Helicopter rides, ice bowling, snow sculpting and pond hockey will highlight the first Hockeyfest Weekend from January 26 to 29 in Lake Placid, coinciding with the New York State 2017 Snow Sculpting Championship, which began Tuesday.

Hockeyfest has been introduced as a way to enhance the annual CAN/AM Adult Pond Hockey tournament that occurs on a series of groomed rinks lined up on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid each year.

The action on Mirror Lake will include helicopter rides on Friday and Saturday, and family-friendly pickup games of broomball, ice bowling, Shinny and public skating on the lake loop ice track, along with public skating at the speed skating oval throughout the weekend.

Nighttime activities for grown-ups will include a Pub Crawl on Thursday evening, with stops at The Cottage, Generations and the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery, and live music will be featured on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Delta Blue, The Cottage and Generations.

Another highlight of the weekend will be the New York State 2017 Snow Sculpting Championship, which will feature teams from across the state sculpting 18-ton hexagon-shaped blocks of packed snow using only hand tools.

Spectators can watch for free as the intricate snow sculptures are created over the course of four days, began Tuesday, January 24th, in Lake Placid’s Municipal Parking Lot. All are invited to be part of the judging by voting for the “People’s Choice” winner, which will be included when the New York State Championship winners are announced in an awards ceremony on Saturday at 3 pm.

For more information and a detailed schedule of events for Hockey Fest, click here.

Photo: Can/Am Adult Pond Hockey, courtesy LakePlacid.com.