First section of skating trail opens at The Forks

Agreeable weather conditions and river levels have allowed The Forks to open the first section of its skating trail prior to the new year.

The skating rink on the Assiniboine River opened at the port at The Forks on Friday at about 3 p.m.

Oscar Fishman, a Brooklyn, New York, resident in Winnipeg to visit family, was among the first on the ice.

"It's cold, but we're bundled up and it's like a lot of fun and I've never been on an ice-skating rink," he said."It's not even a rink basically. It's like a track and you go around. This is kind of great. It's really in the nature's settings here."

The trail will be elongated along the Assiniboine and the Red River as conditions allow. The Forks expects to place its warming huts along the trail during the third week of January, whenNorwegian artist Terje Isungset will use instruments made of Red River ice in a performancewith the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

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The Forks usually doesn't complete its skating trail until January. Trail-building operations have been aided this year by low river levels in Winnipeg.

The Red River has hovered at or just above normal winter ice levels throughout the month of December, according to the City of Winnipeg.