Skaters will be able to enjoy an extra 800 metres of ice on the
Rideau Canal Skateway
starting on Saturday morning.
A total of 4.2 kilometres will be open for skating as of 8 a.m. Saturday, as the
Skateway
expands further downtown to Rideau Street, the National Capital Commission announced Friday.
With that addition, more than half of the Skateway’s total 7.8-kilometre distance will officially be
open for skating
.
The NCC said Capital Skate rentals would be open on Saturday at the Rideau rest area, but the opening date for the Rideau BeaverTail stand was still to be determined. BeaverTails and skate rentals will both remain open at the Fifth Avenue rest area.
A 3.4-kilometre section between the
Bank Street Bridge and Somerset Street West was the first to open this season
on New Year’s Eve, as the Skateway celebrated its earliest opening since 2018. The Bank Street stairs remain closed, the NCC said in its Friday announcement.
As of Friday afternoon, ice conditions were listed as “good” on the 3.4 kilometres of ice available for skating.
Last winter, the Skateway, now in its 55th year, partially opened on Jan. 11, with the
full 7.8-kilometre length
opening on Jan. 18.
It was open for a total of 52 days and attracted more than 1.1 million visitors in what the NCC described as a “fantastic” skating season after a couple of dreadful years. In 2024, it was open for only 10 days, and that came on the heels of 2023, when it failed to open at all due to thin ice conditions.
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