From the Atlantic coast almost to the Pacific, Canada is blessed (if you can call it that) with cold winters. Canadians take advantage of the January and February cold by setting up outdoor ice skating tracks of incomparable size and quality. From Alberta's prairies to Quebec's St. Lawrence River, you'll find exciting destinations where excellent ice is guaranteed.

South of the border in the U.S., it's a different story. New England and the upper Midwest offer vast frozen lakes and rivers between mid-January to mid-March. If conditions are perfect, you can skate 10 to 25 miles in one direction. What if it snows? The idea of groomed outdoor ice hasn't really caught on yet.

OK, there are a few bright spots. Last winter the longest groomed outdoor track in the United States was a 1000m loop in Anchorage, Alaska. And that's a long commute for most FaSST readers. This coming season, for the first time ever, there are plans afoot to plow a skating track on Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vermont. But if you're looking for outdoor ice in the USA, and your destination isn't Anchorage or Burlington, you'd better pack your skis, in case the ice is buried under a foot of snow. Or go to Canada!

If your time is limited and you can only visit one location in Canada, then choose between the skaters' meccas of Ottawa, Ontario, Joliette, Quebec, and Lac Beauport, Quebec.

Ottawa's Rideau Canal

Ottawa's crown jewel is the five-mile Rideau Canal that cuts through the heart of the city from the Canadian Parliament buildings to the Carleton University campus. The Rideau is the focal point of Winterlude, Ottawa's winter carnival, which captivates the city for 3 consecutive weekends in February. During a single weekend as many as 100,000 skaters step out on the ice. Ottawa's love affair with skating began during World War II when the Dutch royal family took refuge there to escape the advancing Germans. And it's a love that's lasted in this city of 300,000.

The Rideau Canal is maintained on a daily basis by the National Capital Commission. That means plowing and sweeping the snow away during the day, and flooding the ice almost every night. On weekdays, commuters skate to work on the canal, while athletes take advantage of the uncrowded ice to get in a high-speed lunch time work out. On weekends the canal is wall-to-wall with people, as families push sleighs full of kids through the snow sculpture garden, stop to enjoy live performances on the ice, and glide over to food stands for "Beaver Tails", Ottawa's signature snack. Many of them start at Dow's Lake, where there's a huge parking lot as well as good public transportation.

To call the Dow's Lake Pavilion a "warming hut" would be an insult! In addition to a huge rubber-carpeted changing area, it houses a restaurant and bar, as well as a skate shop and sleigh rentals. In spite of last winter's warm weather, the Rideau Canal was open for 51 days from early January almost to the end of February. And just a few blocks from the canal is Brewer Park, where the Ottawa and Gloucester speedskating clubs maintain a 400m outdoor oval for most of the winter.

Joliette and Quebec City

Frozen rivers and lakes are available less than an hour's drive from Montreal. The placid Riviere L'Assomption snakes through downtown Joliette, Quebec, a French-speaking city of 50,000. A dam on the south side of town has turned the river into a long, skinny lake, and in the winter two parallel skating tracks link together to create a 6 mile loop. Along the riverbank are heated warming huts and waterfront restaurants. In spite of the urban amenities, buffers of parks and woods along both banks of the river give it a country setting.

For two midwinter weekends, Joliette's population doubles for Festi-Glace carnival of live music, torchlight parades, dogsleds, parachute jumping and other events on the ice. Except during Festi-Glace, the skating track is uncrowded. With an army of volunteers to groom the ice, Joliette guarantees good skating conditions throughout January and February, even during a snowstorm. Another hotbed of speedskating is Quebec City, where the Gaetan-Boucher 400m oval stays open from November to March. Now, exciting news is also coming from a small lake called Lac Beauport just north of the city. Last winter Les Patineurs Maitres de Quebec ran a 50K marathon on a 2000m track out on the lake. For the coming season, the city of Lac Beauport has agreed to expand the track to 2300m. February 24 and 25, there will be a series of 3 marathons of 10, 25 and 100K. A large field of American, Canadian and European skaters are expected to compete for trophies and cash prizes.

Enter NAMSA

To show U.S. skaters the best Canada has to offer, the North American Marathon Skating Assoc. is planning a 9-day tour of eastern Canada, with stopovers in Ottawa, Joliette and Quebec City. Dates are Feb 17-25, with an optional 1-night extension (Feb 25-26) in Quebec City. Special events, both recreational and competitive, will be scheduled in all 3 locations. A group of experienced Dutch marathon skaters will join us for the entire 9 days, giving North Americans a unique opportunity to "skate with the pros" on our own home ice. U.S. and Canadians may join in for the whole week, or just a weekend in Ottawa or Quebec City. Namsa hopes Americans will be so inspired by our Canadian experience that we'll come home energized to set up new outdoor skating tracks in upstate New York, northern New England, Minnesota, the Rocky Mountain area and Alaska. Then the sport of marathon skating will expand beyond its traditional base in Europe. If the 2000-01 season is a success, a Dutch organization has offered to help Americans organize an outdoor ice marathon outside Salt Lake City in February 2002. After that, the possibilities are endless. Marathon speedskating events in the Winter Olympics? Why not?

For more information on namsa and skating tours: www.valley.net/~ice/namsa or call 802-649-3696.