Tour skating

Tour skating
	Skating on Gaspereau Lake, Nova Scotia
Nicknames	North America: Nordic skating; long distance skating; trip skating; wild skating; cross-country-skating; backcountry skating; ; (in Swedish): långfärdsskridskoåkning; (in Finnish): retkiluistelu; (in Norwegian): turskøyting; (in Dutch) Dutch: toerschaatsen;
Characteristics
Contact	No
Team members	Individual, pairs or groups
Type	Recreational ice skating; Distance sport; Winter sport;
Equipment	Nordic tour skates; Dutch tour skates; ice prods or ice claws; ice pike or hansa pole; throwing line; backpack with waistband and groin strap; knee pads; elbow pads; helmet;
Venue	Frozen bodies of water

Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice. It is particularly popular in the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. It is becoming more popular in areas of North America such as New England, Southcentral Alaska, and Nova Scotia.

While Nordic skating usually involves tours over open ice on marshes, lakes, rivers, or sea, in the Netherlands skaters follow marked routes on frozen canals and connected lakes. Consequently, there are differences in equipment and skating styles between these two regions. Alaskans often include winter camping on longer journeys of a hundred miles or more.

Nordic skating is a popular activity in Sweden but is also becoming more popular in Finland and Norway, where it is called långfärdsskridskoåkning (in Swedish), retkiluistelu (in Finnish) and turskøyting (in Norwegian). In Canada and the United States this style is often called Nordic skating. Other names used are trip skating and wild skating.

Dutch skating is called toerschaatsen and is regarded by some as a sport in its own right.

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