You don’t have to live in freezing conditions to enjoy winter sports; thanks to modern technology you can skate, ski and snowboard all year round. Cold weather is no fun when you’re at sea, however, and for some sailors ‘breaking the ice’ has nothing to do with making the first move at a party.

Skating Rinks
For centuries people in cold countries have enjoyed the pleasures of gliding around effortlessly on frozen ponds and lakes. But what if it’s too warm or you want to skate all year round, not just in the winter? You make an ice rink.

Modern ice rinks consist of a base of sand or concrete that is embedded with pipes carrying a special fluid that can be chilled to several degrees below zero without freezing solid. The fluid is pumped around the circuit, chilling the surface. When water is sprayed on the surface it freezes. A typical ice hockey arena, for example, has several kilometres of pipes carrying many thousands of litres of coolant.

Ski Slopes
The right kind of snow is important for skiers – and for ski resorts. Simply relying on the weather to produce good snow is risky, but that shouldn’t be a problem because you can always make your own, with a snow gun.

It consists of a barrel into which water and compressed air are piped. The water is atomised into tiny droplets that are blasted out of the gun by the air. As the droplets hit the cold air they freeze into snow. A ski slope can use up to 40,000 litres of water a minute to create a decent covering of artificial snow.

Ice Breakers
Ice can be fatal for ships – as the tragedy of the Titanic proved. But when important trade routes become frozen and need to be kept open, there is little choice but to confront the ice. Meet the icebreakers, some of the most powerful ships on the sea.

The Yamal is a Russian icebreaker that is powered by two nuclear reactors which produce enough electricity to light up 18,000 homes. The ship is 150 metres long and the steel on its prow is 48cm thick. At full power it can hammer through ice that is 2.3 metres deep at a rate of more than 5km/h.