You can always learn new things when you put the time and effort into ski testing and wax testing. This week in West Yellowstone was a good case in point. This week we only focused on skate skis because the races in West Yellowstone were skate races. Even given relatively similar conditions for the few days I was there, there were changes in what skis felt better.
The sprint race ended up being a little warmer and wetter than the distance race day. It was no surprise that the skis that worked well in the sprint, tended to have slightly wetter lines than the distance day. The big thing though was that skis that were good to start with, and had blue and red grinds, tended to be best. The biggest factors to good skis this week were 1. Good skis 2. Proper grinds 3. Hand structure and wax. This is often a confusing point to some people and I will try to clear it up. When you are testing skis for race day, always zero out the skis you want to test with the same paraffin on each skis. Test the skis you are curious about. You will sometimes find interesting results. Do this as often as possible so that you get more and more information on your skis. This way, you will know when you like a particular ski and what conditions might be outside of its optimal range.
I helped Kris test his skis for the two races. On Wednesday, a day after he had the flu, Kris was able to come out and run through about 6 pairs of his skis. He picked the 2 best from the 6 and waxed them up for the sprint race. Race morning, he showed up with another pair that hadn’t even been out the day before. It was a little warmer ski and he was sure it would be in the running. We scrambled to get that pair waxed up and he ended up using that warmer pair in the afternoon quarterfinals.
For Saturday, I prepared 4 different skis using Zach’s knowledge of the skis and we waxed them up a little differently. This is a strategy that has worked well in the past and it worked well here too. The forecasting can be quite different than what actually occurs in West Yellowstone, so I wanted to make sure we had as many variables covered as possible. All 4 were solid, but Kris’s 009 ski stood out. It was a strong 610 Carbonlite model ( 110-3.1) with very nice lines. The interesting thing is that at roughly 45 lbs lighter than Kris, I also picked that ski as the best. The grind on it was a TB2n – one of the new TB series that Zach makes on the blue stone, but a similar pattern to the TG1-2 from the green stone.
To find the right glide wax for the races, I spent the 2 days before the races testing paraffins and underlayers and then powders and topcoats. We ran two speed traps and then compared them to what we were feeling on the snow. For race mornings, we went by feel and concentrated on powders, liquids and blocks as well as structure. For me, I think it is very valuable to run speed traps in the days leading up to the races to get the most information. That helps to steer what variables are important and what aren’t as important. Zach did two good write ups on the testing we did and what variables seemed to make the most difference.
In our race wax build-up, we ended up with Vauhti 10F hardener, Vauhti HF Violet, Vauhti 9.1 Powder followed by a HWK powder/liquid topcoat mix that Vail liked slightly better than the Vauhti 9.1 liquid on race day. In hand structure testing, we liked the Red Creek 0/-6C. On the sprint day the Red Creek Coarse hand structure was best in the afternoon, and it surprisingly stayed in second place on Saturday. It was interesting that the Red Creek 0/-10 felt quite bad on the snow Saturday. That’s normally a very safe structure, and our most popular Red Creek structure tool, but it felt bitey in the new snow on Saturday.
I only tested Vauhti wax and Red Creek tools. By concentrating on 1 brand, you can identify what variables (hardness, application, layering) seem to make the difference and it helps to eliminate confusing information. This made it possible to know that on race day, we were in the game and also made sure we didn’t leave too much to do on race day, especially when you have a service staff of one. That said, a lot of people pitched in this week to help out and I really appreciate it.