By Rafe Calder
It has been run fifteen times in more than a century. Most winters it is cancelled before it begins, because it cannot be run without natural ice along the whole route.
What it is
Wikipedia calls the Elfstedentocht a long-distance tour-skating event on natural ice, held in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The distance is almost 200 km. The route is a closed circuit along frozen canals, rivers and lakes, and it passes eleven historic Frisian cities. Leeuwarden is the start and finish. The route, in order and with distances from the start according to Wikipedia, runs Sneek at 22 km, IJlst at 26, Sloten at 40, Stavoren at 66, Hindeloopen at 77, Workum at 86, Bolsward at 99, Harlingen at 116, Franeker at 129 and Dokkum at 174. The Frisian tour operator’s page calls Dokkum the turning point.
Ice, and how much
The sources do not agree on how the ice is judged. Wikipedia says the tour runs only if the ice is at least 15 cm thick along the entire course. A KLM travel blog says the same figure and adds that ice masters monitor the ice and the chief ice master gives the final go-ahead. The tour’s own website says only that a hard winter is needed, with at least a week of hard frost, and gives no thickness. The Frisian tour operator’s page also gives no figure. We show all three and choose none.
Where ice is thin, Wikipedia says, skaters walk on their skates to the next good stretch. It calls these points kluning. It says that in 1997 ice transplantation was reintroduced to strengthen weak spots, such as under bridges.
Dates in order
The tour operator’s page says the route may have been skated as early as the sixteenth century, but that this is not known exactly. The KLM blog says it was first recorded in historical documents from 1760. Wikipedia says the idea came from Pim Mulier in 1890 and that the first organised tour was held in 1909 with 22 men. The tour operator’s page gives the date as 2 January 1909 and the last skated tour as 4 January 1997.
Wikipedia lists fifteen tours: 1909, 1912, 1917, 1929, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1947, 1954, 1956, 1963, 1985, 1986 and 1997. The official site and the KLM blog both say fifteen. Wikipedia says a tour planned for 2012 was called off on 8 February 2012 for safety reasons.
The winter of 1963
Wikipedia calls the 1963 tour “the hell of ’63”. It says only 69 of about 10,000 participants finished, in powder snow, a harsh east wind and temperatures it gives as minus 18 degrees Celsius in the text. The same article’s table gives minus 7.7 degrees for that race, so the article contradicts itself and we report both. It says the winner became a national hero.
The cross
The official site says everyone who completes the tour receives the Elfstedentocht cross. The tour operator’s page adds a rule: race riders must finish within 20 per cent of the winner’s time, and tour riders must reach Leeuwarden before midnight. It says 56,314 silver crosses have been awarded from 1909 to the present. Wikipedia says skaters collect a stamp in each city and at three secret checkpoints, and must finish before midnight. It also says a skater missing a stamp at Hindeloopen was disqualified in 1997.
Who may skate
Wikipedia says the Association of the Eleven Frisian Towns, the Vereniging De Friesche Elf Steden, organises the event and that all skaters must be members. The tour operator’s page says taking part on skates requires membership of the Royal Association and a starting card. Wikipedia also gives a permit fee for 2017; we leave sums out.
Numbers on the day
For the last tour, in 1997, the official site gives 16,731 participants at the start. The tour operator’s page says nearly 17,000 people completed the route within the set time. The two statements measure different things, starters and finishers, and the second does not give a number. Wikipedia describes a leisure tour of about 16,000 skaters and a competition of about 300. The same page says the finish line is on the Bonkevaart canal near Leeuwarden, close to the Bullemolen windmill in Lekkum.
If there is no ice
The tour operator’s page says tourist tours run every day of the year, so a visit no longer depends on severe frost. It says these usually start and end in the south of Friesland for practical reasons such as parking, and that whether the race can be skated again depends on climate developments. Wikipedia describes an Alternative Elfstedentocht held each January since 1989 on the Weissensee in Carinthia, Austria, a lake about 12 km long, with courses of 50, 100 or 200 km. It also describes a cycling version on Whit Monday, first held in 1912, which starts and ends in Bolsward over 235 km.
The KLM blog adds a gentler picture of an ordinary cold spell: when temperatures stay below zero, skating spreads across the country on ditches, waterways and lakes, with makeshift stalls selling hot drinks and snacks, and wooden benches where skaters change their skates.
Side by side
Ice: 15 cm (Wikipedia, KLM blog); a week of hard frost (the tour’s site); no figure (the tour operator). Earliest skating: sixteenth century, uncertain (tour operator); 1760 documents (KLM blog); an 1890 idea and a 1909 first organised tour (Wikipedia). Our reading: the older dates describe skating along the route, while 1909 marks the organised tour. The pages do not say so in those words.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (open encyclopaedia), the official tour website (the organiser describing itself), a Frisian tour operator’s page (a commercial site) and an airline’s travel blog (a promotional blog written by an author who completed the tour). We read no archive or museum page. We left out the cost of a permit, the names of winners and living skaters, and the royal participant, because they are people and sums that we could not source twice.
Quick answers
- How long is the Elfstedentocht? Wikipedia says almost 200 km; the tour operator’s page gives 200 km as the official route.
- When was it last skated? According to the official site and a Frisian tour operator, the last tour on skates was in 1997, and there have been 15 since 1909.
- How thick must the ice be? Wikipedia and a KLM blog say at least 15 cm; the official tour site gives no thickness.
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