Lake Placid Loppet Classic KIck Wax Report

The classic races at Lake Placid this past weekend were really tricky.
I had two set of skiis ready to go. One with Start Tar zero for kick
which worked okay prior to to the start gun and the other with Toko
silver klister covered with Swix VR 50, which had bombproof kick.
Temps were hovering aroung 32 degrees and it was snowing. I was
concerned with it turning to sleet during the race and chose the
klister ski...big mistake! By the top of Russian Hill my skiis
completly iced up and lost the lead from there. After taking my skiis
off to scrap 3 times I figured out I could keep them on a rub one ski
over the other. The other skier up front with me had Swix VR50 and VR
60 on. His glide was superior with no icing problem. Congrats to
Maswick, Rose and all the others who hung in there with klister kick
wax. It was a gamble which definetly backfired.

--- Douglas Diehl wrote:
The classic races at Lake Placid this past weekend were really
tricky.
I had two set of skiis ready to go. One with Start Tar zero for kick
which worked okay prior to to the start gun and the other with Toko
silver klister covered with Swix VR 50, which had bombproof kick.

Yow! Silver klister? Man...

Temps were hovering aroung 32 degrees and it was snowing. I was
concerned with it turning to sleet during the race and chose the
klister ski...big mistake! By the top of Russian Hill my skiis
completly iced up and lost the lead from there. After taking my skiis
off to scrap 3 times I figured out I could keep them on a rub one ski
over the other. The other skier up front with me had Swix VR50 and VR
60 on. His glide was superior with no icing problem. Congrats to
Maswick, Rose and all the others who hung in there with klister kick
wax. It was a gamble which definetly backfired.

I should think. I was wondering about the kick wax. Tracks were solid
ice, but out of the track was nice powder with dropping temps. I
should think Yellow or maybe Yellow covered with Red would have been
great if you were willing to climb out of the tracks the whole way.

Rob Bradlee

(Douglas Diehl) wrote in message . com...
After taking my skiis off to scrap 3 times
The other skier up front with me had Swix VR50 and VR
60 on. His glide was superior with no icing problem. Congrats to
Maswick, Rose and all the others who hung in there with klister kick
wax. It was a gamble which definetly backfired.


Doug and All -

I heard you had stopped to scrape your skis, but couldn't believe it.
Good recovery! Chris and I started w/ a Swix purple universal klister
and it was clearly the best choice. Unfortunately, it began to snow
hard and conditions changed - I covered my klister w/ VR 50, which
worked well. Chris ended up w/ something else on his skis. If I had
brought VR 60 or 70, I think that would have been the best choice -
this race was very similar to the Loppet 2 yrs ago where 70 ruled the
day. My glide wax was a Toko HF Moly under Toko HF Red covered w/
Helx Warm; w/ a single ultra-thin layer of klister it was great
combination. In retrospect, the klister layer and hard wax combo was
too thick on my Atomic ARC's (LJO3 grind). Glide in the track was
poor - they looked glazed, but they were not iced; outside the track
glide was non-existent. All that new snow dragging on the kick wax
hurt.

As you and anyone else who skis at Van Ho knows, the conditions out on
the Porter Mtn. loop vary dramatically from the rest of the area.
What works on the Stadium loops means nothing out there. I had great
kick and an "okay" glide thru Porter and the Ladies 5. Over on the
Biathlon side my glide increased noticeably while my kick was... well,
my technique was probably more to blame as I got pretty tired.

One final note of congratulations to all who raced the 50K. As much
as I love this area, as much as I ski all the trails - I just cannot
imagine racing the Loppet course twice, especially Heart Attack Hill
on Porter. You 50K guys rock!

- Bob

Doing the big Porter hills twice is mostly a matter of pacing and technique.
I found it very satisfying to exercise both in my skating this year. (But
it does not feel so satisfying for me to get up those hills skiing Classic,
because it doesn't seem so difficult or magical to execute that technique up
a big hill).

Bob Maswick wrote
One final note of congratulations to all who raced the 50K.
As much as I love this area, as much as I ski all the trails -
I just cannot imagine racing the Loppet course twice,
especially Heart Attack Hill on Porter.

"racing" is the word that strikes me. My goal was just to _survive_ those
hills: skate up all of them using V1 offset without stopping to rest. (so
maybe I'm not entitled to any of that "congratulations", since I was not in
the set who really "raced" the 50K).

I _liked_ the 50K race as an exercise in pacing -- because that's what I
need for succeeding on long backcountry ski tours (and great road skating
tours like the Albany to Lake George 100K). I notice that backcountry
guidebook author Tony Goodwin did the 50K Classic this year.

I used to think I would needed to supplement the Loppet with something else
to make it worthwhile for me (like doing only 25K, but then combining it
with some backcountry tour?). But after my experience this year, I'm
feeling the 50K as a skating tour can stand on its own.

Also the day after the race I tried skiing the Mr. Van Ski Trail -- starting
from the Mt Van Hoevenberg stadium, up the Ladies 5K and over the Hi-Notch.
It was a pretty day, but the snow was deep but with a crust, and I found it
pretty difficult and not much fun getting to the Marcy Dam road, and often
the trail did not seem well-marked. So even if I wanted to ski to Lake
Colden (or Mt Marcy?) in combination with the race, I would not start from
the Loppet race course unless it were ideal snow conditions and with a track
already broken thru that section of the Mr Van Trail.

Ken