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In a country where skating on natural ice is a beloved tradition, the opening of the Netherlands’ first natural ice rink of the season was a small but joyful milestone. On Friday morning, as the first frost of autumn appeared in parts of the country, the rink briefly opened.
A brief first skate
The skating club in Winterswijk, in the eastern province of Gelderland, earned the honour and the prized “primeur” (the scoop of being first). Their 400-metre track opened to the public at 7:30 am, even though there was only about 2.5 millimetres of ice. Around 20 to 30 early risers enjoyed the first skate of the winter before the sun started melting the edges of the track, which led to its closure at about 10 am.
“When you tell people that, they say ‘it can’t be done.’ But it can,” the club’s chairman, Auke Spijkstra, told broadcaster NOS. “It’s wonderful to see all those enthusiastic people.”
How to skate on 2.5mm of ice
This was possible because of a combination of weather and clever techniques. The night was clear and cloudless, which allowed heat to escape and the ground to cool below freezing, even if the air temperature stayed just above zero. The club also uses a special method: a misting arm sprays water in thin layers to create a flat surface, and a white coating on the base reflects sunlight to keep the ice from warming too quickly. “We weren’t sure it would work,” said ice master Hendrik van Prooije, skating on his own rink. “It’s always a little competition to be first. I believe we were the first skaters in the Netherlands.”
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The frost and the official rules
The skating happened as the KNMI recorded the first local frost of the autumn overnight in Brabant, Limburg, and parts of Zeeland. The lowest temperature was minus 1.2 degrees in Woensdrecht, Brabant. However, due to Dutch meteorological rules, it does not count as an official frost day unless the temperature drops below zero at the KNMI’s national measuring station in De Bilt, near Utrecht. There, it stayed at 0.8 degrees. This year’s first frost is also later than usual; in recent decades, it has typically arrived around 23 to 25 October.
It was over in a flash
If you want to join in, you’ll need to act fast and watch the weather forecast. The next few nights are expected to be cloudy, which will prevent the ice from forming. Van Prooije thinks it could be a few weeks before people can skate again. As for the real dream of every Dutch skater, the return of the Elfstedentocht (the legendary eleven-city skating tour last held in 1997) that is still as hard to predict as ever, according to the ice master.