Skating outdoors: maintained rinks, and why we will not tell you a pond is safe

Why outdoor skating is worth doing

A maintained outdoor rink is one of the great cheap winter afternoons. It needs no lesson, the equipment rents for very little, it works for a whole family across a wide range of ages, and it is the activity that most reliably converts a non-skiing member of a ski trip into someone enjoying the snow.

Almost every resort village has one, and many towns run a seasonal rink. If someone in your group has had enough of the mountain, this is the page they belong on, and skating is usually the first suggestion on it.

What maintained ice actually means

The phrase does real work. A maintained rink is resurfaced, monitored, staffed and bounded, and each of those is a safety feature rather than a convenience.

The second row matters more than it sounds for a first-time skater. Something to hold at the edge is the difference between an hour of gradual progress and an hour of standing up and falling over, and it is the reason a beginner should start at the rail rather than in the middle.

Natural ice, and what this page will not tell you

Skating on a frozen pond or lake is a genuinely different activity, and this site is not going to publish a thickness table for it.

The reason is specific rather than squeamish. Ice thickness varies substantially across a single body of water: moving water, springs, inflows and outflows, vegetation, depth changes, snow cover insulating the surface, and a warm spell three days ago all change it from one meter to the next. A number in an article is information about ice in general and tells you nothing about the ice in front of you, and the failure mode is not a sprained wrist.

This is the same boundary this site draws around avalanche terrain and around crampons and steep winter mountaineering: where the correct next step is local expertise rather than a purchase, we say so and stop.

What to wear on outdoor ice

Colder than a ski slope, and this surprises people. You are standing on ice, mostly gliding rather than working, often in the evening, frequently in a valley where cold air settles. The person who dressed for a walk is cold within twenty minutes.

• A helmet, especially for children and beginners. Outdoor ice is harder than a piste and there is no soft landing anywhere on it. A ski helmet is ideal; a bike helmet is common and reasonable at a rink. The comparison.
• Gloves, always, and not optional. Hands go down first in a fall, on a surface with edges, with other people’s blades nearby. This is the one item that is a safety item rather than a warmth item.
• Waterproof pants. You will sit on wet ice. Bibs if a child is skating.
• One thin pair of socks. Same rule as ski boots: bulk restricts circulation and makes feet colder. Why thick socks are colder.
• A hat and a neck gaiter, never a scarf. A loose scarf near blades is a hazard for the same reason it is near a lift.
• Knee and wrist pads for a nervous beginner. Borrowed from a skateboard if you have them; the falls are similar.

Skates: fit is the whole thing

A rink rental is the sensible way to start, with one caveat that people do not know to ask about: rental skates are usually handed out a size too large and are often dull. Ask for a half size smaller than you are given, and lace the ankle zone hard.

Both of those failures produce the same symptom, which everybody misdiagnoses as weak ankles. It is almost always a boot that is too big or laced too loosely. The skate fit page has the three-zone lacing method and the sizing checks.

If you skate more than three or four times a winter, owning starts to make sense quickly, and for a child the adjustable shells in this ledger cover about four shoe sizes each, which turns three purchases into one. The kids skate roundup compares the published options.

Rink etiquette, which is mostly safety

• Skate in the same direction as everyone else. Rinks have a direction and it changes periodically; watch before stepping on.
• Slow skaters at the edge, faster ones toward the middle.
• Get up quickly after a fall, or crawl to the edge. Sitting on the ice is where collisions happen.
• No phones in hands. Both hands matter, and a dropped phone on ice is a hazard for everybody else.
• Nothing dangling. Scarves, long straps and loose laces near blades.

Afterward

Wipe the blades dry before the skates go in a bag, every time. Blades rust, rust ruins an edge, and a rusted edge is a dull edge - which is the same principle as the blade care page and as keeping rust off ski edges.

Loosen the laces fully before storing, use soft guards in the bag and hard guards only for walking, and never store skates in hard guards, which trap moisture against the steel.