The Elfstedentocht Edition

On the Netherlands, Ice Skating, and Cultural Heritage

Anita Schillhorn van Veen (ASVV) is a friend of WITI and has a few other WITIs under her belt (Climate Tourism & Utopias). She’s a proud Dutch citizen who runs strategy at ad agency McKinney’s Los Angeles market, and writes her own newsletter, which you can read here.

Anita here. Winters in the Netherlands are typically mild. There’s more rain than snow, and it can get quite dreary. But every once in a while, when temperatures drop low enough for long enough, there’s an event that gets the whole nation onto their feet: the Elfstedentocht. This endless word means “eleven city tour,” and is a 120-mile long ice skating race along the river and canal system that connects eleven lowland historic hamlets in the northern province of Friesland. 

In order for the Elfstedentocht to occur, there must be a cold spell that’s powerful enough to freeze ice at least 6 inches deep; this is thick enough to support thousands of adults on speed skates for hours on end. Along the tour route, there are local icemasters that ceremoniously bore into the ice to measure its thickness. Once deemed safe, the Royal Elfstedentocht Association announces the tour and within 48 hours, tens of thousands sign up to participate. Similar to marathons and other endurance events, most are eager amateurs—along with about 300 are professionals looking for glory. Locals, families, and press crowd the bridges and sidelines to cheer on the skaters with music, flags, and signs.

The first tour happened in 1909, and in the last 123 years, weather conditions have only been freezing enough to hold the tour 15 times. As the temperature drops in the Netherlands “elfstedentochtkoorts,” or Eleven City Tour fever, heats up, with speculation and rumor of whether this will be the year. More often than not it doesn’t. The most recent tour was 1997. 

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My father participated in the tour of 1963, and recalls starting in the dark in Friesland’s capital city of Leeuwarden, scrambling on the ice with crowds of keen participants on the narrow canals, and warming up at stands set up along the route serving hot anise-seed milk. The legendary race haunts the memories of every Dutch person. People are always ready; we grow up ice-skating, hitting canals, rivers and lakes as soon as it’s possible. Speedskating is our national sport. To participate in an Elfstedentocht is a generational honor.

Why Is This Interesting? 

It’s now been 25 years since the last race, and some speculate that 1997 was the last year of the Elfstedentocht. To put it in context, 1997 is the year the Millennium Development goals were formed, aiming towards poverty reduction, equality, and sustainability. It was a time we talked about prevention of climate change rather than living with it. In spite of recent headlines about ice cold weather, on average temperatures are rising, with less of the long cold snaps that are needed to get 6 inches of ice. 

Source: https://dutchreview.com/culture/society/why-the-netherlands-will-never-have-an-elfstedentocht-eleven-cities-tour-again/

2012 looked promising with a ten-day freezing streak, but after months of hype and discussion between the association, the national government, and meteorologists, it was deemed unsafe. Although the tours were always few and far between, no one considered that 1997 might be the last year. With a European energy crisis in full effect this year, a mild winter will be welcomed in the Netherlands and across Europe, and this may not be the year to pray for the extra days of cold. But the idea of a future without this epic bit of cultural heritage is a tough pill to swallow. (ASVV).

Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Anita (ASVV)

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