First of all, I want to thank Travis Jones, Lenka Palanova, and Nick Sterling for their help with testing today. I think on the whole we faired pretty well.
Here is a recap on the day: The temperatures started out quite a bit warmer than predicted. We arrived at the venue at 7:30 with the air temperature at about 25F vs the 10F predicted. We also received several inches of snow throughout the day. Even given this, our testing today ended up being pretty similar from yesterday.
Here is a list of parafines that we tested and ranked in the order we liked them the best. As mentioned in the last update, this was done by feel seeing that much of our testing equipment is now at the Olympics.
1. Holmenkol Matrix Blue
2. Holmenkol Matrix Green
3. Skigo HF Blue
4-6 (tie). Skigo HF orange/green, Swix HF blue, Toko HF Blue
Here is a list of the high fluoro powders that we tested and ranked in the order we liked them best:
1. Holmenkol Cold Powder
2. Holmenkol Mid 08
3. Skigo C105
4. Swix FC7 (with the new snow, FC7/8 or FC 8 would probably have been better.
Kick wax: Kick waxing today was pretty straight forward. There were a lot of kick waxes that worked well throughout the day. We especially liked the Guru kick waxes and some of the Swix VRs. We ended up racing mostly on Guru Red covered with Guru Violet.
Optimizers: Our testing was definitely not controlled enough in this area to get a really good sense of anything. I ended up doing a cold application of Holmenkol Cold Solid to both Brayton and Evelyn, but other toppings probably would have been just as good.
Tomorrow's recommendations
Forecast: The forecast for tonight calls for lows around 10F with 2-4 inches of snow. Tomorrow's high is in the 20's with 1-3 inches of new snow. In general (if the forecast is close this time), tomorrow should be colder with much more new snow.
Wax recommendations: Given the forecast and what was working well today, here are my recommendations:
1. Layer 1: Skigo LF Graphite - Helps with durability and isn't usually a liability.
2. Layer 2: Holmenkol Matrix Blue or Green- I am going on the conservative side and going with Matrix Green. One of our testers went to the top of the course today and said that it was quite a bit dryer and colder than down lower. Given this and the colder temps and newer snow, I am opting for Matrix Green.
3.Layer 3: Holmenkol Cold Powder - This was still my favorite today and should work well if it gets colder.
4. Layer 4: Holmenkol Cold Block - If you really want to go crazy.
Thanks and good luck!