Additional notes for kick waxing. Lake effect snow has more moisture in it than regular snow. On the north part of the Birkie trail it gets lake effect snow. The snow crystals are more rounded than sharp. Consequently, you have to wax with a warmer kick wax than what is expected for the temp. Greg -----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
