While some St. Albertans may be cursing the cold weather and all that comes with it, it’s welcome news for many winter outdoor enthusiasts.
After a relatively warm fall, the cold weather has created the right conditions for the city to get its skating surfaces flooded and residents should be able to get out on the ice as early as this Wednesday, Dec. 14.
Recreation co-ordinator Daniele Podlubny said city crews have been working on flooding the ice surfaces since late November, and with the cold weather now upon us there’s no reason to think the city won’t meet its goal of opening the rinks by the second Wednesday in December.
“The exception to that is Lacombe Lake. We don’t flood that; we wait for Mother Nature to set us up for success,” she said. “We just need to make sure it’s got the thickness of ice that we need before we allow skating on that surface.”
Regular updates can be found on the city website, but as of Friday morning it appeared Lacombe Lake will open to the public on schedule as well.
The city maintains 13 rinks with boards plus an additional 15 unboarded ice surfaces – listed as “social surfaces” – throughout the city. There are five rinks with staffed indoor change buildings, as well.
Podlubny said while the city doesn’t track numbers at all its rinks, the indications from the staffed rinks are that surfaces are well-used, with on average eight to 10 people on the ice per hour, over the course of the day and the season.
Regardless of whether the rinks are regularly staffed, all of the city-managed ice surfaces are checked daily to ensure they’re safe for use. With so many maintained surfaces available, Podlubny cautions residents to stay off storm-water ponds and the Sturgeon River.
“We don’t feel it’s safe for walking and skating because of the flowing water underneath them,” she said.
While ice-skating hasn’t seen too many technological changes over the years, Podlubny said the city has tried something new with its newest boarded rink in North Ridge, in the park at the corner of North Ridge Drive and Natalia Way.
Rather than typical wooden boards, the city has used a synthetic material called rink board, which is longer lasting and is expected to bring maintenance costs down.
“We’re really interested to get some feedback,” she said. “We didn’t get that rink up and running until very late in the season last year, so this will be our first full season of operation at that site.”
All of the city’s outdoor ice surfaces can be used free of charge.
The most city’s website at stalbert.ca/rec/parks/sports/outdoor-rinks/ has the most up-to-date information about the city’s ice surfaces.
