Outpost Ice Arena

What does one look for in an ice skating experience anyway? Here are my wishes… comfortable skates, reasonable prices, enough room to skate without plowing over some small child who has just unceremoniously bit it on the ice, zambonied ice after eat session and year round skating. The CooLoop delivered on all accounts. My family had a great time. They even advertised curling which is something I have always wanted to do. I’ll have to look into that. Will return… often.

This is the only place, that I know of, in Albuquerque to go ice skating. The ice skating was nice, it gives you a chance to enjoy something that they show on tv. Another fun thing to do is rent space and play broom ball which I have done about three times. It’s just like playing hockey but without skates. If you’re looking for something to do in Albuquerque, try here!

Really, really worn down. The rentals are absolutely terrible to the point of — «why bother»? Seriously, do not rent skates here. They are blown out on the sides, the laces are way too short, too long, or shredded, and the blades are dull. No ice guard and people really run amok in here. Ice is pretty thin to the point that I’ve seen the concrete pop out. The price is ridiculous especially considering they don’t even clean the ice for the better part of the day! I’d say it’s worth the extra drive and go to Blades in Rio Rancho.
The saving grace is the Cool Loop (two rinks connected for one huge loop). Not sure it warrants $ 10 a pop though! Normal admission is $ 7 for adults and kids are $ 3 while rentals are $ 3. Please note that 6 year olds (and up) are considered ‘adult’ here.

Wow does this place need a serious facelift. 13 bucks for two hours of fun filled skating is a great deal though that includes the skates. But seriously this place could use a couple of cosmetic touchups. The kid was able to get one hotdog a drink and chips for four bucks at the snack bar. All-​around great deal for the price. Locker is only .25

As far as I know, this is the only place in ABQ to go if you want to skate. The facility is very rundown inside and out. The parking lot has no lights. The quality of the ice and rinks is really sub par almost to the point of being a safety hazard. The rental skates are pretty dull uncomfortable and worn out. The owners should invest in some upgrades. On the plus side, the Coke Zero I bought (for $ 1.75) was very very cold.

I only came once, the ice is different than what I usually skate, and the place is huge. the only thing I don’t like is the transportation, kind of far away from town

This review is not for the ice rink as that would be 4.5 stars. There’s really no comparison, this is the only place. This is for the birthday services. You would think that an ice skating party would be cold, but the party services are bitterly so. The deal is, you pay for $ 150 for 8 kids 2 adults, you get two hours of ice skating, a pizza and a round cake. If you want more than one pizza, more kids, or more cake, you pay extra. I dare you to ask them if you can choose the cake or pizza. We had a great cake maker in mind who is a personal friend and the birthday girl looooves Il Vicino. This is what crabby birthday party lady railed, «We are a FOR PROFIT private company! We aren’t some sort of GOVERNMENT agency that needs to tend to everyone’s individual preferences. We are here to MAKE MONEY! We have a strict NO OUTSIDE FOOD policy and we have partnerships with other companies to make a profit.» Man, you just never know when you’re on the phone with one of these nuts, they sound just like regular humans until they start ranting about government.
We show up, and the guys at the front are like. «uhh party’s in the back.» There were four picnic tables with spotted table cloths. That’s it. No coordinator in sight. Just get your skates, and be off the ice by 3. There’s also no skating instruction or ice games or anything. I asked for one of those red stabilizers of one of the kids who couldn’t skate. «How old’s the kid? No you CAN’T have a red balance beam, nobody over 5 can use those!» Sorry kids who can’t skate, you’ll need to hang on to the wall for 2 hours. Then we get off the ice and I don’t know where to get our pizza. I thought it was going to be delivered, but it turns out it was just sitting at the concession stand the whole time. So it’s all cold and stale. Turns out Dominos is the lucky profit sharing choice and Albertson’s drops off the quarter sheet cake. The guy dropped the boxes off on the table with some styrofoam cups and plates.
We, as parents, refused to let this party fail so we put a lot into making it seem fun and welcoming. I think my daughter had a great time and all the kids liked it because skating rocks, but really, next time screw the party services. Just have a party at your house and go skating afterward.

Growing up in the Midwest, I want to say that I strapped on my first pair of ice skates shortly after I stopped breastfeeding. Lyndale Farmstead park, right across the street, flooded the baseball diamond with water in November and blammo, we neighborhood kiddos had a free skating rink, complete with a warming house, every day of the five month winter. Mom and dad were seriously frugal people meaning that for the first nine years of my life I had the unique pleasure of being the only boy, possibly in the entire city, who rocked his sister’s hand-​me-​down figure skates. Yep, I was That Kid.
I also got her awesome pink jackets, gloves and moon boots.
«You should stick with the sports you already play,» my mom would assert whenever I asked for a pair of hockey blades. «Hockey is an expensive game, we can’t afford it. You have all of that equipment, the pads and the sticks, and if you join a team you have to pay to rent the rink. It’s just financially unfeasible. Stick with football and basketball and tennis. That’s enough.»
She had a point. The cost of the game likely explains why, still today, it’s generally a caucasian past time. The rich kids played hockey, I threw a mean slider. I’m guessing this may be one reason that Albuquerque’s best (and only, save a place in Rio Rancho) ice arena is located where the rich kids live. Indeed, inner city Burqueños can generally assume they’ll never learn the art of sticking the puck, but that’s okay. Soccer makes more sense here, anyway.
The Outpost not only caters to the serious figure skaters and hockey players amongst us, the open skating hours encompass a wide swath of 505 populace, the young and old, every demographic, it’s cheap and fun. Rentals are good quality. The facility itself is top notch, huge, exceptionally well maintained, offering all the basics including good old American munchies, pizza and stuff. And locals love the adult and kid classes, there’s something for everyone.
Well, except for That Kid.

We tried curling here so I wasn’t a paying skater today. It was nice and cool on the rink if you go take sweats, a sweater and some light gloves. It seems like a really nice place to hang out :)

Ice in ABQ? Yep! The Outpost has been around for years, but renovated and became really huge. Two full sized hockey rinks and two sets of curling ice, all connected into t a huge loop you can skate all the way around. Awesome!
They have locker rooms, meeting rooms, games, fast food and such as well.
Plenty of ice time, skate rental, etc. And the prices are quite reasonable.
Curling starting soon too!
Drawback: no alcohol served. Okay, it’s a family place and all. But that is kinda a bummer…

Let me preface this by saying that I’m only giving this place four stars because it is a super fun place for kids (even if not for me). I know this because I grew up coming here and it hasn’t changed one bit. It has a huge ice skating rink, fun games upstairs and cheap food staples necessary to the experience: basket of fries, hamburgers, pretzels. You can even throw birthday parties there which is how I recently ended up here for the first time in at least ten years.
I really assumed ice skating would be like riding a bike but boy was I wrong. I could keep myself up enough but the speed, agility and skill I enjoyed in my younger years has disappeared. It just wasn’t that fun now that I’m older, actually a little painful!
I’m general, great place for kids but I’d save the nostalgic-​inspired date night aspirations for bowling!

Great rink for New Mexico. The hockey leagues and staff are friendly. My wife enjoys the lessons and am about to put my daughter in lessons. Right now, she just skates around pushing the walker! The ice is pretty soft in the summer and takes a good 20 minutes to completely freeze after being cut (yeah, its awesome when the puck gets stuck in a puddle of water on a break-​away). They could improve the hours and offer higher skill level hockey clinics… but hey, its hockey in the desert. All around, a pretty good rink.

We just had a birthday party here for my daughter, and it was the best party ever. I did everything over the phone — ordered the food, set the day, etc. When we arrived, we were treated so well by the staff. They helped everyone get skates and checked in. The private area that we had was comfortable and already set up. The kids loved the skating — not too crowded. I’d definitely recommend it for any event. They also have 5 week skating lessons for all ages and abilities. Very affordable!

I’m particularly bitter about the New Mexico Mustangs deciding to close up shop. Over the last few years I have developed a solid appreciation for hockey, and having the ‘Stangs yanked away from me has been a bit hard to take. Upon doing some research I found out that UNM does indeed have a Hockey team that plays at the Outpost Arena on weekends. I found the facilities to be rather nice, and the dual ring setup allows for the facility to offer free skate at the same time they offer hockey games.
At first I thought the venue would be completely inferior to the Rio Rancho Arena. However, the location was excellent. Concessions were fairly priced, and parking is a snap. The prices are lower, and there is far less heckle factor with easy seating and players that are thrilled to have people show up to their games.
Oh this place is good, Really good. Where else can I see manly men knock the snot out of each other for fun and amusement while I heckle them for $ 5?
It’s a lot of fun, and they even offer my favorite all time video game: Killer Instinct. The people here have really gone out of their way to make the facility clean, safe approachable and fun. With hockey games starting at only $ 5 and a much shorter drive than to Rio Rancho I think this place nailed it.
If you decide to come here for the UNM hockey games you can find their schedule here:
But if not, if you come for the free skate times you can also see just as much care was given to the casual skater. The facility has an awesome shop with just about everything you could need for skating. Their rental ice skates are also clean and nicely taken care of. Compare this to the icky Roller King on Juan Tabo and I-​40 and it’s easy to see this is a much classier joint than their on-​wheel rivals.
Bravo. 5 stars. I couldn’t ask for better and look forward to returning many times.