A spokesperson for the Rural Municipality of Hanover says most of their winter outdoor recreation options are now open for the season.

Jason Peters is Manager of Recreation and Community Services. He says Hanover has outdoor skating rinks in Grunthal, New Bothwell, Kleefeld, Mitchell and Blumenort. The only rink yet to open is the one in Grunthal. Peters says New Bothwell has had its rink up and running for nearly a month already.

He says it has been a bit of slow start for outdoor skating this winter.

"Just in terms of a lack of snow base," he says. "And we actually haven't had that many cold nights."

Environment Canada is calling for daytime highs above freezing later this week. Peters says there is no question temperatures like that will be hard on the ice. But, he says damage can be kept to a minimum if there isn't much skating during those warm stretches or if it stays cloudy.

"If you are in one of those communities and all of a sudden the rink's closed for a little while, it will just be because of safety issues and trying to maintain as much ice as we can," notes Peters.

Meanwhile, the municipality's three toboggan slides in New Bothwell, Kleefeld and Mitchell are also now up and running. The slide in Mitchell has been moved from Stahn Field to the arena to provide better access for users.

Peters says more ice and more snow would be good for the slides. He says, unfortunately, the milder it is, the more demand there is for the slides, yet the tougher it is to then maintain.