Testing at Lake Creek Friday in speed trap and by feel revealed results simliar to last week's Boulder Mountain Tour. The snow has not been refreshed with significant new snow, so it is very old and granular. We don't have any data to publish due to lack of reliable internet connection - this was phoned in.
Forecast: Click here for the latest weather forecast from NOAA
Recommendation: Testing-based
Base Layer: SkiGo LF Graphite iron, cool, scrape brush with SkiGo Long Steel brush or Holmenkol Microfinish Steel. This underlayer improved skis dramatically last week in our tests and we recommend it this week based on last week's test. If you don't have a hard graphite such as SkiGo, Rex or Start, don't use it, instead use a green LF wax such as Swix LF4 or Start Green. Something to harden up the base to deal with the aggressive snow.
Race Paraffin: Holmenkol Matrix Black/Blue or Holmenkol Matrix Blue. SkiGo HF Violet and Swix HF6 are also good choices.
Fluoro Powder/Top Coats: SkiGo C105. For optimal results, iron in C105 powder, cool, scrape, brush with a stiff nylon, then a softer polishing brush (horsehair and/or soft nylon), then apply hand structure race morning and coat with a quick hand corked-in application of C105 solid (or powder), let it cool, and then brush out with a horsehair brush followed by 2 light passes tip to tail with a soft steel brush.
Comments: The Matrix Black/Blue excels in this type of snow, and our testers liked how it felt so much that they decided not to put on fluoro powders. They will probably just run the Black/Blue and then apply hand-corked fluoros in the morning if they are fast.
Sturtevant's in Hailey is a Holmenkol dealer and has Matrix Blue and possibly Matrix Black/Blue available. Call (208) 788-7847 to see what they have available.
The skate race is short enough that a corked in block application will be fast enough to make a difference. The abrasive snow will strip the corked fluoro pretty quickly, but it should last 5-8km and it will make a significant impact during that time.
Have fun and enjoy the nice Sun Valley skiing!
We will try to post kick wax recommendations for Sunday's classic race.
note: BNS imports Holmenkol and SkiGo waxes, and also sells waxes from Swix, Toko, Rode, Solda, Rex, Guru, Innovax, Magnar and others. We search for the fastest waxes for our customers and our testing is professional, objective and transparent. We make our best effort to test what we think is the best from each brand. However, given that we are testing more options from Holmenkol and SkiGo, there is a bias toward those brands. With this full disclosure, you can assess the legitimacy of our testing yourself. Visit http://swixracing.us/nordic/waxrec.php and http://tokous.com/racewaxtips.htm for their official recommendations. If you have any questions please contact us.