Ice Skating near the Cabins

The nearest public skating to the cabins is a drive south into the Adirondacks: the Saranac Lake Civic Center is about 43 road miles away, Lake Placid's Olympic oval, indoor rinks and Mirror Lake about 52, and Tupper Lake's two rinks about 58. Lake Placid has the most ice in one place, from the refrigerated oval where Eric Heiden won five gold medals in 1980 to a two-mile track kept clear around Mirror Lake once the lake freezes a foot deep. This guide has the sessions, prices, rentals and rules at each rink, DEC's advice for natural ice, and a skating day planned from the cabin door.

The rinks at a glance

Each rink posts its own schedule and changes it for games, competitions and weather. The prices below are the ones posted in October 2026; check the rink's page the morning you go.

Malone, about ten road miles north, had no public skating schedule posted online in October 2026, so the list starts at Saranac Lake.

For a first time on skates, start indoors at Saranac Lake, where skate trainers are on hand for those who need them, or on the oval, where a skate assister rents for $5. For a long glide under the mountains, Mirror Lake's two-mile track is the one. Hockey players have stick-and-puck hours at the Olympic Center and in Saranac Lake, the cleared pond hockey rinks on Mirror Lake and set hockey hours at Tupper Lake's outdoor rink. Speed skaters bring their own long blades to the oval's speed skating sessions; the Saranac Lake Civic Center does not allow them.

Public skating on the Olympic oval

The James C. Sheffield Speed Skating Oval sits beside the Olympic Center on Main Street in Lake Placid, and the public skates on the same ice where Eric Heiden won his five gold medals in 1980. ORDA, the New York State authority that manages the Olympic venues, calls it one of the few outdoor rinks of its kind left in the country. Its history, and the rest of the Olympic Center, are in the Lake Placid Olympic sites guide; this section is about getting on the ice.

The oval is outdoor ice over a refrigeration system, and recent updates to that system give it a longer, more consistent season. In the 2025-26 winter it was open most days from the start of December until March 2. Sessions depend on the weather, so the outdoor public skating hours appear day by day on the Olympic Center's online daily schedule, which marks every activity that can be called off for weather with a star. The venue also runs a live webcam of the oval; a look at both before you leave the cabin saves a wasted drive.

Prices posted for the oval:

• Adults 20 to 64: $15. Ages 7 to 19, 65 and over, and military with ID: $12. Children 6 and under: free.
• Skate rental, any age: $10. A skate assister, the push frame beginners lean on, rents for $5.
• Helmet, elbow pads and knee pads together: $5.
• Oval season pass for public sessions, ages 7 and up: $50.

ORDA's venues are cashless: they take credit and debit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay and ORDA gift cards, and any customer service desk will turn cash into a gift card. The box office is in Miracle Plaza, open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, at (518) 523-1655.

Speed skating sessions

The oval also runs separate speed skating sessions for skaters with their own long blades. There are no speed skate rentals, and admission is the same as for public skating. For 2026-27 the posted schedule starts on Friday, November 27, with sessions from 4 to 6 p.m. on most Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, plus 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. on weekends. Both blocks run every day over the Christmas holidays and Presidents' week, and the last sessions are on February 28. A speed skating season pass, which includes public skating, costs $150 and is sold by phone through the box office.

Indoor sessions at the Olympic Center

Inside the Olympic Center are three more sheets of ice: the 1932 Jack Shea Arena, the 1980 Herb Brooks Arena and the USA Rink. Figure skating sessions, hockey and athlete training use them most days, and indoor public skating comes in two holiday weeks. The schedule posted in October 2026 lists two sessions a day from Saturday, December 26 through Thursday, December 31, at 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. and 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. in the 1932 arena, then nothing until February. From Friday, February 12 through Wednesday, February 17, 2027, sessions run 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. and 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. in the 1980 arena. Admission matches the oval, and skates rent for $10. Each session has a capacity limit and can sell out, so buy tickets online and arrive half an hour early.

Summer brings the indoor ice back to the public. In 2026, evening sessions ran from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday, from June 30 to September 5. In summer the oval switches to inline skating and biking under the lights from 7 to 9 p.m., at $15 with rental gear or $7 with your own.

Freestyle, stick and puck and curling

• Figure skating sessions. Open freestyle sessions of 50 minutes run most days on one of the three indoor rinks, at $20 for any age. Coaching is not included; skaters can book a lesson with one of the approved Lake Placid coaches.
• Stick and puck. 75 minutes for $20, limited to 30 skaters, for individual skill work: no passing between players and no organized drills. Bring skates, a hockey helmet, gloves, a stick and a puck; there is no equipment sharing. The posted schedule has sessions from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. over Christmas week and 5 to 6:15 p.m. over Presidents' week.
• Curling. No skates needed. Sessions run an hour and twenty minutes on half sheets of ice and start with a short lesson; brooms, stones and safety gear are provided. It costs $20 a person, or $125 for a lane of up to eight people. Wear closed-toe, rubber-soled shoes. The posted sessions are in the 1932 arena at 2, 3:30 and 7 p.m. from December 26 to 31, and at 2:15, 3:45 and 7:15 p.m. from February 12 to 17.

Adult skaters who want more than a session can look at the Olympic Center's Adult Skating Week, held August 16 to 22 in 2026: group classes, practice ice and an exhibition for skaters of every level, at $450 for the week, $270 for three days or $100 for one.

Mirror Lake's track and hockey rinks

When the ice on Mirror Lake is at least a foot thick, the North Elba Park District keeps a track about two miles long around the lake and clears space for pond hockey near the town beach. The track and the rinks are free and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The park district is the Town of North Elba department that runs the town's recreation facilities, Mirror Lake Beach and the toboggan chute among them, and the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort helps keep the skating up as conditions allow.

The way onto the ice is at the beach. Park on Parkside Drive between Mirror Lake Drive and Main Street, or in a municipal lot, and walk out between the visitor bureau and the toboggan chute. Locker Room 5, at 2573 Main Street, rents skates a short walk from the lake; call (518) 302-5549 for its hours.

The track is lake ice, so give it the care natural ice needs. Mirror Lake is spring fed, and parts of it can be only two inches thick while other parts are nine inches or more. Lake Placid's police have said that no ice is safe ice, and they have used the toboggan chute as their gauge: when the chute is running, parts of the lake are fine for skating. Local firefighters have advised at least 8 to 10 inches of good ice for a hockey game. Stay on the track and the cleared rinks, the ice that crews look after.

The toboggan chute

The Lake Placid Toboggan Chute stands at the beach off Parkside Drive, near the post office. A toboggan drops down an iced chute about 30 feet high and runs out onto the frozen lake, more than 1,000 feet when conditions are good. A toboggan chute has run here since the 1960s; the current one was rebuilt from the ground up, replacing a converted ski-jump trestle of about the same height.

The chute opens only when the ice is 12 inches thick, and the North Elba Park District decides when that is. In 2026 it opened by January 23, earlier than in an average winter. Hours change with the weather and are posted on the chute's Facebook page. Go early in the day; holiday weeks bring extended hours.

• A session ticket costs $20 for adults and $10 for students and includes the toboggan and unlimited rides.
• Tickets are sold at the chute only, first come, first served, with no advance sales. Bring a card: no cash.
• Each toboggan carries two to four riders, and only one sled goes down at a time.
• Boots and gloves are required. Wear durable pants and leave expensive ski pants at home, since the ride has been known to wear through some technical fabrics.
• Riders should be in good health. Skip it with heart trouble, back or neck problems, motion sickness or a pregnancy.

The park district's office is at 2693 Main Street, (518) 523-2591. A chute session and an hour on the Mirror Lake track make a good pair, since they share the same beach and the same foot of ice.

Saranac Lake Civic Center

The Saranac Lake Civic Center at 213 Ampersand Avenue is about 43 road miles from the cabins, roughly an hour by NY 30 and NY 86. It is a year-round, not-for-profit recreation and events center, renovated for the 2023 World University Games with new locker rooms and bathrooms, and its ice serves the village's pee wee and high school hockey teams, figure skaters and curlers. Public skating runs from October to March.

Local sponsors back the public sessions: the Village of Saranac Lake, the Cloudsplitter Foundation and Hudson Headwaters Health Network sponsored the October 2026 skates. Each session lasts about an hour. Admission is free with a reservation made online, or $5 at the door without one, and rental skates are $5 to $6. Session times move around: the October 2026 list had Saturdays at 9 a.m. or 4:45 p.m., Sundays at noon or 3:30 p.m., a Friday at 3:30 p.m. and holiday skates on Columbus Day and Halloween. Check the Civic Center's calendar and reserve a spot once your dates are set; the office is at (518) 637-7401.

Staff enforce the public skating rules:

• Hockey or figure skates only. Speed skates are not allowed.
• No figure skating during public skating, and no chasing or aggressive skating.
• Skate counterclockwise.
• No sticks, pucks, food or drink on the ice, and no strollers.
• No phones on the ice, including photos and videos.
• Skate trainers are for the skaters who need them.

The center's skate shop rents Bauer hockey skates and Jackson figure skates in kids' and adult sizes, and it sharpens skates; the prices are under rentals and sharpening below. The center also runs stick-and-puck sessions and curling.

Each February the Winter Carnival's Ice Palace goes up from blocks of Lake Flower ice, and the 2027 carnival starts on February 5; the Winter Carnival guide has the events, and the Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths guide has the rest of the village.

Tupper Lake's two rinks

Tupper Lake is about 58 road miles from the cabins, about an hour and a half down NY 30, and it has one rink outdoors and one inside.

The outdoor rink is in Tupper Lake Waterfront Park at 65 Demars Boulevard, behind the parking lot next to Riverpigs Stadium, near the basketball courts. It is open from noon to 8 p.m. every day in season, with open skating at all hours except hockey time, 4 to 8 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, when every hockey player needs a helmet. A warming building with a changing room and bathrooms is open during rink hours and locks automatically at 8:30 p.m., and a sledding hill sits behind it. The rink closes in bad weather; its listed number is the village office, (518) 359-3341.

The Tupper Lake Memorial Civic Center at 31 Santa Clara Avenue offers free public skating for all ages. Children under 12 must have an adult with them. Public skates share the ice with school hockey, youth teams and figure skaters, so the times change from week to week: in January 2026 the arena's ice calendar had public skating from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on most weekdays, with a few weekend and holiday sessions. The calendar is linked from the Tupper Lake Hockey Association's website, and the arena's number is (518) 359-2531. Neither Tupper Lake rink lists rental skates, so bring your own.

A morning at The Wild Center, open year-round with winter activities, and an afternoon on the waterfront rink fill a day in Tupper Lake; the Wild Center guide has the museum.

Stafford Ice Arena in Plattsburgh

Plattsburgh is about 61 road miles east, an hour and a quarter by US 11 through Chateaugay and NY 190. SUNY Plattsburgh's Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena, the 1,924-seat home of the college's hockey teams in the Plattsburgh State Field House, opens to the public on winter Sundays. The 2025-26 schedule had sessions on most Sundays from 1 to 2:30 p.m., from November 23 to March 22, plus four over the Christmas break: Monday and Tuesday, December 22 and 23, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Saturday, December 27, and Tuesday, December 30. Admission for the public was $5, rental skates were free while they lasted, and the college asks skaters to bring their own pairs if they have them.

The college's athletics website posts each season's schedule in the fall; the 2023-24 and 2025-26 lists both went up in October. The Plattsburgh guide covers the city, and the winter weekend in Malone guide has the stops in Malone on the way back.

Rentals and sharpening

Where to get skates on the day:

• Olympic Center and oval, Lake Placid. Skates $10, skate assisters $5, helmet and pads $5. No speed skates.
• Locker Room 5, 2573 Main Street, Lake Placid. Rental skates for Mirror Lake, a short walk from the beach.
• Saranac Lake Civic Center. Bauer hockey and Jackson figure skates, kids' and adult sizes, $5 to $6.
• Stafford Ice Arena, Plattsburgh. Rental skates were free with the $5 admission in 2025-26, while they lasted.
• Tupper Lake. No rentals listed at either rink; bring your own.

Rental skates fit differently from pair to pair, and the edges vary from one visit to the next, so anyone who skates more than once a winter will be happier in their own. Have them sharpened at home before the trip. Up here, the Saranac Lake Civic Center is the one rink in this guide that lists sharpening, on site or as a drop-off, at $8 for hockey skates and $10 for figure skates.

Fit, layers and helmets

A few minutes at the bench make the hour on the ice better:

• Wear one pair of tall, lightweight socks.
• Lace snug through the ankle. With the ankle flexed, one finger should slide between the back of the boot and your leg. Cross extra lace over the hooks instead of wrapping it around the ankle.
• A helmet is a good idea for anyone new to skating. Multi-sport helmets work, and the oval rents a helmet with elbow and knee pads for $5.
• Bring gloves, even for an indoor session.

Outdoors, dress the way DEC tells winter anglers to: layers, starting with one that wicks moisture away from the skin; no cotton, which stops insulating once it is wet; wool, and wind- and water-resistant outer layers; and a spare pair of gloves, because the first pair gets wet. January in Malone averages a high of 23°F and a low of 4°F. Boots and gloves are the rule at the toboggan chute. Every cabin has a washer and dryer, so wet layers are dry by morning.

Natural ice and DEC's advice

The rinks in this guide are the ones someone looks after: refrigerated ice on the oval and indoors, a village rink in Tupper Lake, and a lake track that crews open only after the ice reaches a foot. The pond below the Tiny Home's observation deck is for watching birds and beavers; leave the skates in the car until you reach a rink.

For any time you step onto natural ice, these are DEC's tips, with a few from the state's emergency management office:

• Four inches of solid, clear ice is DEC's general rule for walking on a frozen lake, and DEC has told anglers to double that for white ice.
• Lakes do not freeze evenly. Ice can be a foot thick in one spot and an inch or two a few feet away, so test it with holes at regular intervals, using an auger or a spud bar.
• Give moving water a wide berth, along with docks and houses where bubblers keep ice from forming.
• Read the color. Clear ice with a bluish tint is the strongest; milky, porous ice is weak; ice under snow is likely thinner; slush has about half the strength of clear ice; and a thaw followed by a freeze leaves spongy, honeycombed ice.
• Never go out alone, and tell someone where you will be and when you plan to be back.
• Carry a pair of ice picks around your neck, a rope that floats and a whistle.
• If a companion goes through, throw the rope from a safe distance. If a dog goes through, call 911 and do not go after it.

The nearest emergency department is at Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, about 10.5 road miles from the cabins; the health and safety page has the details.

When the ice is in

The winter skating season runs from October indoors to early March outdoors, with the lake ice in the middle of winter. The pattern from the 2025-26 season and the schedules posted for 2026-27:

The winter season page has what else is open, and the packing guide has the rest of the winter list.

Watching skating and hockey

Races and tournaments take over the ice on some days, and they are worth watching on their own. On the 2026-27 calendars:

• Speed skating on the oval. The Adirondack Sprint Championships on December 12 and 13, the Empire State and Adirondack All Around Championship on January 16 and 17, Sk8 to Eliminate on February 20 and the Adirondack Single Distance Championships on February 27 and 28.
• Hockey at the Olympic Center. The Miracle Holiday Classic tournament fills every rink from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on December 11 to 13 and 18 to 20, with a jamboree for USA Hockey's youngest teams in the 1932 arena on December 12. A Cosmic Hockey Block Party runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on December 18, in place of that evening's speed skating on the oval.
• College hockey. The ECAC women's championship is in the Herb Brooks Arena on March 5 and 6, 2027, and the men's on March 19 and 20. In Saranac Lake, Paul Smith's College opens its hockey season at the Civic Center on October 23, 2026.
• Empire State Winter Games. February 4 to 7, 2027, with events at the Saranac Lake Civic Center.

At Olympic Center events, bags are checked at the doors and limited to 13 by 9.5 by 6 inches, backpacks are not allowed, and outside food and drink stay outside.

A skating day from the cabins

This plan fits a Saturday from late January into February, when Mirror Lake has its foot of ice and the oval is open most days. Check the Olympic Center's daily schedule, the oval webcam and the chute's Facebook page over breakfast.

Over Christmas week, swap Mirror Lake for the 12:15 p.m. indoor session in the 1932 arena. With a 9 a.m. Saturday skate at the Saranac Lake Civic Center, leave the cabins by 7:45 a.m. and carry on to Lake Placid, about ten miles farther, for the afternoon. The winter driving guide covers tires, road reports and what to keep in the car for the drive home, and the Lake Placid and Whiteface guide has Main Street's restaurants.

Dogs, teenagers and non-skaters

ORDA venues admit service animals only. The cabins take pets for a fee, and the listings ask that a pet never be left alone in the cabin, so on a skating day with a dog along someone stays behind with it or the group takes turns. The dog guide has the pet rules and the winter tips.

The cabins suit families with children 10 and up. At the Olympic Center, ages 7 to 19 skate for the $12 youth price; at Tupper Lake's civic center anyone under 12 skates with an adult. For the members of a group who would rather not skate, curling at the Olympic Center needs only rubber-soled shoes, the Olympic Museum is in the same building, and the toboggan chute needs no skill at all.

Back at the cabins

A day on the ice ends best in hot water, and every cabin has its own hot tub on the deck; The Modern Pine's is open around the clock. The Modern Pine and The Aviator each warm up with a Jotul gas stove, and The Modern Tiny Home has a big stone fire pit for the evening. Each cabin sleeps four. The hot tub cabins page compares the three, and the cabins page has the booking links.

Questions

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. Hours, fees and schedules change; confirm before you go.

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