Refrigerated skating rinks | One last ride

Early March. It’s still winter, but it’s getting harder and harder to find a nice icy surface to skate on. Fortunately, there are refrigerated ice rinks that can extend the season. But don’t wait too long: even these will soon disappear like snow in the sun.

Mary Tison
The Press

So it’s time to visit the newest refrigerated skating rink in Montreal, located on the Esplanade Tranquille, in the Quartier des Spectacles. It was officially inaugurated on February 21, so it is still brand new.

Precisely, it still smells new in the beautiful locker room set up right next to the ice rink. Of course, this good smell is likely to disappear quickly with the wet boots and the overheated skaters who have followed one another since the inauguration, but the sober elegance of the room will remain. The pads that line up in the shelves behind the rental counter are sparkling. The lockers are numerous and, a small detail that is important, their bottom is made of a mesh so that the humidity of the snowy boots escapes and dries quickly.

The rink itself is very large, set between large modern buildings (or in the process of being modernized, which explains a certain noise of construction works during the day). An island in the middle allows you to rest by sitting on wooden benches. But the great luxury is found just outside the rink, on the other side of the transparent strips, with sets of wooden armchairs arranged around fireplaces.

The ice cream is flawless. As proof, during the Montréal en lumière festival, the circus troupe Les 7 Doigts presented a show on ice, Cadence.

We have not set a closing date for this new free skating rink. Everything will depend on the weather conditions. There is still a limit to what a refrigerated rink can endure in terms of heat.

Other ice rinks

This is also the case for the Mont-Royal skating rink, located right next to Beaver Lake. We try to make it “last” as long as possible. Municipal employees are also proud to offer a beautiful smooth surface. Sometimes it looks like silk. But other times the surface is a bit rougher, especially in adverse weather conditions like mild spells.

The ice rink is not huge, but it is very bucolic, surrounded by tall trees. If you listen early in the morning, before the background music starts, you can hear the chirping of black-capped chickadees and cardinals.

The emblematic Lac-aux-Castors pavilion, built in the late 1950s and restored between 2004 and 2006, is unfortunately not accessible this winter to warm up. You can go there to rent skates, but you have to put them outside. Fortunately, the cold weather is probably behind us.

One of the oldest refrigerated skating rinks in Montreal, the Old Port skating rink, is scheduled to close its doors on March 6, unless otherwise announced.

There is therefore very, very little time left to go sliding on this large square ice rink. It had remained closed throughout the 2020-2021 winter season due to the pandemic, but it was able to reopen its doors this season. However, you must reserve your time slot and pay an entrance fee ($9.25, taxes included, for an adult). The cloakroom is open, but its capacity is limited.

However, the site remains very pleasant, at the foot of the Montreal Ferris wheel, near the St. Lawrence River and Old Montreal.

The Banque Scotia skating trail installed on the Place des Festivals as part of Montréal en lumière will disappear even more quickly: the last strokes of the blade are given on March 5 at 9 p.m.

There are other refrigerated rinks for public skating in Montreal, but they are very small, such as the Émile-Duployé rink in La Fontaine Park and the Cabot Square rink. The interview is more random, but for a short session with the children, it’s still pleasant.

For their part, hockey players can still count on the Bleu Blanc Bouge ice rinks, which can be found in particular in Saint-Michel (François-Perrault park), in Montreal North (Le Carignan park), in Notre-Dame- de-Grâce (Confederation Park), in Ahuntsic (De Mésy Park) and in Verdun (Willibrord Park). But the hockey players must also hurry to make a few more shots on goal.