The current situation https://www.friescheijsbond.frl/schaatskaart
Blue = water or ice Green = ice >15cm
Elfstedentocht
31–40 of 129 posts
Re: Elfstedentocht
#32Lake Zürich (Zürisee) last froze in 1963. Videos: https://youtu.be/eauucwl6C24 Short docu-film (DE) https://youtu.be/3_N-wWNXdmQ More details (DE) https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/pd/de/index/stadtpolizei_zueric... Previous years with a frozen lake: > 1223 / 1259 / 1262 / 1407 / 1491 / 1514 / 1517 / 1573 / 1600 / 1660 / 1684 /1695 / 1709 / 1716 / 1718 / 1740 / 1755 / 1763 / 1789 / 1830 / 1880 / 1891 / 1895 / 1929 / 1963…
Do you know if lake Zug froze over as well? Having lived in the area for a while some time ago those videos are really interesting, pretty surprising, and even quite funny!
Yes, seems in 1929 and 1963 as well.
https://www.zg.ch/behoerden/staatskanzlei/staatsarchiv/publi...
Here’s a funny old video from the Bodensee (Lake Constance): https://youtu.be/FX6HrNxYdd4
Re: Elfstedentocht
#33The current situation https://www.friescheijsbond.frl/schaatskaart Blue = water or ice Green = ice >15cm
Wow I didn't know Fryslan (Friesland) has its own tld, that pretty cool.
Re: Elfstedentocht
#34Some context: the Elfstedentocht has become pretty rare due to climate change. Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now. This Elfstedentocht typically attracts hundred thousands of people. Interesting times.
If the weather allowed it, it would be a real shame to ban it due to Corona. Maybe it's possible to restrict the number of participants and spread them out more. And maybe also restrict or spread out the spectators. Of course it takes place over such a large area that it's impossible to police everything, but they can probably address the hotspots. But at the same time, it's such an iconic event, it may be hard to st…
The whole point of it is that it's such a massive thing with tons of (fairly amateur) people partaking as well. If you just want to skate for 200 km you can go to one of the colder countries and do it every year.
Re: Elfstedentocht
#35As wiki says the current king took part in the last one (he wasn't a king yet back then). And he is very proud of it - all participants get a pin (elfstedenkruisje) and he wears it next to the other "medals" he has even for official occasions
https://www.omropfryslan.nl/nieuws/248240-koning-draagt-elfs...
EDIT: just to add: I'm not a royal bootlicker. I just think it's one of a funny wacky things he does. Like participating in the "throw the toilet" competition
Re: Elfstedentocht
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not every sporting event that uses a football is the same, neither is every sporting event that uses ice skates.
Ur digging in your heels pretty hard, but most dutch are disagreeing with you (myself included). It's just not a very fitting analogy.
Sorry if it seems I'm digging in my heels on the "equivalent" part, I should've worded that differently. If you were trying to find an equivalent Dutch sporting event to the Superbowl it would be the Eredivisie.
But the point of the analogy was not to make a perfect equivalence to the Elfstedentocht, that would be impossible. The point was to convey to an American audience some semblance of the national importance of this particular sporting event.
Re: Elfstedentocht
#37Some context: the Elfstedentocht has become pretty rare due to climate change. Now guess what, while currently being in lockdown, the possibility for an Elfstedentocht is increasing since it's pretty cold to our standards right now. This Elfstedentocht typically attracts hundred thousands of people. Interesting times.
Isn't it also due to heightened security measures, which have increased in pretty much every sport over the decades? The non-race of 2012 sounds like it possibly could have happened and I would assume would have happened in the ~40s under similar conditions.
Re: Elfstedentocht
#38This is kind of the equivalent of the Superbowl for the Dutch, but due to global warming it hasn't been held in 24 years. The previous longest interval was 22 years, so some people are starting to doubt whether it will ever happen again. Imagine if the real Superbowl wasn't held in 24 years due to global warming and may never happen again, perhaps then it would be more of a priority.
I get your comparison to Superbowl to highlight the popularity to people abroad. A sibling mentions the football world championship. But other than popularity there's big differences. Both Superbowl and world cup are highly organized, highly commercial events, planned way in advance, where top athletes perform. The Elfstedentocht always comes unexpectedly. When there is a cold snap in the weather, a fever starts brew…
> As ice grows thicker people from all walks of life start to get involved to organize the event.
This is not completely accurate. Sure, koek-en-zopie stuff might be organized by local restaurants or whatever, but the Elfstedentocht itself is prepared (almost) completely every single year. There is a whole foundation with internal hierarchy that oversees the process. The whole parcourse can be constructed on a 48 hour notice. The waterschappen don't stop their pumps out of hospitality or something, it is all pretty well organized.
Re: Elfstedentocht
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
They said they are ready to hold an elfstedentocht within 48 hours, if there is any change to the rules though, so it would need both full ice formation and government intervention. Not holding any hopes though.
Political pressure will be enormous if the conditions are right in a week or so. With elections happening in a month or so, it's unlikely the rules won't change as political pressure mounts. You have to imagine covid being secondary to this news item in the Netherlands between now and when this decision needs to happen. The flip side is that for 10-15 centimeters of ice to happen over a 200km route, the freezing temp…
> it's unlikely the rules won't change as political pressure mounts.
No. It's extremely unlikely the rules WILL change. With curfew extended for another month, there is an as good as zero chance they will drop 1.5m rules (which is what the committee has based their decision on) before March.
Re: Elfstedentocht
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is kind of the equivalent of the Superbowl for the Dutch Uh, I'm not too familiar with the Superbowl, but the title of 'most popular televised sporting event in the Netherlands' definitely goes to the football world championship.
I tried looking for a source but couldn't find it: I read years ago that a survey with the question "Would you rather have an elfstedentocht or win the World Cup" was answered predominantly with the former. I've used that as an example of how important this event is for the Dutch when explaining it to my foreign friends. I'll keep looking for a source, but no doubt the elfstedentocht is one of the most important even…
Sooo not true. Dutchman here. Nobody cares about elfstedentocht, nobody in the civilized areas at least.