Things to do in Cold Weather

In some places it is very cold in the winter and it snows, too. When it snows, it is difficult to walk. Your feet become very wet and cold and you become very tired quickly. A long time ago the people in Canada made the first snow-shoes so the people could move easily over the snow. Then, one day in the north of Europe, somebody made the first skis. The oldest ski is in a museum in Sweden. It is over 4,000 years old!

Today millions of people go skiing in the mountains. Some people learn to ski at skiing school. To ski you need skis, ski poles and boots.

When it is very, very cold, ponds and rivers become frozen. It is very difficult to walk. Many, many years ago, people made the first skates from animal bones. They used skates to skate on frozen ponds and rivers.

In some places in the world it never snows and ponds and rivers never become frozen. People can still skate because they can skate on an ice-skating rink.

In the past, when rivers and ponds were frozen, people could not sail their boats. Now they can sail an ice yacht. The wind blows the yacht across the ice very quickly. In a strong wind, an ice yacht can go at more than 200 kilometres an hour.