Nordic Skating

Nordic skating with full equipment
 Free-heel touring skate with NNN boot and binding Add Icon Add another image
Edit Icon Edit link to video
Edit Icon Edit map zoom out zoom zoom out zoom out

Edit Icon Edit text   |   Edit all fields

"Nordic Skating" is the most common term in North America for the Swedish term "långfärdsskridsko". Other terms are tour-skating, wild-skating, backcountry-skating and "long distance skating on natural ice".

It is very popular in Sweden, seconded in Finland and growing in Estonia and Norway. There are nearly 100 skating clubs, the largest and oldest (1901) is the Stockholm skating club SSSK with about 12000 members. Skating club day-trips range from 20 km to over 100 km.

However, in North America it is hardly known at all. There is very little literature available in English but lots in Swedish. See the "External Links" at the bottom for some good English language articles.

The main center for Nordic Skating in North America is in Vermont USA see : Nordicskating.org There is also a Yahoo forum about Nordic Skating In Vermont and surrounding regions at: VTNordicSkating

Since the climate and geography of many places in Canada is similar to that of central Sweden, the is a big potential for its "revival" here. There is rather sketchy information that tour-skating was done in the 1870s on the lower sections of the St John River , NB. , using the "Long Reacher" skates of James A Whelpley.

Touring skates (alias nordic skates) have a steel blade approximately 50 cm long with a radius of curvature (alias rocker) of about 25 m. The blades are from 1 to 1.5 mm wide and sharpened with a flat cross-section. The length of the blades makes touring skates much more stable on uneven ice than skates with shorter blades. The blades are attached to boots via bindings.

The choice between fixed- and free-heel bindings on touring skates is analogous to the choice between "clap" and fixed blades on speed skates. The skating techniques of fixed vs free are somewhat different; some find the free-heel technique more "natural".

However, there are "universal" bindings that attach to regular hiking boots and most of them are fixed-heel. Free-heel skates generally use regular cross-country ski bindings and boots, eg. NNN, SNS or the BC (Backcountry) versions of these.

There are some DIY experimenters in Sweden that design their own free-heel bindings (so-called "glapp" skates) for light hiking boots. If you can read Swedish, check out: Bo's Glapp skates

Nordic Skating Photos

Photos of nordic skating on internal Outdoorsica albums can be viewed by clicking the tags "nordic-skating" or "tour-skating" in the Tags section to the right.

Although tour skating is a fairly "low-tech" activity, skaters in Swedish and Finnish skating clubs have embraced some modern technology such as GPS, Internet, and digital cameras. The result is that there are many thousands of fine digital photos that we can view, both on the skating clubs' sites and public photo sites like Flickr.

Here are some nice sets from from Flickr:

Youtube Videos

There are now many videos of tour-skating. It is not very easy to get good action movies while both the subjects and the camera-person are skating along at over 20 km/hr! Here are a few from Youtube:

PLURR is a skater's jargon word, imitating the sound of falling into the water!

Here is a quotation about nordic skating from The Serene Beauty Of Black Ice by Eric Kendall, The Independent (London), Jan 16, 1999:

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".

Comments & discussion from Outdoor People:

Explore (October 30, 2008 at 2:03 p.m.)

Thanks for sharing this informative wiki on a relatively unknown sport in North America. Just in time for our long winter that's coming!

David Dermott (November 23, 2008 at 4:22 p.m.)

Jamie Hess (N. A. nordic skating guru) has added
this vide clip from Vermont Public TV to Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak3jSI...

It has some nice views of skating on Lake Champlain

David Dermott (December 4, 2008 at 12:34 p.m.)

Here is a quotation about <i> nordic skating</i> from <b>The Serene Beauty Of Black Ice</b>
by Eric Kendall, <b> The Independent (London)</b>, Jan 16, 1999:

<blockquote><strong>

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".

</strong></blockquote>

catamo (December 14, 2008 at 1:53 p.m.)

This was very informative. It sound like a great adventure for those of us who live in relatively flat areas.

David Dermott (January 16, 2009 at 8:32 p.m.)

One question that pops up is "Where can I buy nordic skates in Canada?". We should make a list.
The big supplier in North America is Nordic Skater (nordicskater.com) in Vermont
Besides Nordic Skater, the following stores may sell skates:

Greg Christie's Ski and Cycle Works, Gatineau, Queb (gregchristies.com)

Fast Trax Ski and Run Shop in Edmonton, Alberta (www.fasttraxskishop.com/ )

I have read that there is an outdoor shop in Prince George, BC
selling Nordic Skates.

Does anybody else have reports of stores in Canada selling Nordic Skates?

ljs (January 25, 2009 at 3:35 p.m.)

Seems like this activity would work best in a area that didn't get much snowfall. I can't imagine skating would be all that rewarding if the snow is up to your knees.

David Dermott (January 25, 2009 at 8:15 p.m.)

jls wrote:
> Seems like this activity would work best in a area that didn't get much
> snowfall. I can't imagine skating would be all that rewarding if the
> snow is up to your knees.

Yes a lot of snow is not good for skating. I now regret the 25 years
I lived in a snow-poor region (Halifax NS) and didn't know about
Nordic Skating. There are definite skating zones in Canada. I think
the best is Lunenburg County, NS. Maybe the area around Kingston-Trenton
Ont. There are few lakes in the "snow shadow" of the Rockies whose ice
that gets polished by chinook winds- Barrier Lake in Kananaskis had
the smoothest, hardest and thickest ice I've ever seen.

But snow rarely lies deep on lakes for very long.
All of the snow on the lake does not have to melt. There's
a multi-stage process where the snow turns to slush and
then re-freezes. 100 cm of snow transforms
down to 10 cm of ice.

Compare these 2 photos of Gaspereau Lake (in a big
snow belt)
Jan 16 2005, bare smooth ice:
http://www.dermott.ca/ski/sparkpics/g...

Feb 19 2005, smooth ice with only 5 mm of snow:
http://www.dermott.ca/ski/sparkpics/l...
Between the 2 days the area got over 100 cm of snow and there was still
lots of snow on the shore of the lake!

ljs (January 27, 2009 at 7:01 a.m.)

Interesting. I'll have to check out the lakes around here. Thanks for the info

David Dermott (February 4, 2009 at 1:27 p.m.)

Here is a nice article by Eva Apelqvist:
http://www.silentsports.net/content/f...

Sven Andersson (February 20, 2009 at 3:14 p.m.)

Stockholm is the perfect place to go for Nordic Skating. Read more in my blog:
www.wildskating.com

Sven

David Dermott (December 7, 2009 at 8:02 a.m.)

This is not exactly "tour skating" but the competitive
version of it, "Marathon Speed Skating". But this area looks good for
recreational nordic skating and many of these racers are using nordic skates.
This was an informal race by the Edmonton chapter of Marathon Speedskating
International on Big Lake (Lois Hole Provincial Park)

YouTube Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dRhPg...

Two articles about the event:

http://speedskateworld.com/?p=3561
http://www.stalbertgazette.com/news/2...

(the latter has a few errors- the lake was not "snow covered"
but perfectly clear :-)

General description of area:

http://www.nordicskating.org/alberta/...

Speaking of marathon speedskating, next week a full length
feature film about the "Hell of 63" opens in the Netherlands.
This is about the infamous 200 km race in Friesland, NL in 1963
(11 town race). Cold, windy, drifting snow meant that
of over 5000 starters only about 100 finished the race!

Movie trailer on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96TKT...

Official website (Dutch only)
http://www.dehelvan63.nl

IMDB entry for the movie:
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1156132/

I wonder if we will ever see this movie in North America?

David Dermott (February 20, 2010 at 8:57 a.m.)

Photos and link to Youtube video of Gustavsson family
skating in Sweden, all he can say is that "he lacks the words to
describe such wide open ice"

http://www.snabelslash.com/bo/?m=2&da...

Youtube video of Skating and skate-sailing in New Hampshire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PQfSP...

Add your comment to “Nordic Skating” (12 comments)