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Saturday Update: 2016 Gatineu Loppet Waxing
By:  Craig Storey   (2016/02/25)

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Sunday - Glide Wax

Fast - 1 layer LF Green, 1 layer Vauhti LF Blue

Faster - 1 layer of Vauhti HF Green, 1 layer of Vauhti HF Blue

Fastest -1 layer of Vauhti HF Green, 1 layer of Vauhti HF Blue, top fluoro hvc 15.1 or GoldFox.


Saturday - Glide Wax

Fast - 1 layer LF Graphite, 1 layer Vauhti LF Green

Faster - 1 layer of Vauhti HF Molybdenum, 1 layer of Vauhti HF Green

Fastest -1 layer of Vauhti HF Molybdenum, 1 layer of Vauhti HF Green, top fluoro is HFC 21.1 (GoldFox #2 in testing).

Saturday - Grip Wax

The park was groomed Thursday evening.  Parkways are abrassive with a skiff of fresh wind blown snow on top.  Glide is fast, but grip was harder to get. The tracks vary from glassy to abrasive to wind blown.  More snow fell on the North side of Meech Lake than the Southern part.  They will groom again tonight for the loppet. This should help homogenize things but, it will probably bring up more ice into the tracks so a good base binder will be needed to make it from Meech Lake up to the the top of Fortune! 

We found klister binder was fast, but lacked grip.  Regular binder was grippy but too slow.  So we put thin klister on first, then some regular binder heated into the klister.

Fast - Rode Chola + Vauhti base binder super.  Vauhti Fluor Carrot should be good for many hours.

Faster - Rode Chola + Vauhti K-base klister + base binder super mixed.  Top layers will be K15 under foot covered with K19. 

Note: K18 vs. k19. K18 is for old or new snow (-2..-8C), its a bit softer than K19. In finer sharp snow its more draggy.
K19 is for colder new snow or fine sharp old snow below -10C where K21 does not provide enough grip. Better for mix of windblown and tilled ice!

Vauhti Fluor Gree, K21 or Rode Green are good covers if you find yourself with a bit too much grip before the start.


Looks like a great weekend for the loppet!  We might have survived the potential ice storm and melt, and it seems not much damage was done. We got wet snow, ice pellets and then rain but not much freezing rain luckily. We are expecting 2-5cm of fresh snow today and then a deep freeze into Friday. The park groomers will likely start grinding up the base just as it start to freeze Friday morning. Expect hard and fast conditions Saturday, requiring a strong binder - likely klister!

Weekend Weather

Friday... Snow. Sunny, high -7C. Low -18C.
Saturday... Cloudy, periods of snow starting around 11am. High -2C.
Sunday... Sunny. Low -7C. High -6C.

Check back as we will be updating these recommendations! 

You can buy these Rode and Vauhti waxes at Fresh Air Experience: 1291 Wellington W, Ottawa (613) 729-3002.


Saturday - Glide Wax

 

Fast - 1 layer LF Graphite, 1 layer Vauhti LF Green

Faster - 1 layer of Vauhti HF Molybdenum, 1 layer of Vauhti HF Green

Fastest -1 layer of Vauhti HF Molybdenum, 1 layer of Vauhti HF Green, top fluoro coat TBD.

Saturday - Grip Wax

At this point its just speculation.  Our current info has grooming Thrusday night and Friday.  This grooming will leave things icy and abbrassive requiring a klister binder.  The track is likely to break up and be loose under foot, especially on the up hills.  If there's fresh snow on top of the icier base you'll want hard grip wax.  If its all old transformed icy snow then its either a klister or a hard wax...but we'll wait and test, then let you know.  Here's our current thinking for base.

Fast - Rode Chola + blue mixed.

Faster - Rode Chola + Vauhti K-base klister mixed.

Some advice on klister and waxing ..

Its going to be a memorable adventure.  Bring a rain coat and several pairs of dry socks and gloves.  I look forward to hearing all about it.

Good luck!

 
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