When will the skating pond at William Hawrelak Park open this winter? The City of Edmonton's own notice doesn't give a date. Its facility notification for the Hawrelak skating surface says only that it "is closed for the 2026 season and will reopen in winter 26/27."
For Windsor Park, that open answer is the most useful thing to know about the coming season. The rehabilitation that kept the park closed for three years rebuilt the pavilion, the paths, the parking and the lakebed. It could not change the one thing that has always decided when skaters get on the pond. That is the ice, and its thickness answers to the weather.
Three Winters Without the Pond
The park closed on March 13, 2023, as The Griff reported that spring. The last documented skating winter before then was 2022–23. That February, the Silver Skate Festival ran at Hawrelak from February 10 to 20 and promoted skating on the pond.
The park reopened to the public on March 13, 2026, exactly three years after it closed. The grand reopening followed on May 30, and the City's rehabilitation project page now calls the project complete. A mid-March reopening came too late for skating, and the ice notice has listed the surface as closed for the season since that date.
| Winter | Hawrelak skating status |
|---|---|
| 2022–23 | Last documented skating winter; Silver Skate on the pond, February 10–20, 2023 |
| 2023–24 | Park closed for rehabilitation |
| 2024–25 | Park closed for rehabilitation |
| 2025–26 | Park reopened March 13, 2026; skating surface closed for the season |
| 2026–27 | City says the skating surface "will reopen in winter 26/27" |
Anyone who started skating in the years since 2023 has never skated at Hawrelak. This winter will be their first chance.
What Actually Opens the Pond
The pond's opening has never been tied to a calendar date. In January 2019, CBC Edmonton interviewed Bryan Turner, then a team leader with the City's River Valley Parks department, during a slow freeze. He explained that crews could take snow-clearing equipment onto the lake at 25 centimetres of ice, and needed almost 40 centimetres before water trucks could start flooding the surface. Those are the thresholds for the City's equipment. They do not tell the public when the ice is safe to skate on, and the City's own notices are the only signal for that.
Snow slows the whole process. Turner told CBC that snow on the ice "acts almost as an insulating blanket" and slows how fast it thickens. He also said the lake can't be cleared in patches:
"We can't just make a small surface out there. If you leave a small surface, it's quite dangerous."
Turner explained that the entire five-hectare surface has to be cleared, because snow mounds left on the ice can build pressure that breaks through it.
The same CBC report gives the baseline. Apart from a few exceptions, the pond generally opened in the week around Christmas or early January. The exceptions were large. In 2019 the City was hoping to open in early February, just ahead of a Silver Skate Festival that started February 8. In 2013/14 the pond did not open at all.
This post goes up at the end of October. If this winter follows the usual pattern, the pond is about two months away. A mild December or an early heavy snowfall could push that back by weeks, and none of the work done in the park since 2023 changes that.
What the Rebuild Changed Around the Ice
The rehabilitation included dredging sediment from the lake and updating the Main Pavilion with skate flooring and a commercial kitchen. Global News reported at the March reopening that the pavilion also got renewed interior systems and gender-inclusive washrooms. Skate flooring in the pavilion means the building is set up for people walking through in blades, which matters on a cold afternoon.
The other changes that will matter on a winter visit:
- Food on site. The pavilion now has a restaurant, Lift Me Up on the Lake by Tiramisu Bistro. The City lists sit-down meals, quick refreshments and a dog-friendly patio. Dogs aren't allowed in park facilities except at that restaurant.
- Rentals. The City's park page describes maintained ice surfaces with onsite skate rentals.
- Paved paths in all seasons. A paved two-kilometre loop and multi-use trails now connect the park directly to the wider river valley trail network.
- Parking. Some stalls along the perimeter road were removed, and the main lot near the entrance was extended to make up for them. The City reports a small net increase in stalls.
- A fire to warm up at. The City lists one winter-reservable picnic site at Hawrelak, with a fire pit and two wood camp stoves.
- Washrooms. The pavilion and Shelter 3 washrooms are listed as open. Shelter 1 washrooms are closed until further notice.
The groomed cross-country ski trails are back on the City's list of winter activities too. Before the closure, a winter afternoon at Hawrelak meant a skate and then a drive somewhere else to warm up. Now there's a heated building with a kitchen at the edge of the ice.
An Edmonton Journal feature once described skating out to the pond's two islands and roasting marshmallows at fire pits. The City's notice for the coming season says only that the skating surface will reopen, so the City's own updates are the place to see how it is set up once the ice is ready.
The Dates That Are Fixed, and the One That Isn't
The only firm winter date at Hawrelak belongs to the Silver Skate Festival, not to the City. Silver Skate's official site lists Hawrelak Park and February 5 to 15, 2027. Its schedule page has no events posted yet, so the program hasn't been announced. The festival will be back on the pond where it ran in 2023, after the closure years elsewhere.
The pond's own opening day has historically landed anywhere from the week around Christmas to early February, and in 2013/14 it never came. A February outing can go on the calendar now, while a first skate before the holidays will depend on how December goes.
Emily Murphy Park Covers the Weeks Before the Ice
Windsor Park has a second winter park much closer than the pond. The City describes Emily Murphy Park as sitting on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River between Kinsmen Park and Hawrelak Park. It singles out the park's winter toboggan hill as a much-loved amenity. A sledding hill needs snow, not 40 centimetres of ice, so it can be in use for weeks while crews are still waiting on the lake.
Together the two parks make a dependable sequence for the season.
- Early snow: the Emily Murphy toboggan hill, plus the paved Hawrelak loop for walks and the restaurant at the pavilion.
- Ice opening: watch the City's Hawrelak facility notification, which offers email and RSS alerts when the status changes.
- Mid-winter: reserve the winter picnic site if a fire and camp stoves are part of the plan, since the City lists only one.
- February 5 to 15, 2027: Silver Skate at Hawrelak, with the schedule still to come.
For walking or cycling between the parks on any given day, the City keeps a live trail and park cautions and closures map for the river valley. Check it before heading down, because winter conditions on the valley paths change. For a look at how winter begins elsewhere in the valley, our piece on Westbrook Estate's season along Whitemud Creek follows a different stretch of it, and our Windsor Park neighbourhood page covers the rest of the area around the campus and the river.
Hawrelak first opened in 1967, and most of what the rehabilitation replaced dated from that time. Thinking about how a place will be used in its coldest months is part of how we approach the homes we design near the river valley. If you're thinking about a home built around winters like this one, the team at Rimrock Elevations would be glad to start that conversation with you. Start Your Homebuilding Journey.
