Well, it’s not exactly pond skating on the Lake itself but there is tons of pond ice, and hockey, in the Tahoe / Truckee area. I grew up playing pond hockey back East and this normally-pre-season sport is one of my favorites. For fun, I freelance write and photograph for outdoors magazines. My most recent is a piece on this awesome activity that I’ve put together for one of our most prominent local papers, The Weekly. The article is coming out Feb. 9 and here’s a teaser:
“Many folks don’t realize it but Tahoe has a Two Act Winter. The Second is the reason most of us moved out here – Pacific Maritime dumps and the deepest, most ridiculous powder days imaginable. But the First Act is what’s such a surprise: the ever-changing, and never-consistent, Tahoe pond skating season. I’m always caught off guard, and hugely pleased, when I get that first text from the guy who organizes daily skates in his neighborhood. Like presents under a tree, the skating season here surprises and excites me every year. It starts discretely in the higher elevations and then slowly moves down to lake level. By the time you see people on the roadside pond in Tahoe Vista there’s already been a month of hockey under the belts of numerous players around town. But the beauty of a frozen pond is that anyone can enjoy it on their own terms and without any gear whatsoever. The other day there were kids and dogs spilling out of sleds on a local pond – not one had skates on….”
I’ll post the rest once the article is out in the paper. Until then, let’s hope for some more snow…!
Storm Jacobs Ice Skate in Coldstream Canyon, Truckee, CA