22 Jan 2008 -
My name is Henk Kroes and I am 69 years
old. The small town I live in, Boazum, has
only 400 inhabitants and is situated in
Fryslân, a province in the northern
part of The Netherlands. From 1970 until
1994 I have been the so-called Ice Master
of the world famous Eleven Cities Tour in
Fryslân, The Netherlands. From 1994
until 2008 I was the chairman of the organisation
committee. Being the Ice Master means that
you have to decide whether or not the Tour
can be organised which is quite a responsible
task as you will see.
The Eleven City Tour
is a traditional speed and endurance contest
for speed skating. The participants, some
300 race competitors and some 16,000 tour
skaters, must skate over 200 km in one day.
When doing this they will visit all eleven
historic cities of Fryslân. Because
ice conditions must be strong enough to
enable such a number of people to be on
the ice without risks, this major event
is not held every year. A minimum thickness
of 15 cm strong ice is needed! So when we
have a severe winter, everyone in Fryslân
is very anxious to know: will this be a
year with a Tour?? This does put substantial
pressure on the Ice Master, I can tell you!
We keep records about
weather conditions in relation to the ice
conditions. Organising the Tour is not something
that can be done easy: we need thousands
of volunteers to help us. So we have a scientific
approach combined with a long list of skilled
advisors to say yes or no. As we say in
Dutch: we do not skate in one-night’s ice.
Since the first official race in 1909, only
15 times the conditions were good enough
and I myself was so lucky to say ‘it giet
oan’ (“it ’s on”) three times myself. As
I see it, nowadays we have less severe winters.
The last Tour was in 1997 and since then
I am lucky to have grandchildren, but there
has not been an “average Dutch winter” with
skating outdoors on our lakes and canals.
Children in Fryslân used to learn
skating behind a chair, just being put on
the ice by their fathers, like I did myself.
Since 1997 I did only a small tour in the
surroundings of Boazum, and it was one day
only that the ice was alright for doing
so. My grandchildren have to skate indoors,
on Thialf, Heerenveen. But that’s quite
different.
The small town I live
in, Boazum, is close to the ‘track’ of the
Tour. Will we again see thousands coming
through the bend in the small canal where
the picture is taken? Many people in Fryslân
believe we will not experience the Tour
again because of global warming. Personally
I think that we will see an Eleven Cities
Tour again, because cold winters will be
there always, from time to time. But statistics
show that we will see more warm winters
so I believe the frequency will definitely
be lower. People from the IPCC indicate
that, if the average temperature will rise
with over 5 degrees by the year 2100, the
chances for a Tour will be close to zero.
And this worries me very much. Not only
because of the lost tradition of the Tour
itself, but also because of the impact on
the Frysian traditions I value so much.
It is about living with nature, living with
water, living with ice in winter. Not to
mention social aspects: when there is ice
the people of Boazum come together for fun,
for primary school skating contests, for
short distance races, for drinking hot chocolate
together.
So for the sake of the
Tour and the Frysian tradition of living
with ice in winter, I strongly urge everyone
to act. It is not too late yet!
