Rideau Canal Skateway Closes For The Season

The party’s over, at least for winter, as Ottawa’s Rideau Canal Skateway was closed for the season on Tuesday, March 11 by Canadian officials who said the ice had turned unsafe. The National Capital commission issued the ruling due to temperatures heating up outside and ice melting.

A bout of intense sunshine on Tuesday sealed the deal with NCC finally closing the sating area that evening. NCC officials urged people to respect red warning flags, signs, and barricades now in place.

Ice thickness had fallen while some areas featured additional hazards of water slicks forming on the ice rendering skating unsafe at any speed. NCC officials were concerned that uneven ice would hide skating dangers. People were prohibited from skating while staff and contractors took apart infrastructure and equipment on the ice. That process was expected to continue through the end of the week.

The season started Dec. 31 and extended 71 days this year with 58 skating days. Annual Winterlude festival weekends overlapped 38 days of skating. Some 1.2 million people went to the 7.8-km outdoor skating park since the start of the year. This was the 44th skating season for the Ottawa canal that has been managed by NCC since 1970. It’s considered the world’s leading naturally frozen ice skating facility with a size equal to almost 100 Olympic skating rinks.

Outdoor skating returns at the end of the year. NCC officials urged people to keep up with the latest developments through social media like Facebook and Twitter.