Tour skating

Nordic tour skates are fitted with a blade approximately 50 cm long and are attached with bindings to specialized boots similar to walking boots or cross country skiing boots, often with a free heel. Since tour skating often involves walking between lakes or around sections not suitable for skating, the fact that the blades can be easily removed from the boots is convenient.

In addition the following safety equipment is often recommended:

• ice prods or ice claws - a pair of metal spikes with handles like sharpened screwdrivers for hauling yourself out of holes in the ice
• ice pike or hansa pole - a pole with a metal spike like a particularly sturdy ski pole used to test ice thickness
• throwing line - a rope to be pulled out of the water by
• backpack with waistband and groin strap containing a change of clothes in dry bags. This also acts as a buoyancy aid.

Knee and elbow pads and a helmet are also commonly used.

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  Touring skate with cross country ski bindings and boots
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  Touring skates with bindings for hiking boots
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  Ice claws
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  Throw rope bag
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  Nordic skaters with safety equipment for skating on "wild" ice

In late autumn/early winter the small lakes freeze first, sometimes as early as October. Next the somewhat larger lakes freeze and become skateable. Light snow does not necessarily prevent skating and in some places tracks are ploughed to keep them open.

In January–February parts of the archipelago in the Baltic sea often freeze. This is the time when long skating tours can be undertaken. Tours of 60–80 km in one day are not uncommon - some skate over 150 km.

Sweden's largest tour skating association is "The Stockholm Ice Skate Sailing and Touring Club" (SSSK).[6] Finland's largest tour skating association is Finland's Tour Skaters.[7] America's largest tour skating association is Marathon Skating International, a Vermont-based skating group. Founded by Jamie Hess and a number of others, the organization was initially called, "North American Marathon Skating Association".[8]

Several associations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, and the U.S. are members of Skridskonätet.[9] Through Skridskonätet, the members of the various associations share information on where ice suitable for skating can be found. Skridskonätet also maintains a list of tour skating clubs[10] in mainly Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands.

The skaters mostly use common such skates with long blades or speed skates, with long blades rigidly attached to the skating shoes. Ice-poles and other safety equipment are not carried.

The Netherlands is home of Elfstedentocht, a 200 km distance skating race of which the tracks leads through the 11 different cities in Friesland which is a northern province of the Netherlands.

Skate tracks on natural ice are maintained by the towns and communities, who take care of the safety of the tracks.

In Canada, outdoor skating on natural frozen lake and ponds is common but not as a method of travel or tourism, rather people skate in a circular route around the lake, or create an improvised ice hockey rink for a game of "shinny", ringette, or broomball.

However, starting in 1971, the section of the Rideau Canal that runs through the centre of Ottawa, the national capital, has been used as a skating corridor. This has become a major tourist attraction and a popular method of commuting in with Ottawa's locals. In 2011 932,331 people used the skateway. Starting in the 1990s The Forks area of Winnipeg, where two rivers join, has also been used as a skating trail, and by 2008 was longer than the Rideau skateway (though much narrower). Due to natural variations in ice conditions, the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail, as it is officially called varies in length each year. Similar plans to turn Montreal's Lachine Canal into a skating venue have been discussed since 2000, but were still awaiting the needed funding in 2012.[13]

In Joliette, Quebec, two parallel skating tracks, of 4 km each, on the L'Assomption River are linked to form a loop running through the center of the town.[14]

In Invermere, British Columbia, there is a 15 km skating track on Windermere Lake.[15]

• Arrowhead Provincial Park Ice Skating Trail (Huntsville, Ontario)
• Jasper Park Lodge Oval Trail (Lake Mildred, Alberta)
• Lac-des-Loups (Lac-des-Loups, Quebec)
• Lake Windermere Whiteway (Invermere, British Columbia)
• MacGregor Point Park Ice Skating Loop (Port Elgin, Ontario)
• Magog Skating Trail (Quebec, Lake Mephrémagog)
• Red River Mutual Trail (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
• Rideau Canal Skateway (Ottawa, Ontario)
• Shipyards Park Skating Loop (Whitehorse, Yukon)
• Skateway on the Rivière l'Assomption (Joliette, Quebec)
• Valens Conservation Area (Valens, Ontario)

Long distance skating on lakes and rivers in eastern Canada and north-eastern US was more common in the years between 1850 and 1900. One region of note was the lower reaches of the Saint John River in New Brunswick. In Saint John: A Sporting Tradition, Brian Flood writes:

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". Around the year 1870, James A. Whelpley patented the "Long Reach Speed Skates". Whelpley's skate factory was located at Jones Creek, on the Long Reach. Here, he turned out skates that became famous all over the continent. The skate had a blade seventeen inches long. The "woods" of the skates, at the widest point, measured less than an inch and a half. A screw protruded up a half an inch at this point. The skates were firmly attached with heel and toe straps made of heavy leather.

"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 about eighty miles. It was not uncommon for an able-bodied young man to skate this distance in a little under seven hours.[16]

Some of the skaters from the Saint John River area became world class speed skating champions, notably Hugh J. McCormick.