After a late start to the season, the Prince George Ice Oval saw no shortage of people come out for its first weekend.

The premier skating facility has seen its delays because of a lack of cooperation from Mother Nature.

The public was beaming with excitement on opening day to see it open for the first time says Ice Maker Lyle Dickeson.

“Ya it looked really busy out there, we had a lot of people lined up and ready to go as soon as the gates were opened and we had a pretty good turnout. I know off the start we sold a lot of year-long memberships so it indicates a lot of people want to come out and go skating.”

Crews have been working night and day to get the Ice Oval in good condition.

“You know there were some rough spots where the ice was quite thin and during that warm spell we had a bit of a base going already and then it was taken out, we’ve had a crew of seven or eight guys every day four times a day for the past come out with fire hoses to try and flood the ice.”

Dickeson adds with the warmer temperatures back for this week, it is best to check the Oval’s Facebook page to see if it’s open for public use.

“If it’s minus two, plus three or plus four those are really tough conditions for us to maintain, we spend a whole lot of extra time making ice because it’s natural ice on a dirt base.”