ron Lorenson from P12 [Meech]
There’s still coverage from P12 (probably) to the tower - there was 2 cm of new snow yesterday which made the surface more even and much cleaner. There are some bare spots but not substantively more than on the weekend. I skated from P12 wit. . .Two Percent
The NCC website has recovered from its temporary meltdown and once again shows which trails it is reporting conditions on.
Not much was missed though during its absence since most people's fancies have turned to thoughts of ... ?
Well not to thoughts of skiing anyway.
The 2% of recommended trails now listed represents the Fortune Parkway and the Fortune Parkway alone.
Visual Snow Melt
Cyclist Craig Barlow was out for a ride yesterday and today posted two pictures of the trail at P7 Kingsmere, one a week ago, one yesterday. To see these "before &after" images you have to scroll down past his photo of some horse poop (why would he photograph that? why would he plan to send the poop to his friend?)
So with that warning, here's the link.
Kenmore Blog has Pics of Pavement
Ken titles his piece "What A Difference a Couple of Days Makes" and shows the growing areas of bare ground and shrinking zones of skiable white.