Skating in Sweden
Sweden is one of the countries, besides the Netherlands, where people like to skate tours on natural ice. In the Netherlands these tours in general are organized by skating clubs and the tracks are controlled on quality of the ice by the clubs, In Sweden there are three ways to skate tours. The first is that a small groups of people are going to skate on lakes where nobody has skated before. The second form is that members of a skate club, especially in Stockholm, go by car or public transport to a point outside strockholm and skate with the wind in the back on the lakes back to Stockholm. Finally, since 1999 there is a race and tour organized of 80 kilometers from Uppsala to Stockholm. This last form is of course very similar to the way skating is organized in the Netherlands. The most spectacular form of skating is the first one where one explores a region on skates in a small group. This of course also happens in the Netherlands but in contrast with the situation in the Netherlands the Swedes prepare better for such activities.
With their precautions it seems to be an impressive experience as can be seen in the fantastic video below that has been made on a lake close to Ann in the middle of Sweden close to the Norwegian border. It is hard to imagine a nicer skating experience.
With their precautions it seems to be an impressive experience as can be seen in the fantastic video below that has been made on a lake close to Ann in the middle of Sweden close to the Norwegian border. It is hard to imagine a nicer skating experience.
It looks indeed like an impressive experience but it is clear that one has to take care to be prepared for serious accidents. For this purpose they carry a back pack that is impermeable and a second set of clothes. This bag pack will serve as a balloon that keeps the skater floating above the water if one gets into the water through a weak spot of ice. Besides, they wear around their neck two pins with sharp points with which they can pull themselves out of the water and across the ice. In general they also skate with a long stick which they use to control the quality of the ice. Finally they have also with them a long line to be pulled out of the water by others. Finally they recommend all skaters not the go alone on the ice but in groups of at least 3 people to help each others when something happens.
|
In this video one can see how the skaters save themselves when it goes really wrong.
|
Nowadays there are also several Dutch orhanizations that organize such tours in coperation with the Swedish skating clubs and guides.
|
A very interesting form of skating in Sweden is the semi organized trips by skating clubs in Stockholm. Because there is water in all directions around the city they can look for a point outside the town that allows the participants of the tour to skate with wind in their back home again. I suppose that the Dutch skaters will realize the advantage of this approach because in the Netherlands we always skate tours that start and end at the same place. That means that half of the time you have the wind against and only the other half of the time the wind is in the back.
There are many clubs in Stockholm which organize these tours. |
As I have mentioned in Sweden also exist an organized tour that exist already for some time: The Vikingarännet Marathon. This tour takes place between Uppsala and Sweden when the weather allows it. In the video of this tour we see that the Swedish skaters also skate in the way people nowadays perform cross country skating in the skating manner. They use in that case two sticks to push themselves forward.
Finally I have to mention that on the lakes in Sweden skating events are also organized by Dutch organizations. For example I have mentioned on an other page that the oldest "alternative Elfstedentocht" was organized in Sweden, but this is more a Dutch than a Swedish event.