In Manitoba, icy highways are literally skating rinks

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This article was published 22/02/2022 (1377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans often quip about a slippery road or highway being like a skating rink after a spell of freezing rain.

In Hailey Gardham’s case, it really was.

Driving along a deserted stretch of Highway 5 near their Baldur home Monday afternoon, Gardham asked boyfriend Marty Dalzell to pull over so she could put on her skates.

In a true Canadian moment, she went for a whirl on the ice-coated two-lane road while he recorded video against a backdrop of snow-covered fields and overcast skies.

“I said, ‘I’ve got my skates in the backseat, let’s do this,’” Gardham, 21, said Tuesday. “The ice was thick. It was just as good as it would have been in our small-town Miniota rink, but I had to watch out for stones.”

The couple was returning from Gardham’s parents’ home in Miniota, about 100 kilometres northwest of Brandon, after blizzards and freezing rain over the weekend resulted in temporary highway closures across southern Manitoba.

Temperatures swiftly plunged after rain fell Saturday night, creating treacherous driving conditions for Gardham and Dalzell’s journey to Baldur, about 100 km southeast of Brandon.

Normally a two-hour drive, the highways were so icy it took them about four hours to get home. Dalzell, 21, had to drive as slow as 40 km/h at times to avoid the same fate as motorists whose vehicles slid into ditches.

About 10 minutes from home, the idea to go for a skate popped into Gardham’s head. She figured it would be safe because it’s a quiet and familiar stretch of road.

No other vehicles came by during the brief pit stop on the clear and crisp -25 C afternoon.

“She said, ‘It’s icy enough, do you want to stop?’ And sure enough, she went skating,” said Dalzell. “It was entertaining to watch. It was unbelievable.”

He was worried Gardham would trip over a stone, but the surface was smooth. “It was a nice sheet of ice.”

Nice for skating, but not so much for driving, said Dalzell, who joked to Gardham she should skate all the way home.

“He howled as he watched me. He wanted his skates there, too,” she said.

When she and Dalzell returned home minutes later, they were greeted by the aftermath of the storms — snow drifts more than a metre high in their yard.

Dalzell put the video of Gardham’s skate on Facebook for families and friends to enjoy, but his post quickly went far beyond the couple’s social circle.

Shared widely by about 4,000 Facebook users, the video had been viewed more than 112,000 times, as of Tuesday afternoon.

Gardham and Dalzell were surprised and amused by the interest. They were pleased the memorable moment has provided some levity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other serious matters.

“Every time (Dalzell) gets a new share he says, ‘Oh my God, people are still sharing this video.’ We can’t believe how many views it’s had,” said Gardham. “(The) world is a little off right now, so I think people want to see something that will make them laugh. I’m glad it made everybody happy.”

It’s not the first time Gardham has skated on a frozen road. Growing up in Miniota, she would skate on gravel roads that became covered in ice from time to time in winter. On at least one occasion, she tried to play a game of curling.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching