Forecast:
Saturday Afternoon: Snow showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 34. West northwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Sat Night: Snow. Low around 14. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
Sunday: Snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 26. South wind between 3 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Temps on race day look fairly stable with snow likely during the race. The classic race will be a bit colder (race start at 19F) with the skate races warming up to around 24F. Depending on the intensity of snow, it will either be soft track with lots of new snow, or a hard track with a mix of old and new snow.
Recommendation:
These recommendations are made from the computer desk without any testing and in no particular order:
Ideally, have a softer flex ski ready for new snow (XTi2, ZR1, ZR1XL, CV0 grinds) and a stiffer ski for the possibility of less snow and a harder track with more of an old-snow character (ZR1, 1/1, CV0 grinds). Humidity will be high, but given the low temps and fresh snow, hand structure will probably not be an effective addition.
Base Glide Wax: harden the base with a hard graphite/moly such as SkiGo LF graphite, Toko LF Moly or Start Graphite. this will add durability, antistatic, dry lubrication and base hardening
Paraffins: Holmenkol Matrix Blue has been running well in this temperature range, with Swix LF6 and Toko HF Blue safe bets as well. For the 20km skate race, it would be smart to have an option that is a grade warmer with higher fluoro. SkiGo HF Blue will be good in the new snow and cover the warmer range nicely.The Swix recommendation says LF4, for the early race, but I think that might be a bit too cold. It would not hurt to have a colder option for the classic race in case it cools more than expected, however.
Top Coat: High humidity fresh snow typically means that a pure fluoro top coat will work well. We advise testing before putting pure fluoros on race skis, however. Holmenkol Matrix Mid 08 Speedpowder, or block, SkiGo C105, Swix FC7BS solid or Toko Jetstream Blue would all be candidates here.
For the shorter races, apply fluoro powder or rub on block and cork in with a roto cork or hand cork. For the 20km race, it is probably advisable to iron in a fluoro top coat, brush it out and then add a hand-corked application on top.
Kick Wax: clean the kick zone, then sand lightly with 120 grit sandpaper. Clean again to remove dust and grit. Apply a base wax of Rode Green or SkiGo XC Green, iron in and let it harden. cork this binder layer in so it is smooth and translucent. Choose the kick wax of the day and apply 4-6 layers depending on your skis. Kick waxes to try:
- SkiGo HF Violet
- Rode Multigrade Green
- Rode Multigrade Blue
- Swix VR40