The weather was chilly, and the gusting wind made it bitingly cold, -10 C or worse with the wind chill, but skaters were racing around Whonnock Lake on Saturday afternoon wearing just their hockey jerseys.

It was bright and sunny, and two or three separate games of shinny were going at the same time, while people on the shore shivered beside a propane fire pit and cursed the wind.

Oral Tahara, who says safety is his business, confirmed that the ice was four and five inches thick before he took his two youngsters out for a skate.

They live close by, but it hasn’t been cold enough to skate on the little lake in two years, he said.



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