Temperatures have been very cold in the midwest leading to possible conditions for a tour skate on the Hennepin Canal, but the snow cover puts a tour beyond reach for the moment. If you have an ice report, be sure to send it.
Simultaneous with the cold in the USA, there have been fairly cold temperatures (albeit with some snow) in Europe. It looks like the Dutch will skate outdoors this weekend. Check out these links... http://www.knsb.nl/natuurijs/ and the "skate maps" at http://www.schaatskaart.nl/ . Interesting to note that the 12 skating "classics" haven't been held since either 1996 or 1997, so this is something to watch. http://www.natuurijsklassiekers.nl/
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It's already 2010 in some parts of the world, and will be shortly in the Americas. In addition to the usual festivities and football games, for the third year in a row, the NHL will play an outdoor hockey game. This year's NHL Winter Classic 2010 will feature the Boston Bruins playing the Philadelphia Flyers at historic Fenway Park. There could be snow, which would be like the Penguins - Sabres game in Buffalo a couple of years ago. Despite what can be dicey ice conditions, the game is a lot of fun to watch. By contrast, the football bowl games, mostly bereft of the top teams that play later in BCS matchups, are less interesting--only the classic Pac-10 vs. Big-10 matchup in the Rose Bowl featuring #7 Oregon vs. #8 Ohio State seems compelling to me. I'm tired of hearing the broadcasters go on and on about Tim Tebow and Florida so I'm skipping the Cincinnati / Florida Sugar Bowl.
I'm hoping that someday the NHL will feature an outdoor game in Ottawa, maybe between the Washington Capitals and the Ottawa Senators. Instead of a New Year's Day matchup, why not in February during Winterlude at Ottawa's Frank Clair Stadium in Lansdowne Park, right next to the Rideau Canal. Add to the festive atmosphere by setting up big screen televisions for people to watch the game from the canal making for a great celebration of hockey and winter activities. The stadium needs some work--an outdoor NHL game might be the catalyst for Ottawa to make some needed improvements to the facility. I did a quick survey of the Hennepin Canal ice on Tuesday when I was in the area. Since there was 1" - 2" of wet snow on top of the ice, that I only had the day in the area, and that the ice was unsafe in many spots, I mostly just did a survey of various locations rather than trying to skate. While the ice was strong enough that ice fisherman were out on the canal in more protected, still-water areas such as at the lagoon near the Visitor Center and Izaak Walton park north of Geneseo--in other areas there was open water (even by the Visitor Center on the canal), and especially at the eastern end of the canal. Besides patches of open water, there were other places with weak, frosty, 1"-thick ice, several places were 3" to 4" thick, while the thickest section I measured was up towards 5" of clear ice. There was a lot of randomness to the ice quality and thickness as it varied with location based on the depth and current of the canal at a specific location. Note that the slow-moving Green River, which runs in the same area, was completely open water while most of the Hennepin in the same area had ice cover of varying thickness. With warmer temperatures (and further, with rain coming), the ice will become weaker or nonexistent in some areas, but a coming cold period next week may mean better ice possibly towards New Year's. Wait and see...
While the World Cup long track speed skating series wraps up this weekend in Salt Lake City, here's a follow-up to my post a few weeks ago on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics venues. A few world records were set this weekend on Salt Lake City's fast ice--given that Vancouver's oval is at sea level, only a superhuman effort will produce a world record there. The Richmond Olympic Oval is a gorgeous facility located in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, which is just east of the airport and south of downtown Vancouver. I stayed in Richmond recently, near the oval, the surrounding area was full of strip malls, hotels, office parks, and apartment / condominium and further afield neighborhoods of single-family homes. As a place to stay during the Games, it benefits from its walking distance proximity to the oval as well as a short walk to the Skytrain tram, from which its an easy ride to downtown Vancouver. Not a lot of charm though. The oval is an amazing facility built for the games at a cost of nearly $200 million with Cannon Design as architect (and Glotman Simpson as structural engineering consultants). The roof is made of local woods, all of which was salvaged from forests that had been plagued with beetle-kill. The facility is a stunner, probably the nicest oval I've been to--maybe only the Viking Ship in Hamar, Norway rivals it for being the most aesthetically pleasing speedskating facility, and at some level you have to simply appreciate each facility in their own right from a design standpoint as each one has its own unique appeal. After the games, the building will be put to a variety of uses for local sports enthusiasts, but sadly, plans at this point call for the speed skating ice will be mothballed and covered over. A few quick thoughts on the Hennepin canal. It didn't freeze in some spots until after the snow. This is good in a sense, as the bitter cold should help a nice surface of ice start to form, free of snow cover. That said, it takes a while for ice to form to be adequately thick. The inspiration for this site, the Elfstedentocht, requires about 7 nights of - 10 C temperatures (about 14 degrees F) to make a layer 15 cm thick (or about 5.9"), at which they may hold the event. (With an average daily temperature of about 20 deg. F, the "formula" would indicate a fairly high parameter of about 0.65 for the Elfstedentocht, which could be about right as it is often fairly windy, no snow, and the canals there are optimized to freeze--meaning little or no current.) For that race, the ice has to be very solid to support the thousands of participants and spectators. My estimation is that the Hennepin Canal, with the culvert bridges and many locks, doesn't freeze quite as easily as the Friesland canals. No matter what, BE SAFE and practice SAFETY PROCEDURES and if you don't know what these are, don't go out on the ice!
If you have an ice report or are interested in a skate this winter, use the contact tab off the Home page. Winter has indeed arrived to the Midwest. If you have an ice or snow report, drop me a line. The canal area didn't get that much snow, and the forecasts are for cold weather towards the Christmas holiday period. In other news, California's Greg Long edged overtook Kelly Slater to win yesterday's big wave surfing competition in Hawaii (see my last post). Slater had a recurring role on the syndicated television series, Baywatch, which, say what you will about its cultural and dramatic merits, it was a huge success internationally and this eased the US' trade deficit and helped with the country's balance of payments. (ps for those of you in the freezing cold aftermath of the storm--watch the clip, think warm weather!)
Not a skating race, but winter weather systems bring on epic surfing competitions. While it was a possibility that Mavericks was going to be held this week, they opted to not attempt to hold it in this window of opportunity due to a shift in weather forecasts. But the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay is on today. The surfers had gathered in hopes of the event, with the 28 competitors having flown in (if they weren't already in Hawaii). Mavericks only gives 24 hours for the competitors to fly in from around the globe to be at the competition, which is held at a special break off the coast of California south of San Francisco. Illinoistocht should be giving more than 24 hours notice. In the meantime, here's an article about the Quiksilver in Hawaii (it's ON actually today, the article in the NYTimes was written yesterday), or check out the webcast on the link above.
Even if it doesn't get cold enough for the canals to freeze solid with ice thick enough to skate outdoors in the Netherlands, besides the occasional ice rink, there's a unique 5 km (3.1 mile) long outdoor ice "rink" that opened in 2007, Flevonice. This year, the winter season is from November 14 through February 28 (although due to weather and equipment issues they just opened to the public on November 29). Pretty amazing. In the picture above, you can see how the track loops around a large area to make a 5 km loop. Note the asphalt road next to the track for summer events (under the ice, the skating surface is sand). Street lamps, spaced along the frozen pathway, allow for easy night skating.
Flag-bearers of each nation parade into the closing ceremonies at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Another in a series looking to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada--here's a look at the host city and the venues. Otherwise, not a lot of natural outdoor ice to talk about as its been warm in the US this late fall. In other news, the elite World Cup skating circuit moves on with the conclusion of the Short Track World Cup last weekend and the third installment of the long track speed skating World Cup's in Hamar, Norway, site of the 1994 Winter Olympics, this weekend. Already, US speedskater's have done very well, with Shani Davis sweeping 1st place finishes in both the 1000m and 1500m events with track records in both Berlin, Germany and Heerenveen, Netherlands. In short track speed skating, Apolo Ohno for the men, and Katherine Reutter for the women, have placed among the top skaters overall. On to Vancouver itself as the destination for the games and thoughts on attending the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since the games are in drizzly Vancouver, much of the games will now be held indoors. A little bit of magic will be lost moving so much inside, but as to the events, indoor ice will aid in the integrity and quality of the competitions. The opening and closing ceremonies will be held at BC Place, a 55,000 seat stadium with an air-supported roof in downtown Vancouver. Next door is "Canada Hockey Place", a 19,000 seat arena that will fill up with hockey-mad Canadians (as an aside, General Motors, the auto company that is now a ward of the US government, actually has the naming rights to this NHL arena, but for the games it will be known by the neutral moniker, Hockey Place). Short track speed skating and figure skating will take place a little bit east of downtown in the 14,200 seat Pacific Coliseum, the original home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks in 1970, which was renovated for about $20mm for the games. The ice sports venues represent a contrast to the 2002 Winter Olympics, where short track and figure skating were at the larger downtown arena while hockey was at a smaller facility a bit outside of the main downtown area. For the 2010 games, it's Canada, eh, home of ice hockey! Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver East of the airport and south of downtown, in the suburb of Richmond, is the impressive new facility for long track speed skating. I'll post later on this magnificent venue. Finally, just south of downtown is 5,600 seat Vancouver Olympic Centre, home of the curling competition. The alpine events will take place further from Vancouver. Snowboard, snowboard halfpipe, and freestyle skiing will be held at Cypress Mountain, which is fairly near to Vancouver, less than an hour's transit time. The remainder of the alpine skiing events, along with cross-country skiing and biathlon, ski jumping, and the sliding sports (bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton) will be held at the mountain resort area, Whistler, for which spectators will board buses in Vancouver and travel a ride of up to 3 hours to the venues. Men's slalom held at Deer Valley Ski Resort in the 2002 Winter Olympics. The slalom was spectator-friendly as you could see the entire course from the grandstands. (Also in the photo, at the extreme right are the snow ramps for the aerials in freestyle skiing.) By contrast, for other alpine events, such as the Men's and especially the Women's Downhill, spectators watched most of the runs on a giant video screen and saw only the final portion of each run. For the women, the skiers popped over the final jump in their tuck and quickly finished, for the men you could see more of the mountain (maybe the last 15 - 20 seconds of the run), including Bode Miller's bobble and bounce off his left hip, with his recovery enroute to a silver medal in the Men's Combined. Enjoy the games if you are headed to Vancouver as a spectator. I've heard Canadians, in reference to the high cost of living of the area, have jokingly said that BC stands for "Bring Cash". It'd be great to go, and while the travel and ticket costs (due to "secondary markets") are affordable for many events, lodging is probably a challenge. I paid a lot for lodging in Salt Lake City, but was able to obtain tickets at face value very easily--but I don't know what the situation will be with "secondary markets" for Olympic tickets for 2010. The distance to Whistler may mean that two-event days combining an alpine or sliding sport with a skating event might be difficult whereas in Salt Lake City this was easy. For the games, Vancouver recently finished construction on an elevated tram line that runs from the airport and from Richmond to downtown. From one of the tram stops, its not a long walk (about 1km or 0.6 miles) to the Richmond oval. There are a lot of hotels in Richmond given its proximity to the airport, so that's certainly a place to stay if you are focused on speed skating. To be in the excitement of the festivities, staying downtown and taking the tram to the oval might be a better call. No matter where you stay, arrive early and expect to wait in a lot of fairly long lines. Ski jumping venue at the 2002 Winter Olympics. This is a steeper mountain face than many people comfortably ski--pretty amazing to think that the athlete's will actually be airborne for much of the distance as they fly down the mountain.
Check out the teaser video above for the forthcoming Dutch feature film about the 1963 Elfstedentocht, De Hel Van '63 (or The Hell of '63). The ice skating marathon tour that year was famous for its brutal weather conditions. Somebody that participated recently noted to me that of the 10,000 participants only about 100 or so made it the entire 200km to the finish, all of whom started in the first wave. (With so many participants on a small canal, the tour starts in waves like many cycling events). The film follows the decision to hold the race, despite the tough weather conditions, and focuses on four participants that include a farmer's son, a soldier, and a nurse, rather than the race leaders or winner that year, Reinier Paping. The clip above concludes with the words: deprivation...willpower...love.
I'm hoping the film gets released with English subtitles in the US to at least play at international film festivals. I'm unsure there is a market (outside of the Netherlands) for what would appear to be a sports-themed film--unlike art house cinema foreign language dramas, sometimes sports films are notorious for being formulaic and I've more than once been disappointed by a movie that I had really anticipated. Or maybe it will be really good and be up for awards on the international film circuit--its hard to tell from the trailer. Watching the teaser video, the marathon skater in me gives the film an Oscar nod for at least cinematography and musical score--I love the melodramatic music in the background of the teaser clip. In making the film, some of skating scenes were filmed in Finland as well as in the Netherlands. In one video I saw, for shots in the Netherlands with some landmarks in the background (such as by the waterpoort / watergate in Sneek), it appears the filmmakers had put in pontoons on the unfrozen canal to make the ice--sort of an artifical, linear ice rink. Although there was a brief period last winter where the canals were frozen enough to support the filming, I believe the Friesland scenes were shot in the late winter / early spring. |
Editor - JimThis blog weighs in on topics such as long-distance skating, the Illinois canals, cycling, and a variety of related (and occasionally not-so-related) topics. I'd like to correspond with others interested in skating the Hennepin and I&M canals. Archives
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