BNS Wax Recommendation
Boulder Mountain Tour 2012
Feb 4, 2012

Event Information-Point-to-point race from Galena to Sawtooth National Recreation Area HQ north of Ketchum, Idaho.  The course is gently rolling with an elevation drop of 1100 feet over its 32km (20 mile) length.

http://www.bouldermountaintour.com

Race Waxing Service

BNS is providing Race Waxing Service for the Boulder Mountain Tour.  As of Tuesday, Jan 31, there are 4 spots still available.
Click here for more info or to sign up.

Ski Drop-off Options:

Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 6:30-7:15PM at Sturtevants in Hailey (Main & Carbonate) following the Wax Clinic which starts at 5:30
Friday, Feb 3, 2012 12:30-1PM at Sturtevants Ketchum (304 Main in Ketchum) preceding the wax clinic which starts at 1PM.

Local Retailer

Sturtevant's in Hailey and Ketchum stock Holmenkol and SkiGo Products.  The inventory of race wax will be moved to the Ketchum store Friday morning.

Wax Clinics

• Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 5:30-7:00PM Sturtevant's Hailey (Main & Carbonate)
• Friday, Feb 3, 2012 1:00PM Sturtevant's Ketchum (304 Main in Ketchum)

Weather

The weather looks stable from here with clear skies, cold nights and sunny, mild days.  A light new snow fell on Wednesday night, but is transforming quickly.

From NOAA.  Get the latest update at NOAA.gov

Thursday Afternoon: Mostly sunny, with a high near 28. Calm wind.

Thursday night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 8. Wind chill values as low as -5. Light wind becoming west northwest between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 29. Wind chill values as low as -9. Northwest wind 6 to 15 mph becoming southeast. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.

Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 10. South southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 31. North northeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm.

Recommendation

The BNS Tech Team of Nathan Schultz, Eric & Joe Jensen, Kurt Wolf and Jim Santa are on-site and will provide testing results & wax recommendations.  Check bouldernordic.com for the latest updates.

Base Layer:  SkiGo LF Graphite - This hardens the bases and provides some anti-static properties.  VERY important for Saturday's race!  Iron, cool, scrape, brush with a fine steel brush.

Race Paraffin:  Mix SkiGo C380 Cold Powder with one of the following HF waxes 50/50.

• Holmenkol Matrix Green
• Holmenkol Speedbase Cold
• SkiGo HF Green

Make sure that you use the SkiGo LF Graphite underlayer and that after initial scraping and brushing, let the ski cool to outside temps and brush again with a metal brush, then polish with a nylon or natural fiber brush.

Fluoro Powder: SkiGo C105 or Holmenkol Speedpowder Cold.  Iron, cool, brush.

Topcoat: SkiGo C105 solid or Holmenkol Speedblock Mid-08.  crayon on, hand cork, cool, brush.

Structure: Fine grinds such as S0.1, S1.3, S0.2 and S1.2 are working best. We expect that this will be a rare case where hand structure may not be a good choice. Check Back Friday for test results.

Kick: SkiGo XC Green, Guru Green and Rode Green are all good choices.

Testing Discussion

On Friday morning, we tested 8 high-fluoro paraffins, 6 fluoro powders and 4 fluoro blocks at Prairie Creek.  The temperature was -3F when we arrived at 9:20 with snow temp -18C at 10:00AM when we started testing.  The snow was brutally cold and squeaky initially, but then warmed up rapidly in the sun by race time.  Snow in the shade stayed extremely cold.

On Thursday, we tested eight High-Fluoro Paraffin waxes at Prairie Creek at 10:30AM.  The snow was -12C in the shade, -9C in the sun.  We will test paraffins and fluoro powders again Friday morning and post updated results and recommendations around noon.

Testing Results

Friday's Test Results Prairie Creek:
We tested paraffins in the speed trap and for feel.  We tested fluoro powders by feel.  The speed trap results were a bit strange because the snow was so slow.  Everything was tested blind, and luckily our results by feel agreed with the speed trap results, although not quite as dramatically as the numbers might say.

Rank	Base1				Time	% back	Confidence
1	Holmenkol Speedbase Cold/C380				16.66	0.00%	99.43%
2	Holmenkol Matrix Green				1.50	9.03%
3	Toko HF Blue				1.61	9.68%	13.31%
4	Holmenkol Speedbase Cold				2.08	######	48.79%
5	Swix HF6				2.75	######	92.15%

Fluoro Powder Results Friday: (by feel)
1. SkiGo C105
2. Holmenkol Mid-02 powder (race test powder)
3. Holmenkol Speedpowder Cold
4. Holmenkol Mid Silver powder (race powder)
5. SkiGo C44

Thursday's Test Results Prairie Creek:

1. Holmenkol Speedbase Cold
2. Holmenkol Matrix Green
3. SkiGo C380
4. SkiGo HF Green
5. Swix LF4
6. Holmenkol Matrix Blue
7. SkiGo HF Blue
8. Start HF80

We also tested some mixes of SkiGo HF Green/C380 and Matrix Green/C380 as well as the top 3 winners at Prairie Creek at the bridge with 5km to go.  The snow was much colder and dryer in the lower section of the course and SkiGo C380 cold powder seems like it is great alone, but even better when used as a hardener with the other green waxes.  We will test again Friday morning, but with the forecast looking a bit colder, things probably will not change much.

CONCLUSIONARY NOTES – The snow was colder on Friday morning than it is forecasted to be on Saturday for the race, so but the greens have been running well, even when it warms up over the last few days.  A lot of static is building up on the skis, so having an anti-static and hardener is going to be very important.

The snow was very strange Thursday morning.  It was highly variable, slow, and harsh snow with crystals that look transformed but act very dry and new.  We expect that another day of transformation and grooming will produce more consistent snow and speed things up.  Regardless, it is wise to prepare the skis by hardening with base layers early.  Check back for more notes later in the week.