Too Cold to Skate

“Skating on the Lake” brought a vivid memory to mind. Sometime in the winter of 1976-77, during my freshman year at Princeton, I borrowed the speed skates my Norwegian-born roommate, Lasse Brautaset ’80, had brought with him to campus and headed down to Lake Carnegie on my bicycle. When I got there, I was surprised to see no one skating, and not even any University personnel monitoring for safety purposes. Just a Zamboni that had obviously been used to clear snow from and smooth some of the ice. Then someone emerged from a vehicle to say that since it was very cold that day, 4°F, he would be watching the ice (and any skaters) from his heated vehicle. So I set out on my own, but skating was difficult. As I understand the physics of it, usually skates melt a thin sliver of ice by virtue of the pressure they and the skater above them apply, and this is what allows the skater to glide. But at 4°F, Lasse’s skates were having none of it. Or was it my mediocre skating skills? I never found out, because there was no one else down there to offer his or her opinion. After a few more minutes, I headed back up the hill, cold but invigorated!