The Swedish skating clubs make extensive use of the internet to propagate information about skating, ice conditions, ice safety techniques, etc. A lot of the skaters use digital cameras to record their ice adventures and publish photo albums on WWW. There is a list of skating clubs in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Netherlands, databases for trip-reports and photos, and other links at: Skridsko-Net (the Skating Network). Of course, most of the articles are in Swedish.
Many municipalities in Sweden and Finland plow off long skating tracks on lakes if they are covered in snow. These are not merely 400 m ovals, but tracks over a MIL (10 km) long. Lakes Runn (near Falun) and Orsasjön (near Mora) have ice tracks over 30 km long. Organisers of the Vikingarännet, an annual 80 km long tour-race from Uppsala to Stockholm, try to keep most of the its course, Vikingaslingan, plowed all winter.
There are now a few plowed ice tracks in Canada and US. The 8 km long Rideau Canal in Ottawa is the most well known. There is a 9 km plowed track in Joliette, Que as well as some tracks on lakes in the Laurentians. In Fairlee, Vermont there is a 7 km plowed track on Lake Morey, near Nordic Skating headquarters in Norwich.
NEW Near Radium and Invermere BC, Toby Creek Nordic Ski Club maintains the Lake Windermere Whiteway, 15 km loop around the lake with parallel tracks for XC skiing and ice skating. Here is a photo of the Windermere tracks.
Tour skating and marathon skate racing have traditionally been very popular in the Netherlands, especially in the northern province of Friesland. However, warmer winters have limited the chances of outdoor long-distance skating. One ambitious solution to this problem was to build a 5 km long, artificially frozen ice track! Flevonice opened in Dec. 2007, in Biddinghuizen, Flevoland. They have a website in Dutch at: FlevOnice. An English report with photos of the track is at: trip report at Flevonice. Another description at: Tours and Tales:FlevOnice
Touring skates (alias nordic skates, trip skates, long distance skates, long reachers) have been developed for skating long distances over natural uneven ice. They are long blades that can be attached, via bindings, to hiking or cross-country ski boots. The bindings are either fixed heel or free heel (like clap racing skates). Poles similar to ski poles are used to aid in propulsion over rougher sections, but more importantly, to test the strength of the ice. Literature in English about tour skating is still limited but see the links below.
Most of my skating activity has been connected to kicksledding on frozen lakes so there is further information in the sidebar in the kicksled (spark) article. Go To: Tour Skating (section of kicksled article)
Since the climate and geography of Nova Scotia (and some other areas of Canada) are very similar to that of southern Sweden, there is a big potential for tour skating here. However, so far, there is almost no interest or information about tour skating here.
However, on the soles of the hearty ladies and gentlemen who lived along the St John and Kennebecasis Rivers, there was a different type of skate. They used the famous "Long Reachers". ...Long Reach skates were developed around 1860 by James A Whelpley and were well suited for long distance skating on the frozen sections of the St John River. These skates were similar to modern tour skates, with a flat blade about 40 cm long and a wood platform that was strapped to regular winter boots. "Long Reachers" were also used by speed skaters across North America. In 1886 the main Whelpley skate factory moved to Keene, New Hampshire and the family also had a branch office in Boston. However, the family business closed shortly after the death of James A. in 1893.Long reachers were ideally suited for the long expanse of the St John and Kennebecasis Rivers. A man on these skates could travel long distances in a relatively short period of time. From Saint John to Fredericton, by the way of the St John River, is a distance of 80 miles (130 km). It was not uncommon for an able-bodied young man to skate this distance in a little under 7 hours.
In the 1892 book, Skating *,Modern Racing Style page 307, CG Tebbutt credits JA Whelpley with inventing an important skate design in 1859: the extended blade behind the boot heel which made it possible to skate with a more efficient style.
Norway and Sweden may be considered the headquarters of this style, and the skates which are essential to it are made at Christiania, although it must be added that Mr. Donoghue, of the United States, is certainly one of its finest exponents, if indeed he has any superior. The marked feature of the skates in question is their prolonged heel. Several persons claim the credit of introducing this. Mr. J. A. Whelpley says that thirty-two years ago (1859) he conceived the idea, and called his skates the 'Long Reach,' after the name of a fourteen mile straight stretch of the River St. John(* currently available at Open Library)
By the 1870s Whelpley had taken out patents in Canada, the US, and several European countries for the "long reach" design.
There is also a slight possibility that Long Reachers may have been a prototype for Swedish touring skates in the years 1920-1960! (see the book: Stockholms Skridskidskoseglarklubb 1901-2001(SSSK 1901-2001) p 97,99): "I sluten på 20-talet kom 'kanadensarna', en kanadensisk hastighetsskridsko. Den började snart kopieras och serietillverkas för långfärdsåkning" Quick translation: "At the end of the 1920s came 'the Canadians', a Canadian speed-skate. Soon it began to be copied and mass-produced for long-distance skating"
Photo from page 99 of SSSK 1901-2001 However that photo looks more like the "Donaghue" skates from Union Hardware Co. in USA, so the "missing link" in long distance touring skate evolution is still missing. See : Donaghue skates at The virtual Ice Skates Museum
Since the patents and trade marks have long since expired, it seems
that the name "long reachers" is a fitting name for long distance touring
skates in general: "with these skates one can reach long
distances on the ice".
Photo of
Long reach skates
on display at Acadia University Athletic Centre.
Photo of
delux Long Reachers, drilled out blades to reduce weight
A clip from the sports newpaper "Spirit of the Times", Jan. 1885,
about: skating in "Bluenose Land"
After 1900, the Canadian skating industry became dominated by hockey interests. Skate blades became shorter and shorter, and skaters were confined to smaller and smaller skating surfaces. Even competitive speed-skating became mostly "short track" ie. skating on a small hockey rink. There are only a dozen or so 400 m ovals in all of Canada and none east of Quebec City.
UPDATE
The lack of long tracks in Atlantic Canada was corrected, at least
temporarily, in the winter of 2010-2011 with the opening of the 400 m
ice oval on Halifax Commons.
Thanks to the efforts of Save The
Oval campaign, the oval will become a permanent fixture and a
covenient venue for practicing long-distance skating. Hopefully, there
will be a revival of long distance skating on natural ice in Atlantic
Canada and Long Reachers will glide again.
Downloading and saving the files from Youtube for repeated viewing is not straightforward, but it can be done. Also, the latest version of the "Flash plugin" must be installed to view Youtube movies.
Here are some nice video clips (time in minute:seconds):
This magic carpet ride is quite unlike any other sensation the outdoor world has to offer, knocking mountain-top sunsets into a mundane second place. Nothing could come close to the ghostly calm and gravity-defying strangeness of the lake. No wonder so many of my fellow skaters deem it "a religious experience".
