PRENEETA SHARMA
SHIMLA
The long awaited Asia oldest natural ice skating rink will be once again alive with enthusiastic ice skaters at Ice skating club Shimla from December 15, 2023.
Pankaj Prabhakar executive member and Coach of Ice Skating Club says, “The club has done all the preparations. We are just waiting for a clear sky with minimum temperature below 1 degrees which is a pre- requisite for freezing of ice. If everything remains good, the ice-skating sessions will be start from the next week.”
The ice skating rink in Shimla came into existence in 1920 during the British Raj days and since then, more than nine decades old Shimla Ice Skating Club is hosting the winter skating activities. The rink saw the minimum 12 sessions in 1972. The maximum 118 ice skating sessions were held in 1997-98.
Pankaj said “ this year a skating carnival with events like ice dance, fancy dress, tug of war and an ice hockey match will also be organized on December 25,2023.” Besides, this , the national ice-skating championships will also take place in Leh in month of February 2024.
For children and tourist, this year the club will provide ice skaters and knee pads on the beginning of the session , he added.
Shimla Ice skating is a major attraction for locals and the tourists in winters. It generally starts in the first week of December but now the snowfall pattern has shifted towards January and Feburary. This is the reason for starting the session late.
Incidentally, the number of sessions held last year was the lowest in the last five years. In the past when the weather was more favourable, the club used to conduct around 90 sessions. But last year from December to January, there were 35 sessions,Pankaj said.
As per data with Shimla Ice Skating Club, the decline in session is due to the unusual weather conditions and increase in human activities which have made old ice-skating rink to lose its glory. Earlier in 2010-11, 88 skating sessions, the rink saw one of the lowest sessions in 2016-2017 with a mere 11 sessions in the year.
