Cloudcroft’s winter tourism calendar has long leaned on something the village can’t control: snow.
When it doesn’t show, neither do the sledders, skiers and day-trippers who fill Burro Street on a good weekend.
That uncertainty may soon be a thing of the past.
Cory and Shea Herman committed to a 20-year lease for a regular draw: a refrigerated ice skating rink that can give the village a winter anchor that doesn’t depend on the forecast.
Last year, the natural rink at Zenith Park could not open due to warm weather, low moisture, and water restrictions, familiar frustrations after decades of hand-laid natural ice in a warming environment.
The switch to glycol-cooled ice should guarantee a 6-month season, during the months when the village’s tourism usually sags.
WATCH: A vision of planned improvements at the rink
The Ice Man
Cory Herman’s credentials are hard to top. He has built ice for NHL outdoor games on New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving, most recently for a Tampa Bay game last January.
The Saskatchewan-raised former hockey player got his start running El Paso’s youth hockey program out of the Coliseum. When the ice plant failed five years in, he moved the program to a nearby equestrian center and built it into the El Paso Rhinos, adding a junior team of 18-to-20-year-olds to build a fan base. He says the Rhinos now sell out about 95% of their games at a venue that seats close to 3,000.
The NHL connection came out of a near-disaster. About a decade ago, the Rhinos’ rink was nominated for Hockeyville USA and hosted an NHL game that monsoon weather nearly canceled days beforehand. The two NHL ice technicians who helped Herman save it invited him to join their crew, and he has worked on league outdoor games ever since.
Shea Herman is director of operations for both the Rhinos and the Cloudcroft rink. Cory is overseeing the technical build-out through the couple’s company, Southwest Sports Solutions.
Years of visits to the village, encouragement from the Adams family at Ski Cloudcroft, and a drive past the old rink set the project in motion. Herman signed the lease last fall, and the Village Council approved the ordinance unanimously in October 2025. Trustee and Parks and Rec. Chair Matt Willett confirmed the 20-year term, long enough, village officials say, to treat the rink as a fixture rather than a seasonal experiment.
The Hermans are financing the renovation themselves, and their improvement costs count as credit toward the lease. By late August they had repainted the rink and built a rain catchment system.
Weatherproof Plans, Ice on Demand
For decades, the rink ran on hand-laid ice and hope.
In an interview with the Reader before he stepped away, longtime rink lessee Donald Wiklund described the trial and error of tending outdoor ice at 8,676 feet: checking overnight for the rare cold snap that would let him spray thin layers of water and hope they held. He called the operation "a lot of luck and logic.”
Last winter, the luck ran out. Warm weather, low moisture, and water restrictions kept the rink from opening at all.
The new system removes the guesswork.
A chiller plant cools glycol pumped beneath the ice slab, fed by on-site rainwater. The ice stays thin, 1.25 to 1.5 inches, groomed by a propane-powered mini-Zamboni sized for the rink. A heater in the glycol lines holds the surface near 26 degrees, because colder ice actually skates worse, Herman said.
Warm spells won’t end the season, either. If temperatures spike mid-tournament, crews can roll an insulated tarp over the ice, like a rain tarp at a baseball game, while the chillers catch up underneath. Play continues instead of getting called off.
Beyond the chiller plant, upgrades include a higher-amp electrical transformer, full glass hockey boards, LED lighting, a renovated concession stand, rubber restroom flooring to protect skate blades, spectator bench seating, and 200 new skates. Concrete work between the skate shack and the rink is underway.
Everything stays within the rink’s original footprint.
What to Expect
The chiller plant is running late. Shea Herman told the Reader last week that the unit has hit a one- to two-week delay with the manufacturer; it had been expected by September 1. Installation dates are being adjusted, and it’s not yet clear whether the delay will push back the start of skating, which is targeted for early to mid-October.
The grand opening will go on regardless: October 31, noon to 10 p.m., with free open skating, face painting, and a costume contest.
Once open, the rink plans five programs for its first season, slated for this October through next March—public skating, learn-to-skate (starting at age 2), learn-to-play hockey, an adult recreational league, and figure skating—a far longer season than the two-to-three-week runs the rink saw in its final natural-ice years.
At the recent August 20 Leadership Cloudcroft tourism think tank, Herman told the group that the rink secured its affiliation with USA Hockey and the Land of Enchantment Amateur Hockey Association, clearing the way to certify coaches, run background checks through USA Hockey’s Safe Sport program, and insure players. The figure skating program will operate under the International Skating Institute (ISI) and be geared toward beginner-level instruction.
Village leaders and business owners point to the rink, along with events like Ullrfest, as part of the push to give visitors a reason to come up the mountain, even in a dry, brown winter.
Sas-sy Mascot
The rink’s youth and adult hockey program will skate under a new name and identity: the Sasquatch. A logo and full brand were revealed alongside the rink’s website launch on September 1.
After the grand opening, the rink will host the Mountain Top Classic, its first ages-8-and-under hockey tournament, on November 7 and 8. For more info, email cheon@elpasorhinos.com
With an underwriting sponsor in place, the rink is finalizing a free six-week learn-to-skate course for all 467 Cloudcroft Municipal Schools students, scheduled around class periods so kids can walk over during the day.
This is a first step toward Herman's longer-term hope of eventually fielding a high school hockey team out of Cloudcroft. A regulation-size ice sheet would be required for official high school games, though not for practice, so that goal remains years out; Cory's rougher roadmap has a house league, potentially with crossover weekends between El Paso and Cloudcroft teams, arriving in years two or three.
With their recent purchase from John and Michelle Tatum, the Hermans also recently diversified their investment in Cloudcroft by acquiring the Cloudcroft Sandwich Shop at the Burro St. Exchange.
The Reader will continue to report on paninis, pucks, and this 20-year bet on the village.
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