Nearly entire Rideau Canal open for skating as of Wednesday morning

Nearly the full length of the frozen Rideau Canal is now open for skating.

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, the National Capital Commission (NCC) opened two more sections of the outdoor winter attraction that it has deemed safe for skating, extending the total length of open skateway to 7.4 kilometres.

Residents and visitors can now skate on the ice continuously between the Mackenzie King Bridge and Library Road — at the southern end of the skateway, past Dow’s Lake — according to the NCC’s webpage that tracks the Rideau Canal’s ice conditions.

In an update to that page on Wednesday morning, the commission warned the surface of the ice “may be uneven and bumpy in spots” and asked skaters to be careful.

Since the skateway’s 50th season kicked off on Jan. 18, see-sawing temperatures have caused the NCC to open, close and then reopen certain sections of ice.

1:39 Outdoor winter skating season shortening: research

The full skateway is 7.8 kilometres long. Four hundred metres of ice at the northern end of the skateway towards Rideau Street remain closed, according to the NCC.

The commission, which manages the skateway, urges the public to stay off that section.

“Snow, freezing rain or water on the ice may hide serious hazards below the ice surface,” the NCC said in a release Tuesday evening.