The Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa will not open this season

February 24, 2023 12:40 PM

This is the first year since records were kept in 1971 that the canal will not be open to skaters

The UNESCO World Heritage site is described as the largest skating rink, and is an iconic part of Ottawa’s winter, drawing locals and tourists alike.

Warmer weather and more snow than usual are to blame for the poor ice quality of the skateway.

Though people have been concerned about the canal for many years, and worried about the impact of the climate crisis on it, this season is the first without any skating days.

posted by narcissus_and_ambrosia (20 comments total)

I used to skate to work in the winter. It was pretty reliable.
posted by mhoye at 1:03 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

I skated to university throughout the winter when I lived there. Very unique activity offered by an otherwise dull city.
posted by thoughtful_jester at 1:14 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

Very unique activity offered by an otherwise dull city.

Hey! I grew up there, and it's...

Yeah.
posted by mhoye at 1:15 PM on February 24, 2023 [13 favorites]

as a little kid visiting family in Ottawa that's still a memory: renting skates and getting out on the canal

I think of the energy and resources spent on holding weeks of hearings re: whether the Emergency Act was "warranted" to deal with the trucker occupation of the capital.. we are truly whistling our way into the grave while the world burns
posted by elkevelvet at 1:16 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

I remember when I was living in Winnipeg they managed to make enough skateway to beat the Rideau Canal one year. They also did a human chain on it to get the record for longest human chain on ice skates or something like that. I'd bet that Winnipeggers are at least slightly happy about this turn of events.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:32 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

In 1990 I took a job serving Beavertails on the canal. They had four shacks, each named after a Beatle, I got Ringo, and that's just about the highlight of my one day career. It was so cold, I worked cash but was also supposed to squeeze the lemon half on kilaloe sunrise beavertails. I guess health and safety rules were different back then. It didn't take long for my wet hands to freeze into a bent shape that still allowed me to pull change from the drawer but barely get bills out. The glass coffee pot offered a warm surface, just barely. I lasted one day and collected a $20 paycheck.
posted by furtive at 1:34 PM on February 24, 2023 [17 favorites]

(hopefully not a derail, but I think the automatic public investigation is worth it to avoid another October '70 crisis style fiasco)

I've never actually skated on the canal, but I went on it with my boots twice; it's pretty neat going *on* the canal when you walk around it all year.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 1:35 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

I skated to university throughout the winter when I lived there.

My sister-in-law did that when she was a student in Ottawa. As an avid figure skater, she loved it.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:37 PM on February 24, 2023

I think Winnipeg at one point had the record for the longest, but Ottawa kept it for the largest; perhaps that way both cities can be happy!
posted by narcissus_and_ambrosia at 1:43 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

This really sucks. My family usually skates on the canal several times a week when it is open.
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:47 PM on February 24, 2023

We used to ice race regularly near the Lachine Canal here in Montreal. Some years it was too warm for enough ice to form out on Lac St-Louis to the thickness necessary to support the weight of the vehicles. It's fluctuated enough over the past decade that it's no longer possible to reliably predict the season.

I also had an ice racing season canceled farther north in Ontario a couple of years back for the same reason.
posted by jordantwodelta at 2:05 PM on February 24, 2023

I loved the Rideau when I was in Ottawa on vacation a bunch of years ago. I had no idea it became an enormous ice rink! This makes me want to go back to Ottawa!
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:46 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Chicago here. We've had hardly any snow this year. And almost no super-cold weather. I think we had a week of below 20F. We've been having days in the mid 50s recently, and even had some of those in January. It's getting spooky.

We can still get snow into April, so I know it's not over. But I've lived 51 years and have spent almost all of those winters here, and I cannot remember as weird/warm a winter as this one.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:28 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

There were flowers coming up in my parents' garden in Sarnia (Ontario) last weekend.
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:43 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

I lived in Ottawa for three years in the early 2000s and it was the coldest I have ever been. Back then February was brutal. Nose hairs and eyelashes would freeze getting off the morning bus before I had managed the 400 foot walk to my building. Waiting for the bus in Kanata was probably among the worst experiences in my life particularly on the day the buses didn't run on my route because they couldn't start the engines. I once tried cycling in January and learned hard deep winter cycling lessons: If you don't have indoor bike storage (alas sheds don't count) your bike will be frozen. The seat will be a block of ice and your plastic components will shatter the moment they are stressed like when you change into a low gear to get a up a hill and then that's the gear you're stuck with until you get your bike to a bike shop. No matter what you can't stop even if you want to or you will freeze to death because you either overdressed and sweated or because you underdressed and the cold will penetrate once you're not working hard.

Chicago here

Yet last winter it was cold enough that there was shinny on North Pond for the first time in my ten years here. Climate is crazy!
posted by srboisvert at 3:44 PM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

There's an ongoing citizen research initiative that uses outdoor rinks as way to track climate change. It is a pretty interesting project however... it shouldn't surprise anyone that it is getting harder to have rinks all winter long in many parts of Canada.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:22 PM on February 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

TIme to put some glice down!
posted by storybored at 10:24 PM on February 24, 2023

And in Europe it seems that the 200km Elfstedentocht, last run in 1997, will never happen again.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:20 PM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

Treat every winter outdoor ice skating / ski / snowboard season like it’s the last for you and your kids. One day it will be.

We are having an absolutely massive winter in northern Utah (like most of the Mountain West) - just epic snow and one of the biggest snow dumps of the decade last week - but many seem to be aware this is not normal, and it kind of feels like a high water line that will recede from here.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:29 AM on February 25, 2023

Very unique activity offered by an otherwise dull city.

Hey! I grew up there, and it's...

Yeah.

It's why I still live here! Although I feel like we've lost a disturbing number of trees in the last 5 years.
posted by Dark Messiah at 12:22 PM on February 27, 2023