Originally published in the Anchorage Daily News. March 1, 2025
Wild ice skating is finally having its moment. Once a niche shoulder-season activity, wild ice skating — the practice of skating on naturally formed outdoor ice — has exploded in popularity in recent years and has become a core part of winter life in Anchorage for thousands of residents.
This is good news on its own, but the bigger picture might be just as exciting: Anchorage is emerging as an internationally known hotspot for wild ice skating and a bucket list destination for adventurous skaters. What Moab is for mountain bike trails, and Oahu is for waves, Anchorage is becoming for wild ice. Wild ice skating is making increasingly meaningful contributions to our outdoor culture, public health, and economy, and it is poised to play a supporting but significant role in our city’s future.
There is no denying the growth of the sport locally. The Wild Ice Skating Club of Alaska Facebook page ballooned in just a few years from zero to more than 12,000 members. I serve on the WISCA board. Good ice reports now cause trailheads and parking lots at popular destinations like Portage Lake, Eklutna Lake and Potter Marsh to overflow with carnival-like assortments of vehicles, dogs and skaters of all ages and abilities. Earlier this season, the Anchorage Assembly formally dedicated November as Wild Ice Skating Month.
Our wild ice skating scene has attracted the interest of The New York Times, the BBC, Newsweek, the Daily Mail and more. The word is out, and people both inside and outside Alaska are paying attention.
As the owner of Ermine Skate, an Anchorage-based manufacturer of Nordic skates designed for wild ice, I am an easy person for would-be visitors to contact with questions. Just a few seasons ago, I do not recall getting any emails or texts about visiting Anchorage to skate. Now I get questions about it regularly, and a surprising number of people are following through and booking tickets.
Visitors this season included Swiss figure skater Michaela Scalisi and her partner Dejan Tosetti, Colorado-based wild ice skater and educator Laura Kottlowski, and former Team USA figure skater Angelina Huang. Huang and her crew spent weeks in Anchorage shooting the world’s first feature-length wild ice skating film.
Why is this happening here? The answer is that we have a “Goldilocks” combination of infrastructure, climate, geography and community.
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport makes traveling to Anchorage easy, and our extensive road network provides access to hundreds of water bodies. Our maritime climate, which dances around the freezing point for several months each winter, means that water bodies of different sizes and at varying elevations freeze gradually throughout a long skating season, sometimes even going through freeze-thaw reset cycles multiple times.
And our landscape is jaw-dropping. Anchorage boasts same-day access to everything from alpine tarns to wetland mazes to stunning glacial lagoons. Drive north for a few hours and you can skate below the towering 18,000-foot eastern face of Denali. Head south and you can take a water taxi across Kachemak Bay to glide past the calving face of a glacier in a temperate rain forest. Early season skating in Chugach State Park, within city limits, provides almost limitless options for mixed-sport hiking and skating adventures.
But perhaps the biggest asset we have is our community of scrappy, curious and adventurous skaters. What our population lacks in size we more than make up for in stoke. Alaskans love pushing the limits in the outdoors, and that energy is pushing the entire sport forward here.
“Ice is ice,” Angelina, the former Team USA skater and filmmaker, told me in a phone call last month. “But the thing that stands out the most for me is how welcoming and friendly the wild ice community is in Alaska. People are so willing to share information and even invite you — total strangers — on adventures.”
Wild ice skating is at its best during low-snow periods when other winter activities like skiing, snowshoeing or snowmachining are marginal, making it highly complementary rather than competitive with other winter sports. A good experience on wild ice can turn one of the darkest, coldest days of winter into one of the most awe-inspiring and memorable days of the year. Wild ice skating has made life in Anchorage more exciting, and it acts like a booster shot for the emotional and physical well-being of countless Alaskans exactly when we need it most.
Wild ice skating has economic benefits, too. Ermine Skate alone is responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars of local economic activity every year. That money helps employ skilled machinists, soft goods makers, employees at outdoor retail shops and even workers at the post office. Local and visiting wild ice skaters alike patronize restaurants, retailers and lodges during the slower winter season. WISCA regularly hosts standing-room-only events at local breweries and community spaces.
A lot of money spent by Alaskans instantly teleports to the Lower 48. By contrast, money spent on wild ice skating ricochets around the state like a pinball. Is wild ice skating alone going to keep the lights on in Alaska? Of course not. But it is a small, bright light in a nationwide $1.2 trillion outdoor industry and an area where Anchorage can shine.
There is so much we can do to foster the growth of the sport here. Businesses can support our skating community by offering wild ice products, courses or guided experiences. The municipality does a great job maintaining outdoor ice at Westchester Lagoon and Cheney Lake, though the outdoor track at Cuddy Park could use a little more attention. Clubs and schools can provide unforgettable experiences for their members by renting skates, organizing group trips and offering lessons. The excitement is already here — we just need to take advantage of it.
Not part of a business, government or a club? No worries. You can participate in our growing wild ice scene, too, by doing the easiest and most fun thing of all: tracking down some skates — any kind will do — and joining us on the ice.
Paxson Woelber is a born-and-raised Anchorage resident and the owner of Ermine Skate, North America’s first Nordic skate company.