Ice and art: Winnipeg’s frozen river trail

WINNIPEG – Perhaps one of the best embodiments of Canadians’ ability to embrace winter, rather than hide from it, pops up every December at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

In a city where it’s cold enough to freeze moving waterways, crews prepare a skating trail nearly seven kilometres long on the two rivers and comb adjacent walking and cross-country ski trails.

Workers dot the ice with benches, trees and signs, as well as distinctive warming huts that combine art and function.

Temperatures may dip from 0 to -30 C, but Winnipeggers still hit the trails and take in sights from the middle of a river that can only be seen by boat in other seasons.

“It’s a totally different perspective of the city, where you’ve got the riverbanks and some green spaces. You can see animal tracks cutting across,” says Paul Simpson, who regularly skates and runs along the paths.

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“It’s just so quiet … you just hear the, like, swoosh of the blade back and forth.”

With warm clothing and running shoes, Simpson also uses the river trails to commute to work in winter.

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The Nestaweya river trail, in the heart of Winnipeg, is a combination of trails for skating, walking, cycling and cross-country skiing. It’s not quite as long as the Rideau Canal trail in Ottawa but is arguably more whimsical.

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Every year, officials hold a contest to pick designs for new warming huts to be added to returning stock from prior years. There were more than 200 submissions for this winter, and only a small number make the final cut.

Some of the new huts include an A-frame structure, made to look like a giant opened book with its spine facing up; an interactive series of spinning blocks with pictures of wildlife; and a 30-metre passageway made up of square snow arches lined up in a row.

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The warming huts are far from saunas; there is no real heat source inside them. They offer people a chance to briefly duck out of the wind and appreciate the art.

“They’re basically a windbreak. We always say they warm your heart more than they’re actually warm,” says Dave Pancoe, manager of placemaking and sustainability with The Forks Renewal Corporation.

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On a warm winter day, especially on weekends, the trails are packed with people of all ages. Skates and snowshoes can be rented at The Forks — the area surrounding the river junction that is home to shops, restaurants, a hotel, a large skating rink and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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On weekday mornings, especially when the temperature drops, the trails become a quiet refuge a stone’s throw from the hustle and bustle of downtown.

The huts have become so popular, Pancoe and his team get requests from neighbourhoods that want their favourite installed close by.

One hut, made of a wood frame with benches inside and covered in fir branches, is a regular for residents of the Lyndale Drive and Riverview areas, Pancoe says.

Residents have also shown support by helping to pay for the skating trail. For $50, people can “adopt” a metre. Hundreds of people and companies have already done so this year.

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One of the most popular huts, Pancoe says, is Huttie — a brightly-coloured square hut made up to look like a children’s TV cartoon character from the psychedelic era. People can step inside the character’s open mouth, underneath soft plastic teeth that hang from a circular upper lip, and sit on benches around a small table.

After a short number of weeks, depending on the weather, the structures are pulled off the river before the melt begins. And the trails are left to turn to water.

“The window’s pretty small to use it,” Pancoe says.

Planning begins, not long after, for the next season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2026.

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