Glide was no problem today! Lafleur did an amazing job making the Gatineau Skating Park skiable again. There was a bit of dry snow blowing around the stadium, and in the tracks which made them slower than the middle of the parkway, but in the woods the grooming was uniform and fast. All in all excellent.
What to expect for tomorrow? Well the parkway will be hard parked and fast, the trails in the woods (5, 15, Burma and perhaps Ridge to a small extent) will be softer after the first hundred or so people ski on them. Today in the classic race the tracks broke up into sugar and corn snow quickly. Once Lafleur re-grooms it will setup a bit, but I'm guessing that without a lot of moisture the trails won't stay hard for long. It doesn't really matter, it will still be fast and you can edge!
The one problem area might be downhills. Today they got snowploughed down to sheet ice, but you could just ride the burm around the corners without too much trouble. It won't be as bad tomorrow with the longer courses, today's 51km skiers did 4 loop that overlapped some sections and this added traffic was likely to blame. So if you like your downhills fast your in luck, if not you shouldn't fear them they are safe to snowplough and just keep one ski against the burm.
Now for the wax advice...can you guess?
Glide: Hard and green!- Budget wax job - 2 layers of Vauhti green.
- Mid price - Vauhti blue, Vauhti Speed Graphite, Vauhti Speed green.
- Full out - Vauhti blue, Spektra Graphite, Spektra Green.
"Heat Recovery Formula!"