Western Canada’s largest pond hockey tournament is taking on icy Alberta weather

If we asked you to lace up your skates and hit the local pond for a little bit of shinny in -30°C weather, how long do you think you’d last? Whatever your answer, we can almost guarantee it doesn’t hold a candle to the folks playing in the Western Canada Pond Hockey Championship, the largest pond hockey tournament on this side of the country.

On Chestermere Lake (about 30 minutes east of Calgary’s city centre), dozens of teams are facing off against each other and seriously cold weather to try and take home their respective championships.

Wrapping today, December 29th, the tournament features ten different divisions (along with some ringette divisions), with skaters ranging from 8 to 16 years old.

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It’s not the first time that Alberta has displayed some truly devoted hockey players. Back in February of this year, 40 players braved temperatures as low as -32°C for over 10 days (252 hours) straight in a fundraiser for cancer research.

Luckily, Tim Hortons joined in on the fun and provided free hot chocolate from its very own heated rinkside igloo.

Now, the real question is, will the folks playing this week also get to experience the joy of a puck legitimately breaking, like what happened in February? We sure hope so, because it would make for one heckuva “one time during shinny” story.