West Yellowstone: Conditions for west Yellowstone were quite nice. Normally I feel Toko HF blue mixed with cold powder and a jetstream blue block are a very safe combo year after year. This November we were greeted with warmer temps. In testing I found that HF red was a very safe under layer but probably could have gone up to yellow for an underlayer as temps got a bit higher than I thought. On sprint days I like putting down a underlayer early and letting it cool as long as possible.  For the skate sprint I went ahead and skipped any powders and did a cold application with straight liquids in the morning. I just reapplied liquids each round of the sprint race and the result was encouraging  with Ben Saxton winning the qualifier before getting a little tangled and knocked out in the semi final. Because of the moisture in the snow I went ahead and applied hand structure to race skis for the rounds. 

 

The distance day I went ahead and reapplied the same underlayer but burnt in jetstream red for the girls and yellow for the guys who were racing after. Powders seem to give a little better durability at the expense of short term high end speed. In the morning I just went ahead applying a pure flour block and liquid to topcoat the skis. I went with the same medium structure as the day before and stayed away from really heavy hand structure. This combo worked well with Katherine Ogden finishing second in the women's race only 8 seconds from the win. Despite gathering clouds I stayed with the same wax and hand structure for the guys. I did not anticipate snowing dirt and although the skis felt like they were a little slower by the end of the guys race the lighter hand structure kept them from plugging and slowing down after 15 k of racing. In retrospect a underlayer that would resist dirt and and jet stream yellow liquid may have been a better choice than what I ran but Paddy Caldwell and Ben Saxton were able to pull down very respectable 10th and 11th place finishes on this combo. Changing conditions are ways a waxing nightmare and often something safe ends up being a better choice than something that wins a test in the short term but slows down over longer distances.

 

Bozeman: The following are my observations from the Supertour weekend in Bozeman. Temps were pretty warm on Friday starting out with soft sugary snow and then releasing moisture as the sun starting baking it on the hills. A straight klister ski was often too stiff to provide solid kick, even with a warm tacky wax so we played around with some slightly softer skis and longer pockets to provide good purchase in the sugar.

 

Despite being pretty soft during testing, the snow was impressively aggressive. Binder was a must on race skis. I applied Toko green base klister the night before the race then tested for kick in the AM. For glide I went with Toko HF yellow and jet stream yellow powder anticipating warmer temps in the afternoon. No blocks or liquids were used for the qualifier as I needed the time to dial in kick on race skis and fast conditions in the morning made up for any slight speed difference in topcoats. For the rounds we went ahead with a warmer klister mix as temps rose and the snow started releasing moisture. Rub on block between the rounds kept skis running fast during rounds. Also for some skis with colder grinds, added hand structure to the tail of the ski kept them from dragging in wetter conditions. While many men opted to double pole the sprint qualifier, conditions had slowed enough by the afternoon that it was clear the winner would need to be on kick wax. I was hesitant to go to warm or thick on klister as the course finished with a gradual downhill and d-pole finish. Ben felt good with the soft conditions and ended the day in 2nd place, a few boot lengths from the win.

 

For the distance race the following day I was mostly concerned with keeping klister on the skis. The Bozeman 5k course can be incredibly difficult to wax for with many exposed sunny climbs and icy fast downhills that strip wax. A well prepared base with binder is a must for these conditions. I once again went with a HF yellow under-layer and burnt in Jetstream powder the night before, not wanting to deal with it in the morning. Leif Zimmerman and I then went ahead prepping kick zones and laying down binder. We went with a base binder ironed into the ski followed be a slightly warmer intermediate klister later also ironed in and let it cool overnight. Toko base green is a great klister but when it has cooled all night it can almost get so hard that a warmer kicking klister can chip or shear off from the base of the ski. Having a intermediate layer can provide a way to keep a warm soft kicking klister onto a harder binder base. It seemed to work pretty well as the girls finished their races with no noticeable loss of kick or stripping on the base. I went ahead and blocked race skis but getting the kick zone dialed in with the correct amount of wax probably contributed more to fast skis in those icy conditions then a pure floro topcoat. Katherine Ogden, a junior skier from Stratton Mountain School skied away from all but the 2 top senior racers on this combo proving that on a classic day picking appropriate skis dialing in kick wax can be the best use of time as opposed to testing under layers and glide waxes.

 

For the guys race wear was less of an issue, but still present. As temperatures warmed the biggest issue was finding the correct thickness for a warmer and stickier kicking klister to handle the sunny hills without just grabbing and stripping on the icy downhills. Part of this is understanding the construction and height of the race ski. Ben went on the same ski as the sprint race the day before, a relatively soft klister ski. In hindsight this probably was a disadvantage as a taller true klister ski may have been better suited to handle warm yellow klister but it was the stiffest option available. He finished the race with solid amount of kicking klister left but the softer ski required a very thin and short layer of wax that prevented bomb proof kick in those conditions.  

 

Patrick O'Brien, Head Coach, Stratton Elite/T2 Team

 

 

 West Yellowstone: The West supertour saw some warmer conditions, recently fallen snow, and some grapple. We ran Jetstream Red Block 2.0 for both the Sprint and the distance race, with the Helix yellow 2.0 running for the Sprint, and the HB004 powder running under the block during the distance races.

 

 

West Yellowstone: 

For the sprint day we liked Toko HF Red as a paraffin layer. In a longer race, we would have layered a coat of Toko LF Grey for better durability and to keep skis from picking up the dirt in the snow. To keep skis running fast heat after heat, the Far West wax crew would brush out the skis with a heavy steel brush and re-apply the top coats. After one pair of skis got especially dirty, we also re- applied the HF paraffin layer. Toko's Jetstream 2.0 Yellow and Helix Yellow 2.0 ran well all day. We found that adding a liquid topcoat over the powders really picked up ski speed in the dirty, warm snow.

 

The forecast leading into the distance race was for a couple inches of new snow overnight and more new snow during the race day. HF Red was again the Toko paraffin of choice for the Supertour races. Our Far West Juniors, who took part the races later on in the day, mixed a warmer wax with the paraffin that we used. The absence of any real new snow before and during the race meant that our wax test results were closer than expected to yesterday's results. Once again, Yellow Jetstream powder with Helix Yellow 2.0 liquid on top were our favorite  topcoats. As the course skied in over the day, the new Helix Yellow 2.0 started to run really fast, much to the excitement of our younger racers. Over both days ski selection played a big role in how our skis were running, favoring stiffer skis with either a warmer grind or hand structure over a cold grind. 

 

Conditions at Bohart Ranch for this past weekend's SuperTour were variable. Warm, sunny days into the 40s meant the snow was accumulating a lot of moisture once it started heating up, but below freezing temps at night meant very hard, icy and fast conditions in the earlier parts of the morning. To balance the colder ice and the warmer moisture, we mixed HF Red and HF Yellow as our paraffin layer for both Saturday's sprint and Sunday's mass sprint distance. We likewise combined Red and Yellow Jetstream 2.0 powder for a topcoat both days. Skis were running well and competitive throughout both days.

 

To combat the icy, abrasive conditions on Sunday's distance race, we used the Toko Klister Basebinder to help keep us kicking up a very hilly course through the whole 10/15k. It worked wonders and we all ended the race with plenty of Klister left on our skis.

 

Reports done by Spencer Eusden and Emily Blackmer of the Far West Elite Team

 

 

 

West Yellowstone

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