Journeys on Ice
AMC Outdoors, January/February 2002
By Madeleine Eno and Katharine Wroth
Cross-country ice skating is just what it sounds like: a hybrid of Nordic skiing and skating. Long popular in Europe, where canals and lakes provide miles of frozen terrain, the sport is just catching on in the U.S. Two years ago, Vermont resident Jamie Hess co-founded the North American Marathon Skating Association. With 75 members in New England and New York, the growing club embraces distance skating, both racing and recreational.
Q. What were your wintertime pursuits as a child?
A. I played hockey, and then I got tired of hockey but continued to skate. I was really a downhill ski fanatic; ice took second place. There was a pond across the street from us and I could skate whenever I wanted, so I took it for granted.
Q. When did you start Nordic skating, and what makes it appealing?
A. When I was in college in New Jersey, there was a lake we could skate three miles on. After college I moved to the Boston area. My commute took me across the Concord River, so I'd check the ice and my friends at work and I would go skate five miles at lunch.
When I moved to Vermont, we could ski out the back door for days in a row. But then we had some bad snow years. I was commuting past beautiful frozen lakes, and I started researching other places in the world where there was good skating. I got several emails saying Sweden had the best ice skating in the world. So I went there in 1999 and discovered Nordic skates and a huge skating culture.
Q. How do you stay warm?
A. You stay warm if you keep moving, and you wear whatever's comfortable. It's best to wear moisture-wicking layers, as you would for [other sports]. In Sweden, people skate with a backpack full of snacks, extra clothes, and a warm down parka for rest stops.
Q. What special equipment do you need?
A. Nordic skates are long [18-22 inches] blades, like speed skates, that have a ski binding on top, and you use them with cross-country ski boots. You can put your boots on at home—where you're warm and they're warm—and carry your blades down to the lake. In 10 seconds you clip the blades onto your boots and you're off.
Q. What are the dangers?
A. Thin ice, especially at the end of winter, when it gets soft and weak. We use steel-tipped Swedish ice-testing poles, for ramming the ice to test its strength. We also bring throw bags [which contain a length of rope for rescuing a person from the water] and ice claws, plastic handles with spikes. You wear them in a neck holster, and if you fall through you can dig them into the ice and pull yourself out. We do a really good job with our ice-testing poles, so no one in the club has ever had to use the ice claws or throw bags. And we plan to keep it that way.
There's always the chance you might fall and crack your knee or elbow, or even worse, your head. So some of us wear knee pads, elbow pads, and bike helmets.
Q. What's your favorite memory?
A. It's been wonderful to start a club and introduce people to cross-country skating and have people show up in groups to do it. And it's so special to go skating in Europe and to participate in a marathon with thousands of other skaters, as I've done in Sweden and Austria. Soon we'll see marathons in the U.S. and in Canada.
Q. And your worst?
A. That has to be trying to cross-country ice skate with hockey skates. I always knew when I had to turn around, because my feet started hurting so much I knew I'd gone farther than I should have. When I switched to Nordic skates, it made all the difference—they're warm and comfortable, and they still have ankle support.
Q. How do you convince someone to join you?
A. It's a fun way to get out and enjoy winter and explore a place where you've never been, or you've only been in the summer. It's easier than running, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing. Actually, it's a lot like road biking, speedwise, but there's no traffic, no exhaust fumes, no noise, no hills. It's a great backcountry experience.
Winter Revels: Intro | Cross-country Skating | Dog Sledding | Ice Fishing | Winter Peakbagging
—Madeleine Eno is Publisher and Co-editor of AMC Outdoors; Katharine Wroth is Associate Editor of AMC Outdoors.
