It's opening day at Los Alamos' open-air skating rink, and Andy McCown is thrilled to be the only one on the ice during the lunch-hour session.

Why? "Because I'm still a little rusty," he says, as he chops and glides his away around the regulation-size rink.

McCown enjoys skating during his noon break from Los Alamos National Laboratory. He knows it won't be long before he has plenty of company at the popular recreational facility operated by Los Alamos County.

"It's even better on a cold, clear starry night when I bring my wife," he says. "It can be really romantic."

Opening of the rink was delayed by several weeks because of emergency repairs to the flood-damaged roadway in front of the complex off West Road.

But now the cool, shady canyon will once again resound with the slap and thunk of hockey pucks careening off the boards or the latest hit music drifting out of the facility's sound system.

The rink is generally open seven days a week, all day long and well into the evening during the three-month-long skate season, says Dianne Marquez, recreation program manager for Los Alamos County. "We have lots of public skating and one of the largest youth hockey leagues in the state."

About 300 kids a year of all ages are usually enrolled in the leagues. They play against teams from Colorado and Arizona.

The Los Alamos High School varsity hockey team calls the rink home and plays teams from Taos, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho and Albuquerque.

Adults with some hockey experience and equipment can show up around noon Friday or on Sunday and Tuesday evenings for pickup games.

Those interested in just skating round can find plenty of times available on the schedule.

There are ample special events, too, including an ongoing tradition on Christmas Eve, the Luminaria Skate.

Marquez says farolitos are arranged on the ice around the edge of the rink, and colored lights are draped over the glass on top of the boards.

Staff members have found that a hockey puck placed in the bottom of brown paper bag with a small battery-operated light works just fine, as opposed to the traditional sand and votive candle.

Then all other lights at the facility are turned off, and Christmas carols are played over the rink's sound system, while visitors enjoy an evening of skating and holiday merriment. Hot chocolate and other beverages are included with admission, she notes.

"It makes for a very special evening," Marquez says.

The Los Alamos rink has been in operation since the 1940s, when members of the former boys' school there dammed up the creek to form an ice-skating pond in the canyon.

Over the years, the all-volunteer Los Alamos Skating Association made improvements, from buildings to equipment, including one of the original Zamboni ice-grooming machines.

The machine, invented by Frank Zamboni, was designed to scrape used ice clean and then lay down a new layer of water to freeze and form a clean sheet of ice for skating.

The early model obtained by the skating association was mounted on a World War II-era Jeep and provided excellent service until a 1973 fire in its garage left it damaged.

The association wrote to the Zamboni Co., inquiring about repair parts for the aging contraption and heard back from the company that the association was in possession of one of the earliest machines the company had ever built.

It turned out that the Zamboni at Los Alamos was only the fourth unit the company had turned out, way back in 1952. It had toured with the Ice Capades before being replaced by a newer model, according to information supplied by Paula Cooney, brand manager for Zamboni of Paramount, Calif.

Zamboni No. 4 had ended up in the hands of an Albuquerque ice-skating rink operator, who would later sell it to the skating association of Los Alamos in 1960.

At the time, the Albuquerque rink offered the Zamboni and other equipment to the association for just $1,500 but required all of it to be hauled off within a week's time.

So a caravan of association members drove down off the hill in their pickups to Albuquerque, where they loaded up the gear and then headed home at a snail's pace with the lumbering Zamboni sandwiched between them.

Once the Zamboni Co. discovered this early model, they asked to swap for it and then had it restored. It's now on display at the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, Minn.

The Los Alamos rink was taken over by the county in the mid-1980s and has since traded in the swapped model for a newer one, Marquez says.

In 2002, the county made improvements to the rink by putting in a refrigeration system, which has vastly improved ice conditions, Marquez says.

The rink has skate rentals and a snack bar, offers skating lessons for youths and adults, and rents the ice for parties or other special occasions.

For more information, visit the county's website at www.losalamosnm.us.

Karl F. Moffatt is a longtime New Mexico journalist and avid outdoorsman who can be contacted through his blog at www.outdoorsnewmexico.com">www.outdoorsnewmexico.com.

IF YOU GO

From Santa Fe, take U.S. 84/285 north to the Los Alamos turnoff at Pojoaque, then take N.M. 502 to Los Alamos. Follow Trinity Drive through town to just past the hospital, turn left onto Diamond Drive and then make a quick right onto to West Road.