Embracing an Edmonton winter takes layers of clothing — and a leap of faith

On those winter days when the temperature plunges below minus thirty, the icy wind is intolerable, and the sun is rarely seen, it seems impossible to embrace the season. But that is precisely what some in Edmonton are doing. North America's northernmost big city is taking a new approach to winter, and other cold weather cities are paying attention.

The objective is to defy the cold and darkness and reimagine public spaces that teem with life in July but are empty and windswept in January. It means getting people out of their warm homes and out to winter markets and festivals, and to don skis and skates to take full advantage of the region's most abundant winter resources: snow and ice.

Eight years into Edmonton's winter city strategy, there are still likely more people griping about cold and snow than actually enjoying it. But civic leaders and the hearty citizens who agreed to lead the city out of the cold are claiming some success, while also pointing to work that remains to be done.

"Winter is our most challenging season," said Susan Holdsworth, a strategic planner with the city of Edmonton. "It comes with a lot of challenges, but it also comes with a lot of potential that we've been ignoring." 

Holdsworth was among a small group of civic-minded citizens who gathered on a cold, dark December day in 2011 to begin reimagining winter. 

Changing the conversation

If there is one thing that unites Edmontonians it is disdain for the inhospitable period that often blows in around Halloween and stays until after Easter. For Holdsworth, changing how people talk about winter was a first step.

"Winter is a core part of our identity as a city," she explains while standing in a downtown square beneath a giant Christmas tree. It is cold and snowing lightly, but Holdsworth pushes on without a hint of discomfort. "It's a season that we have a lot of and it comes every year. I think we've gotten into a habit of hibernating and pretending it doesn't happen."

Edmonton's winter city strategy immediately set out to change everything from building design, to outdoor activity, to introducing more colour and light, and in particular to shifting the conversation.

• Shining a new light on the city
• Cold or not, thousands take in attractions on Family Day
• Ice On Whyte to kick off with above freezing temperatures

"It's largely about shifting our culture so that as a whole Edmontonians embrace winter more in all that we do."  

Patios and winter festivals

The first challenge was to convince more people to spend time outdoors. Edmonton is famous for festivals, but most of them happen in the summer. So the goal is to enhance existing winter festivals — and to add more.

One of the oldest, Silver Skate, is held in February. Its focus in the early days was as the name implies, skating. But in recent years it has expanded. This year's festival will feature thirty events including snow shoe races, live music, ice sculptures and horse drawn sleigh rides.

Executive producer Erin DiLoreto said there's no doubt Silver Skate has benefited from the winter city strategy. "We've been trying to change the lens of how people view winter," she said in an interview, noting that many of the people she sees at the festival are new Canadians who are eager to embrace winter.

In 2019, more than 50,000 people took in the festival in spite of bone-chilling temperatures that averaged -24 C over the ten days of the event. Two years earlier, organizers grappled with daytime temperatures of 15 C which melted ice sculptures and closed the signature ice castle.

• Melting Ice Castle in Edmonton river valley closed by warm weather

That uncertainty in weather is another of the challenges Edmonton faces in its quest to turn winter into a signature season.

You can always count on darkness

If weather is the wildcard, the long hours of darkness are a winter mainstay. Because of its northern location Edmonton gets just over seven hours of daylight on the shortest day of the year. That's why creative use of light is key to the winter strategy.

"Until the earth shifts on its axis, the only thing we're guaranteed in our winters in Edmonton is darkness," laments Holdsworth.

To brighten the city, she suggests people keep their outdoor Christmas lights up at least through January. Santa and Rudoph can return to the garage after Christmas, but the strings of lights are welcome to stay, Holdworth said. "Call them winter lights and make our neighbourhoods more beautiful and kind of warm."

Lighting also plays a key role in other winter initiatives. The Victoria Park Iceway, a three kilometre skating path in the river valley, is illuminated by a rainbow of light during the dark winter nights.

The Flying Canoe Festival which celebrates Canada's founding cultures, creates a ribbon of creative lighting to link French, Metis and Indigenous camps in Mill Creek Ravine.

All the practical things

No one is going to celebrate the season if they are snowed in or bogged down. So basic essentials such as snow clearing are crucial to the strategy. 

That's allowed people like Steve Martins to enjoy Edmonton's trail system year round. "It's like when you are a kid and you go outside and play in the snow," said the 45-year-old cycling enthusiast. "It's amazing how you feel once you're out there."

Future urban improvements to building design are also intended to make downtown corridors more comfortable by easing the wind tunnels created by tall buildings.

Taking notice

Eight years after that inaugural gathering, Edmonton's winter strategy is being copied, adapted and emulated by cities around the world. An international NGO focused on building better communities is taking the lessons learned in Edmonton and applying them in three U.S. cities.

"The City of Edmonton has been one of the leading cities looking at winter city strategies, and they are one of our partners on our winter mission project," explains Amanda O'Rourke, executive director at 8 80 Cities which is based in Toronto.

One of the cities which has signed on is Leadville, Colo., a community of 2,600 people perched high in the Rocky Mountains. It has a lot to share with Edmonton

"Leadville is kind of the last frontier of the big wild west," explains Sarah Dallas, the city's administrative manager. "It has its fair share of winter, roughly eight to nine months a year."   

Of the 68 U.S. cities that applied for help with improving their outlook on winter, Leadville was among three chosen, along with Buffalo, N.Y. and Eau Claire, Wisc. 

Dallas said based on what Leadville learned so far it is programming more winter events, and has set up an outlet that lends fire pits to local groups. It's working to support local businesses, and like Edmonton, it's using creative lighting to illuminate the dark nights.

And what can other cities learn from Leadville? It does have a signature event that draws hundreds to its main street on the first weekend in March. It's called Skijoring, where the street is covered in snow, lined with jumps and a skier, towed by a running horse, completes the course at a high speed. 

Skijoring is something you won't see yet in Edmonton, Buffalo or Eau Claire. But something for civic leaders to consider if they really want to add a dash of excitement to the winter months.