First GAT ski of the season

Gatineau Park: P10 to Keogan Shelter (9 km)
P10: N45 31.141 W75 51.234
Keogan: N45 30.353 W75 52.816

Winter wonderland. Friday had finally arrived and I had the afternoon off so Mike and I headed up to the GAT for my first ski of the season. Conditions were perfect: warm at about -5°C, freshly falling snow and plenty more falling by the minute. And even thought the parking lot was jammed we didn't see a whole gaggle of people.

Well not everything started out perfect I'll admit. I somehow managed to snap my skis on and fall flat on my ass in one single motion. In doing so my ski landed on my pole and it snapped. Luckily it stayed together just long enough to get me through the day and wasn't enough to dampen my spirits. I even managed to smile for Mike's camera has he fired off the mandatory photo.

From then on it was smooth skiing. Up up up is the climb from P10 but that only means that down down down is the free ride back to the bottom.



After a side trail ski here and there we finally ended up at Keogan shelter in time for lunch. Mike was kind enough to warm up his grilled cheese and ham (with ketchup) sandwich for the pair of us to enjoy. It was awesome.





Lunch was following by a leisurely ski back to the parking lot. Well for Mike at least. For me it was more of an awkward one-armed pole and glide motion as my busted ski pole had finally given up entirely. Again no complaints as it was all worth the extra effort to be out in this fresh winter snowfall.



Shortly after leaving the parking lot we spotted this (empty) car in the ditch. Then shortly after that we spotted a smashed up police car getting a tow. When we asked our poutine chef what happened he said that the police car was speeding through town to get to the car in the ditch when he hit the side of a Bell Service van. Ouch. Not a good way to start the weekend.