Scott,
I went with the Swix recommendations and used 5 layers of blue extra then 5
layers of VR 40. This was all over two ironed-in layers of Toko Green base
binder wax. When I tested my skis before the start, it was slippery so I put
on about 3 layers of VR45. I had good kick and glide with no snow buildup at
all. The kick got a little slippery at 3/4 of the way through. I then
stopped and put on some Start Black Magic under my foot and that did the
trick the rest of the way through. It even worked on the icy lake.
If the kick wax has lots of flouro in it, that seems to help with the icing.
Icing doesn't happen with higher flouro kick wax. The Start Black Magic is
expensive but always comes through in a pinch. It's about $30 or so for a
canister and it has lots of flouro. The VR waxes have flouro also. My wife
uses Start Black Magic in many conditions and it works great.
To answer your questions:
1. I believe you needed a high flouro kick wax.
2. Klister may have helped in the icy tracks, but you may have had more
problems with the varying snow conditions other times.
3. See above. I took 1 1/2 hours longer than I expected. It was a slow day.
I finished in 5:50, when normally it would take 4:20.
Greg Fangel
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of
Scott Bachmeier
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 11:15 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [XC] more dumb kick wax questions
Hi gang...it's The Rookie here again, with more kick wax questions.
I had some kick wax frustrations at the Birkie, and maybe some of you
can help me understand what I was doing wrong (and why). I had hoped
to cut an hour off my time now that I have graduated from touring
waxless skis to Fischer SL wax-able skis, (I did cut an hour and
15 minutes off my Mora Vasaloppet 42km time this year, with my last
Vasa on waxless skis), but I ended up 6 minutes SLOWER than my last
Birkie on those same waxless skis (please don't look up my time -- it's
pretty embarrassing) :-)
It was like skiing 3 different courses Saturday: the first 30km were
great, and I had wonderful kick using 4 layers of corked Toko bright
blue (new snow, -13 to -3 C) over a layer of ironed-on Rode ground wax.
Snow temperature at my cabin was -6 C when I left at 7am, so I
felt bright blue was a good choice.
>From about 30km to 40 km, it began to sleet, and snow/ice was sticking
to my kick zone as if I had klister on. I had to stop several times
to scrape the snow/ice (my glide was nil at the top of the hills),
and knowing that it was warming up, I corked in a couple layers of
Toko red (new snow, -4 to -1 C). This seemed to slow down the snow
accumulation, but I still had to stop and scrape the kick zone
a few more times.
Then, during the last 10km, there was a bit of freezing drizzle,
and the tracks became pretty icy (you could see the tell-tale
glazed reflection in the tracks as you looked ahead -- we're
talking almost 50% ice coverage at times). I then moved to the
warmest hard wax I had on me -- Rode Red Extra (-1 to +1 C).
But, I had NO KICK what so ever. Neither did any other classic
skiers in my pace group. We ended up double-poling when ever
we weren't climbing. Thankfully the last 5km or so are flat.
So, here are my questions:
1. Why was I icing up and collecting snow -- kick wax too cold?
(I even saw waxless skiers having snow collection problems in
their kick pocket though...weird)
2. Would a klister have helped during the final 10km, when the
tracks were getting icy? I didn't have any with me, thinking
there would be too much fresh snow in the tracks for a klister.
3. What worked/didn't work for you other classical skiers?
Thanks for any words of wisdom you can pass on. Kick wax problems
aside, it was an incredibly beautiful day to be on skis!
-Scott
--
Scott Bachmeier University of Wisconsin - Madison / SSEC / CIMSS
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~scottb
