Oval hangs up skates for the season

The grass might not be that close to making an appearance from under the piles of snow, but one sign of spring has already reared its head.

The gates were closed to the outdoor ice oval March 4, and though there was hope it wasn't permanent, it indeed marked the end of the skating season.

"We need three really solid days of below-zero temperatures that don't come up above zero during the day to really get the ice going again and I don't think we're going to get that," said Kathy Lewis, chair of the Outdoor Oval Society of Prince George.

For the ice oval's 13th season, both recreational skaters and speedskaters alike shared the 400-metre rink behind CN Centre for 74 days.

"In the last melt, the ice became quite fragile. There were holes all the way down to the gravel," Lewis explained. "We would have to put an awful lot of water down to get it back and for such a short period of time."

Dealing with a milder winter than in years past, the society's crew of volunteers had to close the oval for 15 days during a season that lasted just shy of 13 weeks. During the 2010-2011 season the oval was open for a little more than 15 weeks. But temperatures didn't allow crews to begin flooding the ice until Nov. 19 last year.

It took 80 floods - each consisting of 2,000 gallons of water - to get the ice ready for it's Dec. 6 opening.

"We're only a couple of weeks shorter than when we closed last year, so this isn't too unusual," Lewis added.

Despite - or perhaps because of - the warmer temperatures and more frequent closures, Prince George skaters took to the ice eagerly over the season.

"My overall feeling was on an open day we got better participation this year than we did last year," said Lewis. That feeling turned out to be correct. According to society's stats, the rink was visited by 8,290 skaters, nearly 1,000 more than last year's 7,471.

"The days that we were open, we had lots of people out. So I'm quite happy with that," she said.

Hot water flooding with a zamboni crew made for better quality ice for skating and events such as the Iceman competition and the free P.G. Skates afternoon also helped to bring more blades to the ice.

Although the season has only just ended, Lewis said she has asked the maintenance volunteers to keep a list of suggestions for improvements for next winter. "They keep coming up with some great ideas," she said, but noted there isn't likely to be any major changes.

"We'll probably operate [the rink] on the same model. We will be starting to make some plans around the 2015 Winter Games but we won't really see much happening at the oval until the following year."