Tour Skating:
Winter exploration of coastlines, archipelagos, lakes, canals and more
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head of me stretches a wide expanse of endless smooth black ice. Helped by a light wind from behind, I am gliding along swiftly, passing islands and inlets. The sky is clear and the late winter sun warms my face. Today I am the leader, and following behind me is a line of skating buddies, each one synchronizing his or her movements with the one ahead. We minimize our effort by working together creating a harmonious rocking movement of the whole group as we push along in step. The ice sings, and the tone tells us about the condition. I stamp my foot like a rabbit now and then to hear the tone better. A high pitch is a warning about thin ice. I also use my sharppointed skating poles to probe the ice. I am describing a perfect moment, but it is not always like this. Tour skating is very much dependent on ice and weather conditions. On a perfect day it is magic! Historians tell us that humans have been skating for thousands of years – according to some perhaps as far back as 20,000 years ago. There is a lot of evidence that people skated on ice about 4,000 years ago. Most of us have seen pictures by Dutch painters showing people skating in Holland in the 17th century. Today, långfärdsskridskoåkning (long distance or “tour” skating) on
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Swedish Press | February 2021 12
By Leif Lundquist
On Kyrkfjärden, 14 km from Stockholms center as the crow flies. Photo: Jurgen König, DLS
natural ice is very popular in the Nordic countries. In Sweden it is practiced all over the country, but Stockholm is the nexus of the tour skating movement due to its location on the Baltic Sea. There is an abundance of lakes and also the coastal Baltic archipelago with around 25,000 islands. The local weather conditions
and the size of the population are ideal. The largest and most influential club, Stockholms SkridskoSeglarKlubb (SSSK), has over 10,000 members and more than 200 leaders. It also has the longest name in English, “The Stockholm Ice Skate Sailing and Touring Club.” In addition, there are over 100 more clubs around the country, mostly with memberships in the hundreds but some reaching a thousand or more members. Ice conditions change fast. After a cold spell you may be able to find a lake or a bay with a large area of hard and smooth ice, but by the following night it may have snowed heavily, and that stretch of frozen water is no longer useful as a skating destination. To plan tours you need access to the latest ice information, and the majority of tour skating clubs have joined forces to exchange information on the web under the name “Skridskonätet” (https://skridsko.net/). During the winter season, reports on ice conditions and tours are constantly being filed at this site for others to use in their planning. This is also a place to see great pictures from past tours, and it is not unusual to find reports from other countries. These include some very exotic destinations, such as the Baikal Lake in Siberia or even the Antarctic. “Don’t you die if you go through the ice?” That is the first question
