MAKING use of some Winnipeg sidewalks right now requires some fancy footwork to stay out of the unseasonably slushy morass.

The recent mild spell has made the prospect of a fresh-air stroll appealing to many pandemic-forced shut-ins, but it’s important to watch your step.

Michael Cantor, the city’s manager of streets maintenance, said that even though the sidewalks were cleared of a recent snowfall by Sunday evening, navigation may still prove challenging, partly due to wind and mild weather that quickly messed up freshly cleaned paths.

“It’s usually (due to) blown-in (snow). And… when temperatures go up, the packed snow that was there got a little slushy,” said Cantor. “In conditions like that, it’s difficult for wheelchair users, so when we get calls and we inspect (these places) and we see some trouble areas, we replow them.”

Residents made their concerns known across social-media platforms.

Abnormally warm conditions, which saw Winnipeg’s temperature rise just above the freezing mark Monday, means hard-frozen snow that would typically offer an even walking surface has softened into slick, treacherous little mounds of slush.

“We plow to a compacted snow condition, not bare pavement all the time.… (If) you have two centimetres of compacted snow, you can walk on it when it’s -10 C. But when it becomes 1 C, it could become slushy and then it’s harder to pass,” said Cantor.

He urged Winnipeggers who see trouble spots to call 311 to report them.

While some Winnipeggers criticized the city for slush piles along the edges of some roads, Cantor said the city’s snow-clearing policy doesn’t require it to deal with residential streets yet.

The policy calls for residential street clearing when an inspection deems the routes impassable, which may (but is not guaranteed to) occur after at least 10 cm of snow falls.

Since climate change is expected to trigger an increasing number of unseasonably warm winter days, some Winnipeggers are urging the city to explore new winter street-grooming options.

“As the climate changes and these freeze-thaw periods are something we see a lot more of… I think it is something the city needs to think about,” said Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg.

“Instead of having that solid, sort of packed snow base (these conditions create) this slushy mound. It takes a lot more energy to move around in.”

Cohoe said he’d like the city to consider making travel easier for pedestrians and cyclists on sidewalks and pathways, possibly through clearing efforts aimed at slush removal.