Camp Fortune - December 29, 2021

Night mission to Fortune! Night skiing started on Dec. 27th and Camp Fortune has managed to open up most of the trails on Skyline. Considering the lack of snowfall and the up/down temperatures, they should be commended. The drive was quick from Ottawa as most people were still on holidays or still working from home.  When I hit Chelsea, I noticed a massive line of cars leaving Gatineau Park. The line went from the Chelsea stop sign all the way to just past the P8 parking lot. This was a parade of cross country skiers leaving at dusk. Anyway, the road to Skyline has been repaved, and there is now a median at the Skyline parking lot to slow traffic. 

When I arrived around 4:30pm, it was the switch over time, so the parking lot was almost full but there was almost no lines for the lift.  Temperatures were mild at around -3 C and the conditions were hard packed with some loose snow on the edges. Sparks, Canadian, Bud Clark and the Chute were open.  Before entering, your pass was checked for COVID vaccination validation. A buddy of mine hadn't gotten his season pass validated yet so he had to go over to the Valley side to validate. Apparently it was a bit of a gong show with a line of 40 people outside not knowing or wanting to go inside to the other cash. It took him an hour. We finally met up and the skiing was decent, fast and refreshing. The day skiers had scrapped things up a bit but if you stayed along the side of the runs, you could push lots of snow around. Otherwise just GS down the middle. The place got busy around 6pm but died down again at 8pm. The lift lines needed a little wrangling as there were only two wide lines for 4 each. So single people got singled out with people afraid to ride with them. This slowed things down.  Regardless it was a beautiful night of skiing and I'll be back soon.