Since 2021, Altoona has had the country's first permanent crokicurl rink, on the Front Porch Plaza in River Prairie Park. It hosts the U.S. Crokicurl Championship every January, but the city has no way to chill the ice. That explains the shape of the 2026/27 schedule. Every crokicurl program on Altoona Parks & Recreation's fall/winter calendar falls between January 12 and February 25, and each one depends on the weather. The league, clinics, family nights and family tournament are marked "based on weather," and the championship will be rescheduled if the weather turns.

Altoona's crokicurl season is short and set by the cold, and its registration deadlines come before the ice does.

A Board Game Blown Up to 42 Feet

Crokicurl started in Winnipeg. Landscape architects Liz Wreford and Leanne Muir of Public City Architecture first played it in Winnipeg in 2016. Kassandra Humke, a recreation supervisor with Altoona Parks and Recreation, explained it to the Leader-Telegram this way: "It is a mixture between traditional curling and then a board game called crokinole. If you were to look that up, it's just a blown up version of the board game."

Altoona came across the game during the pandemic. The Leader-Telegram reported that Debra Goldbach, the city's recreation director at the time, saw crokicurl on Facebook while looking for winter recreation people could do at a distance. City officials saw it as a cheap way to give River Prairie something to do in every season. The city built a 42-foot octagon with lights in about three weeks, for what the paper described as "a few thousand dollars."

The game itself is quick to learn. As the Leader-Telegram described it:

1. Two teams of one or two players each throw four stones, aiming from the rink's quadrants toward the center circle.
2. A stone that stops in the center "button" scores 20 points.
3. Once an opponent's stone is on the ice, each throw has to try to knock it off. A stone that hits nothing is removed.
4. The team with the best-placed stones at the end of the round scores the most points.

Humke called it "a relatively easy-to-learn, easy-to-jump-into, fast-paced game."

What Happens When the Cold Doesn't Come

When the rink went up, Altoona didn't start small. Assistant City Administrator Roy Atkinson told The Business News in January 2025 that the city hosted the first U.S. championship the same year the rink opened, with help from the local curling club in recruiting teams. "We decided to go big right away," he said. That first year had plenty of cold, with wind chills down to negative 10.

Other years haven't cooperated. In the same interview, Atkinson described the tradeoff:

"We've kind of had mixed success with the weather. We've had to cancel a couple of years, because of warm weather. We rely on long stretches of cold."

Every crokicurl decision the city makes rests on that phrase, "long stretches of cold." One cold night doesn't make playable ice. It takes a run of them. Wintertide 2026 showed the other extreme. The Leader-Telegram reported temperatures near negative 10 on championship day, with fire pits set up beside the rink for players, referees and spectators. "Ultimately it comes down to the fact that we do need cold weather to create good ice and to create nice ice for the players to play on," Humke told the paper, "so we've made a few adjustments for the player safety and for our staff safety."

Five Championships on Natural Ice

Despite the weather risk, the championship has drawn more teams since its first year and has held steady since. Local TV and newspaper coverage gives this record:

The sources for each year are WXOW for 2021, WEAU for 2022, WQOW for the third championship, WEAU for 2025 and the Leader-Telegram for 2026. The gap in the table is a missing year. WEAU's January 2026 preview noted that one year's event was canceled because it was too warm.

The teams come from a wide mix of players. Atkinson told The Business News the event has drawn father-son teams, husband-wife teams and a team that included an Olympic curling champion. At one championship, WQOW talked with a pair of first-time players from Minneapolis who called the game "a little goofy" but fun. Humke told WEAU the city likes "to bring in people to Altoona from all over Wisconsin, but then even a couple other states."

Altoona was first in the country, but others have followed. According to Municipal World, Maple Grove, Minnesota, opened the second U.S. rink. Closer to home, Pinehurst Park in Eau Claire lists crokicurl equipment among the free gear available at its warming house.

The Six-Week Window on the 2027 Calendar

Here is everything Altoona Parks & Recreation has scheduled on the rink this winter, taken from the city's 2026/27 Fall/Winter brochure. Every entry depends on the weather.

Nothing is scheduled on the ice in December, and nothing runs after late February. The city has put the whole season into the weeks when long stretches of cold are most likely.

For 2027, the championship is capped at 16 teams. Registration closes Thursday, January 21, at noon. If the weather turns, the tournament will be rescheduled rather than played on poor ice. Visit Eau Claire's Altoona event guide describes the format as double elimination, with best-of-five matches in the winner's bracket and best-of-three in the consolation bracket. The tournament shares January 30 with Wintertide, which runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in River Prairie Park.

For a beginner, the free Wednesday clinic is the easy way in. It's the only program on the list that costs nothing, and you can learn the game before deciding whether to sign up a team for Thursday nights or the January 23 family tournament.

Getting on the Ice Outside the Schedule

You don't have to be in a program to play. Atkinson told The Business News that residents can rent stones from the Parks & Recreation department, which has its office in River Prairie Park at 1419 Front Porch Place. Visit Eau Claire's crokicurl page says the key to the rink's equipment box can be picked up at the Parks & Recreation office on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., or at 44 North Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 9 p.m. and on weekends from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call the office at 715-839-5188 to confirm current hours and pickup before you head out.

The same weather rule applies to casual play. Humke told the Leader-Telegram that the city runs crokicurl activities through the winter "as long as we have nice cold weather and nice ice."

River Prairie's December events come before the rink opens, and one has a deadline this month. Breakfast with Santa is Sunday, December 6, from 10 a.m. to noon at River Prairie Center. It costs $10 per person, children 2 and under are free, and registration closes Monday, November 30, or sooner if seats fill. That evening, the Holiday Glow Tree Lighting runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at River Prairie Center, with a local artists market, carols and holiday treats. The crokicurl rink is a short walk away on Front Porch Plaza, and it will need several weeks of cold before the first clinic on January 13.

Wanda has watched River Prairie grow over more than 30 years of working with families across the Chippewa Valley, and she enjoys seeing a $20 entry fee bring teams from other states to Altoona every January. If you're thinking about your next move, or just want to talk about life near River Prairie, Wanda Johnson is glad to help. Work With Wanda and schedule a consultation.