Dear SkiPost:

Thanks for the great newsletter, you would not believe the amount of information that we use from it. I live in Timmins, Ontario and ski approx. 1200 to 1500kms./year. I read your wax tips and refer (daily) to the Wax Wizard from Swix. My biggest concern is what wax to apply when we wake up at -25C in the morning, but it warms up to -10C by the time we go skiing?(that is just an example of the temp.) Do we wax colder because it was colder in the morning, or do we wax for the temp. when we ski? Is there a difference in the snow temperature from morning to night? Any ideas?

Thanks.

Hello,

This is a good question. Most of the time snow temps will rise slower than air temps, so we often tend to use a wax that will be better in colder conditions. This type of problem is seen a lot, and happens to be particularly interesting when talking about man-made snow. This snow is often quite dense, so the temperature of the snow will rise even more slowly.

This is not a scientific thing, but more a matter of experience. We have found that this approach seems to work the best when dealing with rapidly warming snow.

Enjoy.

Dear SkiPost,

The race season for our high school program and I have about 100 skis to store for the summer. About a third of these skis have Cera F on them and the others have HF 8. With this wax combination the students only raced 5 K . I was wondering if I should just melt the CH10 over the fluoride or do I have to some how remove the fluoride?

Thank you.

Hello,

The skis with the HF wax can probably have a summer wax (a warm CH wax) put right over the top. The skis with Cera F should be hot scraped. This is when you apply the wax, iron it down, and then scrape the wax off before it has cooled. Then let the ski cool before applying the final summer layer (this avoids the possibility of having the base get too hot, and sealing).

If you were using Cera F on the skis as a result of dirty snow, it is a good idea to hot scrape all of your skis. The hot scraping will remove the Cera F, and it will also remove a great deal of the dirt in the ski. Using a stiff bronze or steel brush before the hot scraping will aid in getting some dirt and Cera F off the ski before you apply wax.

You may want to break that project up in sections - sounds like a lot of skis! Good Luck.

Dear SkiPost;

I was wondering why the tips of the skis are round and not pointed? does this make a difference at all for anything.

Thank you

Hello,

Having a rounded tip has been able to significantly reduce the amount of weight at that part of the ski. By reducing the swing-weight of the ski you are reducing the amount of weight a skier has to move, and less effort doing that translates into more effort being concentrated on racing FAST.

SkiPost;

I noticed that the top skiers using Swix wax in the skate race seem to have used HFBD4 with FC7. All the way up to race day Swix was recommending the HFBD 6 with the FC 7. Why is that? Swix always seems to recommend on the warm side. This has gotten me into trouble in the past. I can understand warmer for the later waves but why don't they change the recommendations if the weather warrants? How many of their guys skied with the warmer HF 6 on their skis??!!

Hello,

We waxed with HF4BD covered with FC7 for 9 skiers who finished in the top 30 for the men and the top 10 for the women. We also waxed skis for several skiers that finished about 50th to well into the 3rd wave. For these later skiers, we used HF6BD covered with FC7. These skiers had excellent skis and commented that theirs were better than those around them. Our testing in the days leading up to the race indicated that when the snow had seen relatively little traffic (front end of the elite wave) HF4BD was the better underlayer. When the snow had been skied on a fair amount, the HF6BD was better. In large marathon races it is very common for the conditions to be different for the top races when compared with those just barely behind, and possibly even more different for those well behind the leaders. The Swix recommendation relied heavily on extensive testing from us and we were more than happy to share our knowledge. Based on this, Swix decided to keep the recommendation that they had used all along because for the vast majority of skiers (well over 95%) the HF6BD was likely the better choice. Kevin Johnson
Factory Team Salomon/Swix Ski Tech

By Justin Freeman

I have had three disappointing 50 km races in a row now. Last year at Bretton Woods, this year at Craftsbury and this year at Lake Placid I felt I had the fitness to win races, but due to illness, tactics, or ski selection I ended up second. It is a frustrating place to be, but I take heart from one sign of progress: in none of the races did I have issues with fueling or hydration.

Some perspective is useful here. My first second place finish in a major marathon was back in 2000 at the Tour of Anchorage. I was fitter and faster than Lars Flora, and showed it for about 45 km. But I was far from home and carrying no feeds, while Lars was fed several times by friends; he was after all in his hometown. Five kilometers from the finish I ran out of gas, and lost close to two minutes, barely holding on to second place.

It would be nice if this were an isolated incident. But the truth is it took years of bonking to figure out that just because a 30 km race requires only a couple small feeds does not mean that a 50 km is similar. A huge part of racing for two or three hours is fitness, but there is also a significant component the race that comes down to the ability to absorb enough calories.

One way to deal with this challenge is to have people on the course to hand you feeds, maybe trade water bottles, give you gels, etc. But sometimes, this isn’t an option. And official race feed stations often serve watered down or syrupy-sweet energy drinks, and the generous volunteers who staff them rarely have the experience to hand off cups to a fast-moving racer.

This reality has led me to a new solution to the feed problem: the NathanSports Blizzard. This bladder pack holds about two liters of water (or Gleukos, mixed a little strong). The straps hold it securely to your body so that you can ski as you weren’t wearing it. The hose is well-insulated; take a drink every fifteen or twenty minutes and the hose will never, ever freeze. I no longer lose time grabbing water bottles, no longer worry about when I will be exchanging them. I no longer have to stop poling in order to take a drink; I quickly place the valve in my mouth and I can drink as I ski.

I first used the Blizzard when I was pulling my daughter in her Chariot ski pulk. I couldn’t use a drinkbelt when I had a sled tied to my waist, so I dug out the bladder pack I thought I would never use. Having used a competing brand years ago, I was worried about discomfort, malfunction or freezing. Over a year, 80 hours of daughter-pulling, and three 50 km races later, I am still waiting to have one of these problems!

By Chad Giese

By all accounts, this was the best Birkie in many, many years.  I have talked to skiers who started at the front, at the back, and every where in between, both classic and skate and I haven’t heard a bad word about this year’s race.  The conditions were as close to World Cup quality that I have ever experienced on the Birkie trail making the course hard and fast.  Even for those who didn’t have the best race certainly had a great ski.

Every year I gear up for the Birkie and every other year I race well.  I have staggered down Main Street, skied all alone down Main Street and sprinted in a large pack down main street.  In 2006 I even had the honor of getting out sprinted by Silvio Fauner.  Well, this year was one of my favorites, not my best result, but by far my most enjoyable Birkie.  Last year I really thought I had a chance to win the shortened Elite Wave only Birkie only to hit the wall somewhere between OO and the finish line.  This year, I just wanted to hang with the lead group as long as I could. 

My preparation was not as good as I would have liked it to be.  The snow in the Twin Cities has been absolutely amazing all season, we’ve been skiing since Dec. 1 on a total of 26 inches of snowfall!, so I have been able to ski, but I didn’t have the number of races under my belt to really get my top end going.  So my strategy was to ski with the lead pack until the surges really started and I got shelled off the back, probably around 15km, and then find a nice little pack to cruise to the finish with.  I know I have the base to race 50km, but wasn’t sure I had the lactate tolerance to put myself under to stay with the lead pack through all of the early surges and recover to hang on to the finish.  As with each race, I was going to give it my all.

To my surprise, the race started out at a pretty relaxed pace.  There were a lot of good skiers in the field, a couple of French guys, a Norwegian, a Russian, a Kazahk, and most of the top skiers in the US and it seemed no one wanted to push the pace or maybe everyone was waiting for an Italian to move to the front and start hammering at the 5km sign.  Well, there were no Italians and the pace remained pretty calm which meant the lead pack remained pretty large.  At about the 12km mark, Ivan Babikov and Lars Flora put in a pretty good surge and skied away from the lead pack.  Even though things came back together, I knew these guys were strong and would put in their move whenever they wanted to.  I was going to sit in the middle or at the back of the pack as long as I could so I could watch it happen. 

The kilometers kept passing by and before I knew it we were through OO.  The surges weren’t long enough to really break up the lead pack and after each short burst of about 1km the group would mostly come back together with only a few skiers getting shelled each time.  After Mosquito Brook things started to heat up a bit.  The pace picked up and I kept waiting for the ‘big’ hill to separate things, but when that came and went and I was still in the mix I couldn’t believe it.  The group was large, there were more broken poles than I have ever seen, but everyone was having a great time it seemed, or at least I was. 

Once we crossed the last major road crossing Ivan finally made his move and decided to go solo to the finish for the last five km.  He put in a strong move and pulled away on a long gradual uphill which left the rest of us scrambling.  I was barely hanging on, but I was hanging.  When we hit the lake I clawed myself back to the lead pack with the help of Zach Violet and once we hit main street I actually put in a decent sprint to finish in 14th.  There were 18 of us in the lead pack so the finish was pretty crazy.  I couldn’t believe I was there to take part in the frenzy at the finish.

I guess I surprised myself a little.  I had a great race on a great course that was in the best shape it has ever been in, my Salomon skis were rockets, I felt great, and my teammates won.  I’d call it a successful day.  I’ll be going back next year, that’s for sure.

Visit www.e-rudy.com for all of their latest closeout deals. This site is also a fully functional retail venue, and will give you information for finding a Rudy Project retailer near you.