Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Apex Mountain Resort

The joys of skating through a mountain forest at a ski resort in the South Okanagan are being discovered by more and more people.

But the reality is the Adventure Skating Loop at Apex Mountain Resort near Penticton has been around for decades.

“A lot of people think it’s new and go: ‘Oh wow! This is exciting! Your new skate loop,” Apex general manager James Shalman told iNFOnews.ca. “Well, our new skate loop is actually 30 years old.”

Apex has the highest elevation skating surfaces of any resort in Canada, he said. Along with the one kilometre loop through the forest, there’s an NHL-sized skating rink that's often used for weekend hockey tournaments.

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“The skate loop itself has been getting a lot of exposure over that last five to seven years, especially with social media coming out and easily being shareable and exposing things on a larger scale,” Shalman said.

In December 2020, blogger Alix posted on her Bisous Des Caribous site that she discovered the loop through an Instagram post.

“A skate trail is to a skating rink as avocado toast is to regular toast. The whole experience is elevated,” she posted, adding “I’m happy to report this skate loop is still a hidden gem!”

But her experience came with a bit of a caution.

“The only thing that did catch us off guard was the fact the there are tiny inclines and gentle slopes,” Alix blogged. “As a novice skater, who admittedly doesn’t know how to stop very well, there was a bit of a learning curve on how to navigate the descents.”

Another blogger and skating newcomer, Gemma, wrote about the loop in her Offtracktravel blog.

“Though I may not have glided gracefully around the trail as I had imagined in my head, I still got a taste of the Skating Loop magic,” she wrote after experiencing the loop with her fellow blogger John Robert, who did know how to skate. “Alone on the trail, it was just us and the tall trees lining the ice. Despite being so close to a busy resort, the forest was silent, if not for the occasional falling snow and my yelping when shuffling down a steeper section.”

Creating that experience for skaters is not easy in an outdoor environment.

The Adventure Skating Loop at Apex Mountain Resort.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Apex Mountain Resort

“The skate loop takes us about three weeks to make,” Shalman, the resort manager, said. “There’s constant flooding and scraping. Then, it can snow a foot and you have to clear that off. Then it gets a little exothermic on the bottom layer, which creates havoc with the ice quality.”

That exothermic effect means the bottom of the ice surface melt due to warmth from the ground while the upper surface freezes.

While the trail and rink surfaces are kept smooth with a Zamboni, those machines are not designed for the job.

“They make Zambonis for indoor skating surfaces,” Shalman explained. “They’re very controlled. The flooding, the water, everything you use in an inside arena is very different.”

Zambonis also don’t plow snow. That’s left up to a loader and a smaller tractor.

Both surfaces are also created on dirt bases, which can be challenging if the ground is not frozen deeply.

The skating loop was closed this week due to a heavy rime snowfall knocking down trees but is expected to reopen this weekend.

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While the loop was once free, it now costs $5 to use, $17 if skate rentals are rented.

It's lit at night so is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. but skates have to be rented before 3:30 p.m.

Go here to get updates on when Adventure Skating Loop reopens.

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