Saturday, December 20, 2008

Sandpaper Snow and Icecream Headache Ski

Are we possibly getting too much of a good thing right now (if you are a skier)? The ski season is certainly off to a good start. Two years in a row now. We must be in a cycle of global cooling.

Dave and I headed back up to Waterville Valley this morning. It was a wee bit chilly in the single digits. There was barely a breeze though, so there wasn't the sting single digit temps normally bring.

The valley got 6-8" of new snow out of yesterday's storm. They finally brought out the big grooming equipment. The surface still hadn't set up well. The snow had very low moisture content. I could have waxed with green, but I hate putting that on my skis. It takes such a hot iron and is so hard to scrape if you let it cool too much. Then I can't help but wonder if subsequent warmer waxes even penetrate the base with cooler iron and all that green plugging things up. I used blue. When it is so cold, nothing really gives you good glide. The best you can do is minimize the suckiness. Many areas were sandpaper slow and a slog fest.

To our dismay, Tripoli was not groomed. That climb is half the reason to hit WV. A couple years ago when there was limited snow, that was all that was groomed. So what's up WV? Website said it would be groomed. Wicked Easy/Moose Run and Upper Osceola were groomed. While warming up on Wicked Easy, I was feeling quite smug in my V2 form. I got a little too close to the edge of the groomed surface when ski and boot disappeared into the base. I promptly face planted. There were some very soft spots.

The descents were a tear fest. How do you keep your eyes from tearing up at 25mph in +8F dry air? Even with a balaclava on, I was getting an icecream headache. No problem keeping the core warm, even though the inside of my wind shell would freeze up and make crackling sounds on the descents.

The groomer came back through Livermore Road just before we hit that. This firmed up the surface nicely, bringing up a little bit of older snow. It had a little better glide. This was groomed all the way over Upper Snows, a 600ft net gain climb. This will do. I did it twice, but on my second time up I went into a soft bonk. That's what one Gu over a three hour ski will do.

We were glad we braved questionable roads to ski. There were very few people there and the roads were decent. I logged 41.7km, 874m vertical in 3:14 hours. Wicked slow pace, but it was all work.

I had hopes of hitting the Cape on Sunday for some dirt trail riding. The Friday storm clobbered the Cape. The Bourne Rotary webcam shows me how much snow I can expect on the Otis trails. The Cape stayed bare all winter last year and I frequently enjoyed the best of both worlds: Ski in the Whites, ride on the Cape in the same weekend. I hope the global cooling trend we are in doesn't spoil this.

Hey, did you mountain bikers out there get one of these? There's still time before the end of the year to claim a tax benefit. Go to NEMBA to learn more. Looks nice on my Racer X.

5 comments:

Hill Junkie said...

Hey Matt, great advice. My waxing kit is still pretty basic. As I learn the subtleties of conditions and waxing, I'll have to expand my repertoire of brushes, waxes and shear lubricants. I'll have to dig out the latest Reliable Ski Racing catalog. Any other recommendations for waxing supplies?

Mookie said...

I'm glad you added "if you are a skier", although I did do an hour and a half snowshoe yesterday. We got about 10" yesterday and another 6-8 is on its way down in CT. I still managed 12 miles on the road on the mtb- with the help of the Nokians of course. Incredible tires by the way!

Luke S said...

I would recommend TOKO for glide waxing. Its the simplest, and the cheapest. There are only four colors to invest in (Blue, Red, Yellow, Moly). I was up at Trapp Family Lodge racing this weekend, and it was similarly cold, yet Toko LF Moly/Blue mixed, with LF blue on top was running quite fast in the new snow we were getting all weekend.

Hill Junkie said...

Thanks for the generous tips. I'll be placing an order as soon as I get back from holiday break. I've been using a mix of Swix CH and basic Fastwax (cheap). I have some HF Fastwax for warm wet conditions. I have three brushes, but really only use two most of the time. They are a stiff brass, stiff nylon, and a fine/soft brass brush.

Luke, how were conditions Sunday? We got a good foot of snow in 10 hours at my house in southern NH.

Luke S said...

Sunday stayed pretty good. They had made sure to groom the previous snow into a firm base, so the 6 or so inches of snow that fell during the morning and early afternoon of racing didn't slow things down TOO much. The course was heavily traveled and stayed relatively well packed and the climbs were free from the totally mushy, "sandy" sugary deathtraps that suck down bigger guys like me.

A lot more snow fell after we stopped skiing though...the drive home was certainly interesting.