Moved from Saturday, February 7 to Sunday, February 22, 2026. Troop 23 did not take part this year; the Derby itself went ahead on the new date. The details below are the plan as the organizers published it.
When:
February 22, 2026
Timeline:
10:00 am — 4:00 pm
Location: Coney Island Beach at Stillwell Avenue
Passed
When: 02/20/2026
Passed
When: 02/22/2026
Every winter the Brooklyn Klondike Derby puts Cub Scout packs and Scouts BSA patrols on Coney Island beach with wooden sleds, most of them built by the Scouts. The sleds are hauled across the sand from station to station, where each team is scored on the skills a gold-rush party would have needed in the Yukon — first aid in the cold, building a shelter, reading a compass, rescuing someone through the ice — and the day ends with sled races on the beach.
The 2026 Derby was set for Saturday, February 7, and the organizers moved it to Sunday, February 22, 2026. Troop 23 did not field a patrol this year — in 2024 our patrol took third place — and this page keeps the full plan of the 2026 edition — the rules, every station and how it was scored, and the organizer's own leader guide — for the units and families getting ready for the next one.
The schedule from the 2026 leader guide:
Units were asked to reach Coney Island before 10:00 am and line their sleds up on the boardwalk for inspection. Registration was by unit, not by family: $11 per youth and $2 per adult, closing on Friday, February 20 at 10:00 pm. Each unit had to send one adult to help staff a station, and any proceeds went to Brooklyn Friends of Scouting.
Scouts BSA patrols were recommended to bring six to eight Scouts each, with a sled of their own. Cub Scouts worked the stations in teams of no more than five. Each Scouts BSA station allowed 20 minutes per patrol; each Cub Scout station, 15.
Check-in was on the Riegelmann Boardwalk at Stillwell Avenue, with the stations on the beach below. Parking passes were handed out at the check-in table. Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue, the last stop of the D, F, N and Q trains, is a short walk from the boardwalk.
Every pack, den, troop or patrol needs its own sled to compete — the sled that passes inspection is the one that races. Sleds should be built mainly of wood; the leader guide includes a sample design.
New in 2026: store-bought sleds and toboggans were allowed, so that units without a built sled could still take part. A unit with a purchased sled could race for fun and compete in the skills stations and the pack decorating award, but not win the sled race or the best-sled awards.
The race crew the guide recommends is eight: six pullers, one passenger and one pusher. The passenger rides with a blanket — usually the lightest Scout on the team — and the sled is pulled on 20 feet of ½- or ¾-inch rope. The sled may be stripped of all its gear for the race. No motorized sleds.
On arrival, each sled is inspected for its gear, two points per item. The tarp is meant to hold most of the equipment in the sled, lashed down if necessary; a box may be used.
Every sled, packs and troops (14 points for Cub Scouts):
Troops only, on top of that (30 points in all):
Five stations, up to 20 minutes each. Most of the points are for doing the skill properly; speed and Scout spirit are scored on top.
1. "Tenderfoots" Snowshoe Relay Race (40 points with the bonus). Snowshoes are provided. Each Scout runs to the turn marker in them, answers a question from the Scout or Tenderfoot rank requirements, and runs back to hand them to the next Scout. Sixteen points for eight questions, nine for speed, five for spirit — and a ten-point bonus for a patrol that builds its own sturdy, safe snowshoes before the Derby.
2. Build a Survival Shelter (30 points). Using only what is on the sled, the patrol picks a site for the conditions the station leader describes, lashes a shelter together and turns its sled into a winter storm shelter for three people. A point for every proper knot and lashing, up to eight, then points for how effective and sturdy the shelter is, for speed and for spirit.
3. The Frostbite Triangulation Challenge (30 points) — new in 2026. Three "Navigation Nuggets", each an orienteering riddle followed by a puzzle or a mission: master the compass rose, take landmarks and bearings, then fix a position by triangulation. Fifteen points for completing all three, ten for speed, five for spirit. The organizers posted a study sheet on orienting a map and taking bearings for it.
4. Ice Rescue and First Aid (30 points). Two questions each on hypothermia, CPR, stopping bleeding and treating shock. Then the patrol forms a human chain, throws a rope with a bowline to a person "through the ice", finds that the survivor cannot walk, works out and treats the injury, and transports the patient.
5. Ice Fishing (40 points with the bonus). Not a fishing rod: the patrol round-lashes three poles into one long flagpole, ties a weighted knot on four feet of rope at its end, and reaches across a ten-foot no-touch zone to trip four mousetraps with the knot. Touching the zone with a Scout or a pole ends the attempt. Points for each trap and each proper lashing, then speed and spirit — and a ten-point bonus for a proper monkey's fist as the weighted knot.
Five stations, up to 15 minutes each, for teams of no more than five Cub Scouts. Packs and dens may share a sled within the unit for the race, the decorating competition and the equipment check.
Scouts BSA troops and patrols competed for the sled race (first to third), the skills total (first to third), and two single-winner sled awards: Best New Sled and Best Legacy Sled. Both sled awards are judged on the Scouts' own oral history of the sled, its weight (lighter is better), how much of it is wood, how sturdy it is and how well it is finished.
Cub Scout packs and dens competed for the sled race and skills (first to third each) and for Best Decorated Sled, first to third. The decorating theme was new in 2026: Super Heroes.
And there is the Scout leader sled race: up to six leaders grab their unit's sled and race it the way their Scouts did.
Nearly every Scouts BSA station is a rank requirement done in the cold, on a clock, with the patrol watching. That is what makes the Derby good preparation, and why a patrol that drills for it comes home with more than a ribbon:
The rank pages list every requirement word for word.
It is February on an open beach, and everything happens outdoors. The leader guide asks for real winter clothing — a warm coat, hat and gloves, long underwear, several pairs of socks, waterproof boots and rain gear if it is wet — dressed in layers that can come off and go back on. Scouts in sneakers or improper clothing are not allowed to compete, and footwear stays on at every station. Bring water, snacks and lunch; there is no shelter from the wind on the sand.
The Klondike Derby has been a Brooklyn winter fixture on Coney Island beach for at least twenty years, and the borough's press has come out to watch it again and again.
The Derby comes in the middle of the troop's own winter: the winter campouts are where the cold-weather skills the stations test get used for real.
Troop 23 is a Scouts BSA troop for boys 11 to 17, meeting on Monday evenings at Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge, and has been part of Brooklyn Scouting since 1910. If your son would like to try the kind of day this page describes — and the campouts that teach the skills for it — start with how to join, or read the welcome page for new families first.
Children in kindergarten through fifth grade belong in Cub Scouts: Pack 23, our feeder pack, meets at Our Lady of Angels on Monday evenings too, and the Cub Scout stations above are theirs.