Missoula offers lots of ice skating venues
By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian
Missoula County has lots of indoor and outdoor ice skating opportunities to take advantage of this winter.
Glacier Ice Rink is sporting new facilities, thanks in part to the Missoula Maulers, the new local Junior-A hockey team.
There are new bleachers, new offices, a new locker room for the Maulers’ players and a new concession area, said Glacier Ice Rink executive director Bill Mathews.
The Maulers started playing games several months ago in their inaugural season. Games are mainly on Friday and Saturday nights.
Missoula is the only place in the state to offer two ice rinks at the same location, Mathews said. Although one rink is inside and the other outside, Mathews would eventually like to enclose both rinks.
The outdoor rink has been open since October. The indoor ice rink opened the same weekend as the Western Montana Fair in August.
Close to 400 kids and 800 adults play hockey in Missoula, Mathews said. Hockey is offered to anyone age 4 to adult.
Nearly 2,000 people use the facility on a weekly basis, he said.
“This is one of the fastest-growing hockey and skating programs in the Northwest,” Mathews said.
Also, Glacier Ice Rink revamped its Web site. Mathews said anyone interested in open skate times and the various programs should check out www.glaciericerink.com.
“It’s more user-friendly,” he said.
Besides hockey, figure skating has remained a popular sport in Missoula since 1997, when the Missoula Figure Skating Club formed.
“It’s hard to expand,” said Jil Lee, figure skating club member. “We are really limited by the ice time we can get.”
The Missoula Figure Skating Club is holding sign-ups for beginning to advanced skaters.
Lessons for kids of all levels start on Jan. 12, and lessons for adults begin Jan. 14. The cost is $100.
Lee is always impressed by the number of adults who want to learn to figure skate. Either they are parents who decide to take a lesson or two while their kids also take a lesson, or they are people who learned to skate on a pond growing up and who have had no formal lessons, she said.
“Other times, they are just looking for another recreation opportunity,” she said.
For those who enjoy outdoor ice skating, there are two options for people in and around Missoula.
Pineview Park Ice Rink, located near Rattlesnake Middle School, has been available to local skaters for 32 years.
The natural ice, built and maintained by volunteers, normally lasts about 30-45 days during the winter.
It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. for public skating, except a portion of the ice is reserved during the weekdays from 4-6 p.m. for volunteers who maintain the ice rink. It is also reserved to volunteers on the weekend from 9-11 a.m.
The local Lion’s Club chapter maintains the ice rink located at Clearwater Park in Seeley Lake.
Skating on the frozen pond is free and open when the weather conditions are appropriate, said Lisa Moisey, county parks manager.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at Chelsi.Moy@Missoulian.com.
