The ‘weather gods’ are kind: you can skate the Weissensee now

You can skate the Weissensee now, as the western part has officially been opened. There was enough frost in the nights this week. “The weather gods were kind to us.”

“And above all, a sea of cold air stayed over the ice during the day”, said Bernhard Jank of natureislauf.at on Wednesday. But now the moment has really come. You can skate.

Skating the Weissensee: start at Praditz

• You can buy a day ticket (8 euros from the age of 10) and then skate freely. There is a circuit of exactly 3 km. A specially prepared approach track for getting on the ice at Praditz is 650 metres.
• You cannot simply get on anywhere; there are various barriers. “The north shore with its jetties and reeds cannot be entered”, Jank explains. “There is a risk of breaking through there.”
• The access point at Praditz is provided at Seecamping Müller. The car parks are signposted. You can also get on at Techendorf, on the south side; parking is at P7 then.

Skating in the morning

Milder weather is a constant threat. Jank: “We can only hope the weather does not worsen, that it does not get warmer, for instance – and above all there must be no föhn wind (a warm, dry downslope wind, ed.).”

When mild temperatures are forecast: get on the ice early in the morning, he advised on Wednesday. He repeats that tip after this first day on the ice. Because “(…) the conditions are decidedly better then.”

With the warm temperatures the ice surface turns soft, in the afternoon especially. The ice team member has his fingers crossed for cold weather again.

The 2023 programme
Entering for the Weissensee