We had a busy day here in Aspen, with Nor/Am classic races, and more testing for tomorrow’s Owl Creek Chase. Fortunately it was a perfect day – just amazing weather. Fortunately Mike Trekker had some sun screen samples kicking around.

The snow has modified a little bit since yesterday, and based on the kick wax testing I would say that it’s acting a bit warmer than yesterday. The trend should continue tomorrow with another day of slightly increasing warmth. NOAA is calling for a high temp at 37F, reaching peak about an hour earlier than they forecast for today. I ran the speed trap starting around 1:00 today, which should be relatively representative of tomorrow’s conditions.

Speed Trap Results:

Discussion:
Prior to the race start today I tested Mid08 (which we had on some race skis) against Mid08 with Mid08 fluoroblock on top. I was just testing for feel, but the block felt clearly worse. This is consistent with testing that Dan Weiland of Ski Club Vail did yesterday. However, when I started running the speed trap is was immediately apparent that the Mid08 block was making a very positive difference. So whatever happened to the snow between about 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM made a big difference. It sped up Mid08 0.35% with 70% confidence in the difference between the two. Tomorrow I’ll focus primarily on optimizer testing in the morning. If the snow is showing signs of transformation from today’s sun it’s possible that some of the cold liquids could come into play as well.

Focusing on the powders, there were two main groups that I could identify by feel. The Mid02 and FC8X both felt good. I thought the FC8X was a little more prone to bogging down climbing in the softer snow, but both felt really good. Mid08 also felt good – especially climbing. The rest of the powders didn’t feel as good. C105 wasn’t terrible for feeling, but it wasn’t great. C44 felt good at high speed on the flats, but not so good at lower speed. FC78 and HP05 also had their moments. But this entire group offered very little compared with the best skis.

Recommendations

Paraffin:
Matrix Blue. We could try to make this more complicated, but I don't recommend it. The range of Matrix blue is phenomenal, and it'll support the pure fluoros really well. I know some other programs had success today on Swix HF6 and Ski*Go LF Blue as underlayers. I don't think paraffins will make the biggest difference tomorrow.

Powder:
I’m putting Mid02 on the skis that I’m working up. It tends to run well in the cold, and it won the powder test today during the warmest part of the day. I think FC8X is a great call for a warm-scenario ski if you’ve working up two pairs. Mid08 would be a good complement to FC8X if you need a cold scenario ski, and you don’t have Mid02. The Mid08 didn't do great in the speed trap, but it had really good feel, and I've got high confidence in it. I’ve got some Mid02 available. E-mail zach@bouldernordic.com if you need some.

Mid02 is a miserably difficult powder to work with. I recommend ironing at maximum temp (seriously – turn the iron ALL the way up) and following up with roto corking. That’s how the Holmenkol guys on the World Cup say to work with these really hard race service powders.

Structure:
I haven’t focused on any grind testing here. However, we did make a quick structure test today on classic skis and found that the Holmenkol Cross Structure tool with just one roller made a huge difference to the running speed on the classic skis. Actually, we were using a very similar structure drum in the new Finite Finish press tool.

Tomorrow:
I will set-up near the start and will focus my testing on optimizers and hand structure. I’ll put up a little Holmenkol flag – so look for that and stop by to see what’s running!