Solda Wax Recommendations: February 2009

Friday, February 27, 2009

February 28-March 1 Updates

MOUNT BACHELOR,

Mount Bachelor race wax looks the same. Seems the weather will remain wintery Friday and Saturday. I skied this morning and it was cold, crunchy and slow. Snow Temp -16C (3F). Looks like sunny today. Forecast overnight low is 20. It could be colder if it remains clear. If it really does stay clear and the temps at night go down in the mid to low teens, I would go with F40 Violet instead of Red and Finish with HPO4. I am prepping one pair with HPO5 just in case it stays way colder.

LAKE LAND LOPPET

Looks to be no change here.

GREAT RACE, CALIFORNIA

This is also a tricky call with the altitude gain and the primarily north facing descent in the second half of the race. Looks like the forecast remains warm, but a low of 19F at the top of the climb.

If I were there racing, I would add a layer of Solda F40 Red or F40 Red Special over the base of F40 Yellow. Finish the same with Fluor 100 or PowerJet 1 ironed.

SNOW MOUNTAIN STAMPEDE, Near Winter Park, CO

I would start with a base of Solda HC28 and F15 Blue. I think the wind and
dry humidity will create cold feeling snow. Then cover with Solda F31
Violet. Finish with Solda S20 cold powder. If you get more snow and it is
a bit more humid, apply a last layer of HP06, or if it is above 15F, HP05.

Have great races.

Bert

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 10:31 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, February 26, 2009

February 28-March 1

I have had some requests for a few races this weekend.

Here is a quick look.

Mount Bachelor Oregon High School Reunion Race.
Saturday March 28. Start time 10:00
Weather: Overnight low before race 20F. Race start temp 28F. 78% humidity. Mix of old and new snow.
10km Skate race for adults, 5 km for younger skiers.

It will likely snow on and off the week prior to the race. Snow during the race is in the current forecast.

Skis: Pick some softish warm base skis with a medium structure.
Glide Wax: Start with clean bases brushed well. Start with a layer of
Solda UF7 scraped and brushed. Follow with Solda F31 Pink.
Go all the way with a layer of Solda F40 Red and finish with Solda HPO4. If the forecast changes and things warm up Friday and Saturday night, go for Solda Fluor 100 as final layer instead of HPO4.

Lakeland Loppet Minoqua Winter Park Michigan
Saturday March 28th.
Catagories for classic or skate.
Overnight low of -17F (burrrrrr!) Race time temp -6F at 9:00, 0F by 10. High later 17F.

Skis: Pick a pair with a cold base and very fine grind. Look for a ski with long contact zones that help reduce friction.

Glide Wax: Start with clean bases and a coat of Solda FC27 ironed and brushed. Next a couple of layers of Solda F15 Blue. Scrape and brush between layers. Now a layer of Solda S30 Hardener. Finish with Solda HPO6.

Kick wax should not be a problem. Go with your favoite cold hard wax.

The Great Race, Tahoe California Sunday March 1.
30 km skate race. All up followed by all down.
Weather looks like warm and snowy.

Start with a pair of fairly soft warm base skis with a pretty aggressive structure.
Start with a layer of Solda Performance Yellow. Follow with a layer of Solda F31 Yellow and a layer of Solda F40 Yellow.Cover with Fluor 100 or iron in PowerJet 1.

Hope your skis are fast and your glucose levels stay good.

Bert

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 4:23 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, February 19, 2009

OHSNO Oregon State Championships at Mt Bachelor

This is a quick call based on my skiing for the last week and the weather forecast from NOAA.

Forecast for Saturday:
Overnight low 26 F
Start time temp: 36F
Partly cloudy, relative humidity 75%
Snow: transformed

Glide wax:
Clean bases with a hot scrape of SOLDA Performance Yellow
Wax with a layer of SOLDA F15 Orange, scrape and brush. Iron another layer of SOLDA F31 Orange.

If your budget is higher, go with a layer of SOLDA F40 Red and cover with SOLDA Fluor 100 or PowerJet 1.

Forecast for Sunday:
Overnight low 30F
Start time temp: 31F
Snow likely. Humidity 95%
Snow a mix of new and old.

Glide wax:
Clean bases with hot scrape with SOLDA Performance Yellow.
Wax with a layer of SOLDA F15 Pink, scrape and brush. Iron in another layer of SOLDA F31 Pink.

For those with budget for Fluoros, finish with SOLDA F40 Red and SOLDA Fluor 100 or Power Jet 1

Kick wax:
Iron in a binder. This could be a Swix V40. Cork it smooth when cool. Finish with VR40. Keep some VR45 to change or for short area under binding. If using Rode, Iron in a layer of Rode Blue -2 to -6. Cork it smooth. Cover with Rode Super Extra -1 to -5. Keep some Rode Violet 0 and Rode Extra 0 to +2 .

If it doesn't snow much and is not snowing at the start, and the snow has been tilled, go with a warm klister, or a multi grade klister. Cover with hard wax if it looks like snow.

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 4:00 PM 0 Comments

American Birkebeiner 2009

Our SOLDA on site wax technician, Chris Wheaton, has just sent me the following information on the SOLDA glide wax recommendation for the 2009 race:

Glide wax recommendation for American Birkebeiner.

Weather Forecast:
Friday night low of 4 F with heavy cloud cover and high humidity.
Projected temperature at 8:00 a.m. is 6 F, warming up quickly to 12 F at 11:00 a.m.
and 16 F at 1:00 p.m. Their is a chance of very light snow falling from beginning
around 9:00 a.m., but not even a half inch is projected to fall during the
race.

The new snow which fell yesterday and may fall between now and the race
start will not change the consistency of this snow. Wax for transformed snow.
The recent thaw and rain put a lot of moisture in the snow which has since
frozen and is now being tilled up. The snow is very abrasive.
Cold temperatures and high winds on Wednesday took some of the humidity out
of the snow as well so it will likely ski less humid than the air humidity
reading.

The trail is fairly shallow and due to the tilling parts of it are going to
be dirty. Based on all of those factors my recommendation is;

Solda FC27 covered with
Solda F15- Blue, covered with
Solda F40 SPECIAL - Green, covered with
Solda HPO5/S30 70/30 mix.

As should always be the case with cold/hard waxes iron the Solda F15-Blue at
least 2 times. In other words, iron it into the skis, let them cool and then
iron them again at least once. That will help the cold wax adhere to the base
more effectively. Do the same with the F40 Green Special.

Because the snow is going to be abrasive, put as many layers of Solda F-15
Blue into your skis as you have time for. Combining the F-15 Blue with Solda
FC27 in a one to one ratio will also be effective and add to the durability.
If you do not have the Solda F40 Special-Green I would substitute the Solda
F31 Blue. This is a wax that was made by Solda until a couple years ago.
In testing this morning it ran very well at similar temperatures as
predicted for Saturday.

A third alternative would be to finish with Solda F40 Green as the next to last layer followed by HP05-S30
mix 70/30.

If you do not have Solda HPO5/S30 70/30 mix, Solda HPO6 would be a very fast
replacement.

For Kick wax, those of you on site will have a better idea than I do from here in Oregon.
With the transformed snow I would be inclined to start with a thin layer of a Klister binder. Follow this with
a very thin layer of a cold (blue) ice klister. Then cover with a couple thin layers of cold hard
wax. be careful to make these thin and cork gently and make it smooth.
Later waves might go just a step warmer with the hard wax. Again, use your best judgment on site for kick wax.
Play with different combinations today.

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 12:23 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, February 15, 2009

John Day wax worked

Just a short note. Those Fischer Plus base skis with the universal grind for snow that was warming were great at the John Day race with the layers of SOLDA Performance Red, SOLDA F31 Pink, SOLDA F40 Red and Fluor 100. They were good in the sun and the shade. Now, if only my lungs and legs were nearly as good.

Bert

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 9:42 PM 0 Comments

Friday, February 13, 2009

John Day Memorial Race at Diamond Lake Oregon

Sunday, February 15 will see the staging of the 23rd John Day Memorial race at Diamond Lake. John Day was an influential leader in the history of nordic skiing in Southern Oregon. The race is organized by the Southern Oregon Nordic Club spearheaded by Dan Bulkley. Ryder Peterson and I will help get the race set up on Saturday. If there is a need to change the wax recommendation, I will adjust Saturday evening.

The weather forecast seems fairly certain that there will be new snow. Remember that this course is not kept groomed all the time for skiing. It will be groomed Friday and again on Saturday evening into Sunday morning. It will be on top of old hard snow. Looks like an overnight low of 22F (-5C) with a race time temp of 30F (-1C). Humidity forecast at 68%.

I am going to start with clean bases on a pair of med flex, medium grind Plus base Fischer RCS skis. I will iron, scrape and bursh a layer of SOLDA Performance Red. Follow this with SOLDA F31 Pink scraped and brushed. The final hard wax will be SOLDA F40 Red. I will finish with SOLDA Fluor 100.

Have a good race.

Bert

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 3:13 PM 0 Comments

Friday, February 6, 2009

Stowe Eastern Cup / Super Series Wax

Race in Stowe, Trapp Family Lodge, Vermont.

Saturday skate race. Mild weather with at high of 38.
Wax is SOLDA F31 Pink covered with SOLDA F 40 Red. Finish with SOLDA Fluor 100 or Powerjet 1. Later starters might use Powerjet 5. Use a medium structure after waxing.

Sunday classic race. Mild weather high of 33.
Wax is SOLDA F31 Pink, coverd with F40 Red. Finish with SOLDA Fluor 100. If it is colder, below 27F, use SOLDA HPO4 to finish.

Kick wax: Early starters , Swix VR45 / VR50
Later starters, Swix VR 45/ VR50, maybe cover with VR 55 or 60.
Ski*Go Yellow (+2) could work.

Peter Hall
SOLDA New England

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 1:41 PM 0 Comments

Boulder Mountain Tour Wax Call

Harden bases with SOLDA F15 Blue. Scrape and brush.
Cover with SOLDA F40 Red and SOLDA F40 Violet mixed 50/50. Scrape and brush.
Finish with SOLDA HPO5. Iron, cork, polish and brush out with horse hair or soft copper brush.
Brush again.

Go Fast.

Bert

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 1:10 PM 0 Comments

Pre Boulder Friday

Two inches new snow at Galena over night. Over night low was 27F. Another inch forecast today. Tonight's low in mid teens. Forecast tomorrow says possibility of clouds breaking up to be partly cloudy mid day.

I am going out to ski and take a look at the snow.

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 6:52 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tuesday Before Boulder Mountain Tour

It is Tuesday, February 3. Boulder is getting close. Weather computer models are coming into agreement. A Pacific low is coming on shore Wednesday with a trough preceding it to the Ketchum area for Friday into Saturday afternoon. The current forecast is calling for 1-3 inches of new snow. That will be groomed in with the transformed snow present right now. The course will be closed Friday at 3 PM and the groomers will buff it for the race. This week it is still dry with forecast overnight lows in the upper teens to low 20s with day time highs in the high 30s low 40s. The actual overnight lows have been in high single numbers. Snow temp this morning was 4F (-15C). I remember that the snow there always seems to ski colder than the air temps indicate. Some folks are asking me about wax and I am about ready to lay down a base on some skis. I will wait until Friday night to finish the last layers. Another thing to remember is that the snow, especially in the valley at the end of the course is dirty and abrasive.

I believe I will prep a pair of cold base skis with SOLDA HC28 and SOLDA F15 Blue and cover with F31 Violet. These skis will be ready for F40 Violet and HP05/S30 70/30 Mix, or if it is slightly warmer, HP05. I have a pair of Fischer Plus Base skis with a universal grind that I am tempted to prep with SOLDA F15 Pink, F31 Pink, F40 Red and SOLDA HP04. That is incase it warms up and snows more.

I will ski part of the course, take snow temps and update Friday afternoon.

Happy waxing.

Bert

# posted by Bert Hinkley : 2:22 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Here comes Boulder Mountain Tour

The Boulder Mountain Tour is 7 days out. I will not make a call yet on wax for the race because my crystal ball is broken right now. So I will have to check the weather. Right now the Ketchum/Galena area is in a stable weather pattern that is under the influence of high pressure and an inversion situation where it is colder in the valley and warmer up high at Galena Lodge. The over night lows are in the upper single digits and low teens. The highs during the day are in upper 30s to low 40s in the sun. That means that the current snow is transformed and the points on the crystals are disappearing. In areas where there is sun, the snow is being melted slightly and refrozen at night. That leads to abrasive conditions for waxing. I am pretty sure that the grooming crew will be out making sure that the course is in good shape. The snow on the shady side of the valley, most of upper part of the course, will likely remain cold. This place has consistently cold snow.

There is a chance for snow showers on Friday. The current split upper level air movement is not set up to usher in any major storm at this point. That could change. I am currently going to keep warm, stiffer skis and cold, softer skis both ready.

Keep your skis waxed and ready.