In Montreal, journalist Louis-Philippe Messier is mostly on the run, with his desk in his backpack, looking for fascinating topics and people. In this city chronicle he speaks to everyone and is interested in all areas of life.
A few rare Montrealers rejoice in cold days without sun: the foremen who assemble small armies of workers to ice our rinks depending on the whims of the weather.
The less sun there is, the more Nadine Bergeron, foreman in the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles district, can rub her hands with satisfaction.
She has nothing against light. It's just that the rays from it sabotage his work.
“Even when it is very cold, a bright sun prevents the water we distribute from freezing, so we have to avoid watering,” explains the woman who has been overseeing the maintenance of the ice rinks for 16 years.
Ms. Bergeron wants to maximize ice thickness on her land.
The size of the underlying frozen water mass ensures the resilience of the rink and its ability to survive during mild weather periods.
Mainly at night
“As soon as the conditions are favorable for the ice to thicken, we will set off with the tankers and Zamboni.”
“As soon as it's below minus seven degrees and it's gray during the day without snow, we always, always water… we never let it [passer] an opportunity to thicken the ice.”
In addition to being a primarily nighttime task, ice irrigation is also the primary responsibility of workers who work night shifts.
“It takes time to maintain 16 ice rinks!” exclaims Ms. Bergeron.
During the day, when it's gray, a towed Zamboni resurfacing machine (pulled by a tractor) moves from rink to rink. At night, when there is no snow, two Zambonis polish the ice rinks.
A towed Zamboni reduces irregularities in the ice after watering with a tanker and before watering again with a hose. Louis Philippe Messier
This year, with the snow delayed, construction of ice rinks only became possible last week.
“First we need a layer of snow, which we tamp down and spray with water at four degrees Celsius so that it soaks up and creates the ground on which we then build.”
A sprinkler system behind the tanker enables initial irrigation. Louis Philippe Messier
“When it snows, we don’t water, we shovel the snow. If the snow is icy, we wait until the icing stops before removing the snow, which then serves as a protective layer.”
Verglas does not bond with ice, but is deposited on the surface.
“The ice forms a crumbly layer that is broken by the knives.”
Ice rink in the making
When I visited Saint-Jean-Baptiste Park in Pointe-aux-Trembles last Thursday, the ice rink dedicated to hockey was only a few days old.
The water truck (the one that waters the plants and trees during the green seasons) irrigates the ice through a spray bar as it travels over it.
Then the Zamboni does its work, then Jonathan Mandracchia thickens the ice with the hose.
Jonathan Mandracchia waters the ice, making sure to push the water to the edge. Louis Philippe Messier
“Jonathan makes sure not to water the strips directly, but to push the water up to the edge to cover the rough edge that is inaccessible to the Zamboni,” his boss explains to me.
Some sort of edge planer will eventually scrape out the imperfections at the base of the strip.
This plane glass, which is flush with the strip, must be reworked with a mechanical plane. Louis Philippe Messier
When Ms. Bergeron finishes overseeing the maintenance of the rinks in Montreal's largest borough, she returns home and tends to the rink in her backyard for her 11-year-old twin boys, who love ice skating.
Now that I understand the work that goes into it, I will no longer view community rinks the same way. I also tell myself that I should get some skates!
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