{"id":6492,"date":"2022-02-25T20:54:55","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T19:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/?p=6492"},"modified":"2024-02-05T17:24:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T16:24:45","slug":"fire-ice-skating-at-facklornas-kvall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/2022\/02\/fire-ice-skating-at-facklornas-kvall\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire & Ice: Skating at Facklornas Kv\u00e4ll"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Winter in Sweden is a novel experience. Over the past few months, we bloggers have tried to convey many different sides of this, from experiences with the KTH Outdoor Club<\/a> and trips to the north<\/a>, to tips on how to thrive<\/a> and why winter cycling<\/a> is a thing here.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are plenty of things we haven\u2019t covered. For example, there are many traditions and variations of winter sports that are distinctly Swedish, like bandy <\/em>(a variation of hockey), Vasaloppet <\/em>(a famous nordic skiing race), long-distance ice skating (think: frozen lakes, special skates), among others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently got to try l\u00e5ngf\u00e4rdsskridskor <\/em>(long-distance ice skates) under some special circumstances, and it\u2019s definitely a Swedish experience worth sharing..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facklornas Kv\u00e4ll <\/em> (the evening of the torches<\/strong>)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the past ten years or so, there\u2019s been a tradition at Norrviken, a lake about 30 minutes north of Stockholm: When the weather conditions are right, a date is announced for a torchlit ice skating procession. People from the community gather, and the fire department supplies torches and safety supervision. Skaters assemble near the start of a winding path, which has been ploughed on the lake ice and lined with candles. Once the torches are lit, people begin skating, forming a glowing ormen <\/em>(snake) best appreciated from a bird\u2019s eye view..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A screenshot from a video of the glowing ormen<\/em> on social media (thus the low quality image, sorry!) They estimated 800 people participated.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

L\u00e5ngf\u00e4rdsskridskor <\/em>(long-distance ice skates) <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I had never heard of this tradition until a friend spontaneously invited me and some others. We headed to the lake on a February weeknight and rented long-distance skates from the booth there. The skates are different from figure skates or hockey skates primarily in that the blade is much longer. In addition, it\u2019s detached from the boot; you use special shoes that fit onto the blade, similar to how you clip into ski bindings. But, it\u2019s worth the hassle because you can skate faster and farther with less effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Many<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A beautiful sight, at night<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We might have been too far away to hear, but the procession seemed to commence without much fanfare. We were standing nearby, waiting for a sign to begin, but then people just started passing a flame from torch to torch, and we followed suit. Shortly after, skaters made their way onto the course, and we joined in. It all seemed so casual to me, for something that was so collectively beautiful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"the<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Skate, skate… snack!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The skating loop was about 5km long, but it went by quickly. Some people took extra laps or went further out into the lake, as Norrviken is roughly 8km long and has loops of various lengths. After skating, we got varm choklad <\/em>(hot chocolate) and korv med br\u00f6d<\/em> (hotdog) from the little food hut on the lakeshore. It was one of those moments in Sweden that I’ll never forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\/\/ Claire<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winter in Sweden is a novel experience. Over the past few months, we bloggers have tried to convey many different sides of this, from experiences with the KTH Outdoor Club and trips to the north, to tips on how to thrive and why winter cycling is a thing here.\u00a0 But there are plenty of things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[158,1],"tags":[87,1129,52,327],"class_list":["post-6492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stockholm-and-sweden","category-student-life","tag-ice-skating","tag-old-content","tag-stockholm","tag-student-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W9I7-1GI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6492"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6505,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6492\/revisions\/6505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}