2016 Cascade Crest, Mt Bachelor, Oregon

I am in Canmore, AB, watching the Tour of Canada/World Cup finals. Pretty cool ski racing going on up here. From afar, looking at the NOAA forecast and the Mt Bachelor report, here is what I would wax.

Forecast:

This Afternoon (Thursday): Snow showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. Southwest wind around 21 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Tonight: Scattered snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. Southwest wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Friday: Snow. High near 37. Southwest wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Friday Night: Snow. Low around 30. Southwest wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible.
Saturday: Snow. High near 36. Southwest wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

GOOD WAX:

Base: Solda UF 7

Paraffin: Solda F15 Pink

BETTER WAX:

Base: Solda UF7

Paraffin: Solda F31 Pink

BEST WAX:

Base: Solda UF7

Paraffin: Solda F31 Pink

Powder: Solda Fluor 100

Top Coat: Solda Powerjet 1

Hope you all have a great race!!!

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2016 Cascade Crest Wax Recommendation

Looks like SNOW!

The Cascade Crest Ski Marathon and Relay race is this Saturday at Mt Bachelor. Luckily, it is still very much Winter here in Bend. It looks like we are supposed to be getting snow from now until race day. Friday night’s low is supposed to be about 30deg, with a race day high of 33deg. Expect soft conditions. It will be a winter wonderland!

Here is our wax recommendation:

Iron in a base layer of Solda HC28   (If you are skiing the whole 50km, we would recommend adding some Solda S-30 to help harden the base and increase the durability of your wax job). Scrape and Brush.

Apply a layer of Solda F31 Pink (designed specifically for new snow). F15 Pink will also work, but is less fluorinated. Scrape and Brush.

Apply Solda Fluor 100 as your top coat. Iron in. Cork and Brush.

Remember, WebCyclery/WebSkis’ end of season sale is on now! All ski stuff, including SOLDA wax, is now on sale (even though we have 2-3 months left of great skiing).

Have a great race!

2016 Birkie Observations

Another Birkie in the books. Lots of you have recovered and are planning for next year. It is good to have a challenge, set goals and do your best to achieve those goals.

Our goal is to help people who like to use Solda Ski wax to have fast skis. According to what I have heard, we hit it this year.  Here are some of my observations.

The snow between Cable and Hayward is notoriously cold. The common wisdom is to wax colder than you think. I have often repeated this mantra. But my findings were different this year. Our wax formula this year was a warm one and it worked for a number of reasons. First, there was not much snow this year. The snow pack was shallow and there had not been prolonged periods of the typical cold temps. The warm air had been in place long enough so that the snow was warm all the way down. I took snow temps on the surface, 7cm down and 14cm down and it only was about 1.3C degrees colder down low.

The snow was dirty. This was due to the wind and rain and the fact that little new snow had fallen recently. There was about 5″ of new Sunday-Monday before the race and none after that; just warming temps and some rain. Solda makes carbon waxes for dirty snow. While testing bases, paraffins and powders the carbon waxes prevailed. They didn’t win every test, but they skied well enough over three days to establish a clear trend. We went with a base of Solda HC28 ironed, scraped and brushed and covered it with a layer of S30 cold powder. This was scraped while warm and the paraffin was applied over that. This technique adds durability for any paraffin.  For Paraffin we chose Solda F40 Carbon Yellow. I thought some colder combinations might work, but they never tested well. Carbon Red tested well as did the Carbon yellow. Carbon yellow felt much better climbing. Because the weather forecast continued to be warm and wet, even not going down below freezing Friday night, I went with the F40 Carbon Yellow.

In the powders test all indicators pointed to Solda Fluor 100. Again, I know that lots of people have had luck for years with HP05 in all types of Birkie snow. But this year it just could not handle the free moisture. Solda has new powders, HP05 Carbon and HP04 Carbon. The Carbon powders were close and the HP04 in particular ran very well. It just never beat out the Fluor 100. I do know some people who chose to go with the colder Carbon powders and reported good skis.

So, I chose the Carbon base and the Carbon paraffin to provide the dirt repellency and durability for the long raced and the Fluor 100 for the way it was handling the wet conditions. The reports I heard said the skis ran very well from beginning to end.

We did add an ACECO Finite Tool V05 structure tip to tail. I tried various linear rills and combination rills and found the V05 tip to tail most free. The forebody of the skis were encountering moisture from the shovel and all the way to the tail.

So, there you have it. For once the warm waxes worked at the Birkie. It is a good idea of have lots of different ammunition in your wax box for these battles.

Oh yes, our classic skiers went out on Swix K21S Universal Klister over a green klister binder and had good kick beginning to end.

2016 Birkie Solda Fluoro Powders Test

Friday: 3:pm at Birkie Ridge

Weather: rain, fog, air +2C, snow -0.1C.

Snow: Old, dirty, but holding together at the test site at Birkie Ridge.

Grooming plan: rumor has it that they will wait until the coldest part of the night and till as deeply as they can bringing up the coldest, oldest snow from the bottom and mixing it with what is here on top now.

No big surprises with the Solda powders. The winner was good old Solda Fluor 100. A close second was the new HP04 Carbon with regular HP04 third. HP05 Carbon next followed by HP05 and last was the new Marathon Fluor that is for cold, abrasive snow. I had one ski with the paraffin winner, Solda F40 Carbon Yellow and it tested very well, nearly as fast as the HP04 Carbon. If you wanted to save some time and money and are not excited about burning powders, go with a couple layers of the F40 Carbon Yellow. The advantage of the Fluor 100 is in dirt repelency and durability. That will insure a cleaner ski base longer into the race and that is important with the current condition.

Structures: I tested 4 structures and the winner in this snow was the Finite Tool V05 the whole length of the ski. My guess is that will also work tomorrow. It the snow sugars up then I would consider a .04 linear over it.

So, the final word on the glide wax is :

Solda HC28 scraped and brushed.

S30 powder ironed, and scraped while still warm.

Paraffin is Solda F40 Carbon Yellow, maybe a couple layers.

Top with Solda Fluor 100.

Structure with Finite Tool V05.

Have a great race.

2016 Grand Traverse Classic

2016 Grand Traverse Classic

Traverse City, MI

NOAA says:

Saturday: Snow showers likely. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Saturday Night: Snow showers likely before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -3. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 16.

Solda Glide Wax as follows:

GOOD WAX:

Base: Solda HC28, scraped and brushed

Paraffin: Solda F15 Green

BETTER WAX:

Base: Solda HC28, scraped and brushed.

Paraffin: Solda F15 Green

Top: Solda S30 cold powder. Scrape while still warm. Let skis cool. Brush with extra fine steel or fine copper brush.

BEST WAX:

Base: Solda HC28 scraped and brushed; then a layer of Solda S30 cold powder. Scrape lightly while still warm.

Paraffin: Solda F15 Green

Top: Solda HP05/S30 70/30.

 

Kick Wax:

Iron in a thin layer of Toko Green binder. Cork this smooth after it cools. My best guess is to go with Rode Green or Green Special.

2016 North American Vasa, Traverse City, MI

NORTH AMERICAN VASA MARATHON

TRAVERSE, CITY, MI

The Vasa has an early start time that will be cold. The forecast is for cloudy weather and  little temperature change. NOAA says:

This Afternoon: Snow showers. High near 17. West wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

Tonight: Snow showers. Steady temperature around 16. West wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Friday: Snow showers. Temperature falling to around 10 by 4pm. Wind chill values as low as -8. Blustery, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of around 4 inches.

Friday Night: Snow showers. Low around 3. Wind chill values as low as -12. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Saturday: Snow showers likely. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Cloudy with new cold snow. Here is what I would do using Solda glide wax.

GOOD WAX:

Base: Solda HC28, scraped and brushed.

Paraffin: Solda F15 Green

BETTER WAX:

Base: Solda HC28, scraped and brushed.

Paraffin: Solda F15 Green

Top: Solda S30 cold powder

BEST WAX:

Base: Solda HC28 scraped and brushed; then apply a layer of Solda S30 cold powder. Scrape while still warm and do not brush.

Paraffin: Solda F15 Green

Top: If the weather is right and it is likely to snow, top with Solda HP06. If it does not snow so much and looks to be dry during the race top with Solda HP05/S30 mix 50/50.

2016 White Pine Stampede

This 50 or 20km freestyle Michigan Cup  race is this Saturday. There has been a little new snow and a bit more Lake effect possible.

NOAA says:

Tonight: Snow showers, mainly after 1am. Low around 16. Southwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Friday: A 50 percent chance of snow showers before 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 28. West wind around 5 mph.
Friday Night: A 40 percent chance of snow showers after 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 20. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph after midnight.
Saturday: Snow showers likely, mainly before 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 30. Southwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

My Solda Wax forecast is:

GOOD WAX:

Solda UF7 and Performance Green mixed 50/50.

BETTER WAX:

Base: Solda UF and Performance Green mixed 50/50.

Paraffin: Solda F15 Pink.

BETTER WAX:

Base: Solda UF7 and Performance Green mixed 50/50

Paraffin: Solda F31 Pink.

Powder: Solda HP04

Top Coat: If it says warmer than 20F overnight I would rub on Powerjet 1, cork and brush. If it is colder and looks to stay cold (snow temp 21 or below ). Then go with Powerjet 2.