New Years Day

For Central Oregon the National Weather Service forecast
states: A WARM FRONTWILL LIFT THROUGH THE REGION DURING
THE DAY ON THURSDAY...RAISING SNOW LEVELS ACROSS THE REGION.
 MANY AREAS WILL SEE MOSTLY RAIN WITH THIS SYSTEM AS SNOW
LEVELS RISE TO 5000-6000 FEET. THE ONLY EXCEPTION WILL BE
OVER THE EAST SLOPES OF THE WASHINGTON CASCADES
AND THE YAKIMA AND KITTITAS VALLEYS WHERE COLDER AIR WILL KEEP SNOW
LEVELS LOWER. DMH

My wax recommendation for the New Years Relay at Mount
Bachelor remains basically unchanged. I would start with
SOLDA F31 PINK then a layer of SOLDA F40 RED. For this
sprint race finish with a application of SOLDA Power Jet
1 corked and burshed

Other races at this Holiday weekend include:

In NH, Cranmore night race. 5km Freestyle in North Conway, NH.
Weather: Overnight low of 5F. 12F at 9:00 am. Cloudy with 40%
chance of snow. Humidity 60-80%. Pick a pair of skis with a
fine grind and a cold base.  I would wax with SOLDA F15 Blue
 covered with Power Jet4. This can be ironed in, scraped and
brushed, or corked in and brushed.

I started this at 9:00 this morning and the shop got busy. It
is now almost 1:00 and I have to leave to make appointments.
I will post more later. There is actually a new wax blog at
Webskis that should be up and running on Friday.

Have one,

Bert

Here Comes New Years

World wide there will be celebrations kissing the old year good bye and embracing 2009. If you are not dancing in the street in Copenhagen, or eating grapes and drinking local wine in Sicily, and you are in Bend, Oregon, consider entering the New Years Day Relay race. Special prizes will be given for teams skiing in costume. Maybe you could just not change clothes after the New Years Eve party. Teams of three skiers will ski a loop just over 1km. It is a mass start for the classic leg that goes out first. Two skate legs follow. Start time is 10 am.

It looks as though it will be pretty snowy between now and then. My guess is it will be soft, new snow that is in mid 20s F for temp. Choose skis that are fairly soft with a medium grind. You might try a medium linear rill over the grind. I am guessing a SOLDA F31 Pink. If you want to use a fluor Powder, top with either SOLDA Fluor 100 or SOLDA HP04. A quick way to apply a top coat for a short race like this is to use SOLDA Power Jet 1. It is a solid block fluoro that is rubbed on at the start, corked and brushed. If it is really important to beat that team from the other business go with SOLDA F31 Pink, covered with SOLDA F40 Red, covered with Power Jet 1.

Even if you are not at Mount Bachelor, we wish you a Happy New Year from the gang at Webskis.com.

If you are just going out for a nice day with your favorite skiing partner, try SOLDA F15 Pink on skis that have a medium grind.

Wax for Boyne Holiday Classic

The Holiday Classic 10K at the Boyne Valley
> Lodge in Walloon Lake MI. The forecast is for an overnight low of 32, temp
> at start 42, new wet snow, 100% Cloud cover, with wet snow overnight and
> rain probable during the race.
>
> Link to all Michigan Cup races:
> http://www.nordicskiracer.com/cgi-bin/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=2886
>
>
Start with skis that have fairly short contact zones and aggressive base structure. Enhance the base structure with a linear rill on top of interupted structure using Toko Structure-Rite tool. I like to do this after waxing.

Local,up to the minute conditions will dictate the kick wax. Probably a klister or klister cushion with soft "hard wax". (Maybe zero skis if you have them) For glide wax I would make sure the ski base is clean and start with SOLDA F31 Yellow, scraped and brushed. Follow with SOLDA F40 Yellow. Top coat with SOLDA Fluor 100. Sprinkle the powder in an even layer on the whole base. Very carefully iron with a hot iron. SOLDA recommends 130-140 C (265-285 F). Take about 7-8 seconds to do the length of the ski from tip to tale. Set the ski aside to cool and do the other ski. Follow up with polishing the base with a cork and then a felt polishing brush. The last step is brush well with a horse hair bursh. Now apply the structure and brush again.

Anyone who skis there, let me know how it goes.

Have a good one,

Bert

Family Fun

We have a house full. My daughter Erin, her husband Adam, and their son (my grandson) Corbin have come to Bend from Bellingham, WA. Yesterday my son Jed, his girl friend Kara, my father-in-law Dan and his wife Marjorie all arrived together. So, today we decided to go skiing. It is a pretty easy activity for Dani and me to get out and ski. But add more people, some of whom had no luggage due to airline inefficiency, and it took 2.5 hours to eat breakfast and get out the door. But it was worth it. As we headed out to the trails at Virginia Meissner Sno Park there were four generations of the family all on the snow at one time. Jed and I took turns towing Corbin in the Chariot sled, and that is a workout. 

If you have not towed a sled like that, it is an exercise in being smooth. With a 6 month old baby in the carriage, it is important to keep it smooth so he doesn't develop "bobble-head" syndrome. There is the added benefit of the resistance of pulling that extra weight. Easy hills begin to look like vertical walls. The snow is pretty soft and with the poles sinking in deeply in many places, it puts the load on the quads, hips, glutes. My focus was on staying square, balanced and moving straight along the trail.  All good exercises. 

It was a great day. Corbin slept the whole time, cozy in the Chariot carriage. We spent two hours on the snow in the forest with family and friends. It was a good workout. It really doesn't get much better than that. 

Corbin, Erin, Adam, Dani, Jed, Kara, Marjorie, Dan and I all wish you the best at this holiday season. 

Have one,

Bert

A GOOD WEEKEND

A GOOD WEEKEND FOR AMERICAN SKIING

 

Even though I tweeked by back shoveling snow on Friday and couldn’t ski this weekend, there were plenty of others out there recreating and competing and setting a high standard. What follows is a brief overview with some links for those of you who may have not seen the news.

 

ALPINE MEN 

 

ALTA BADIA, ITALY. Ted Ligety skied to a 4^th place finish in the World Cup Giant Slalom. The day before, Dec 20 there were 5 US men in the top 10 at Val Gardena. Reigning World Cup overall champion Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) led the way in second as five U.S. racers finished in the top 10 in an Audi FIS World Cup downhill in Val Gardena, Italy on Saturday. It was the first time five American men had finished in the top-10 at a World Cup.  See http://www.usskiteam.com/ for more details.

 

CROSS COUNTRY MEN

 

In a rainy Dusseldorf Germany Andy Newell and Torin Koos sped to a 4^th place finish in the FIS World Cup Team Sprint. For this race the organizers truck in a whole bunch of snow made outside the city, spread it on the streets and have a ski race with thousands of screaming fans. It was the best finish ever for American men in a World Cup Sprint. http://www.usskiteam.com/ also has more on this story.

 

NORDIC COMBINDED MEN

 

Nordic Combined is an event that isn’t too familiar to many Americans, even experienced nordic skiers. It combines two completely different athletic disciplines, the explosive strength and technique of ski jumping and the endurance event of cross country freestyle. Athletes first compete in jumping. Jump points are translated into seconds per point. The winner of the jump gets to start the cross country first. Other competitors follow starting based on their jump finish. This last weekend in Ramsau, Austria, American Bill Demong won the World Cup event on Saturday and was second on Sunday.  That puts Billy in 3^rd place in the overall World Cup for the first period of the 2008-09 season.  In British Columbia 32 year old Todd Lodwick scored a win and a second to add to his other two wins on the FIS Continental Cup circuit on his comeback from retirement. See http://www.nordiccombined.com/front/news/show/160 for more details.  In the next period of the World Cup the USA will have 5 athletes competing. Demong  and Johnny Spillane (currently ranked 18^th in the world) will be joined by Lodwick and the Camerota twins from Park City, Utah. 

 

SOLDA AMBASSADOR

 

The first race of the Sun Valley area season was completed on Saturday at Galena Lodge north of Ketchum. SOLDA Ambassador Dave Knoop had a good day as he states: “Old Nordic Dave was flying on SOLDA F15 Blue and SOLDA HPO6 on cold new dry snow soft track. 3rd Overall 30 secs behind Jon Engen.”  Thaks for the note Dave.

 

If any of you other folks in the webskis web have news and comments you can send them to me or reply to this post.

 

My back will be on the mend and I plan to ski here in Bend on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week if all plans fall into place.

 

 

Time to Ski

Transitions are challenging. Snow has arrived and while many of us have been chomping-at -the-bit, now that it is here it means making time to get to the tracks and enjoy winter. Kevin, Ed, Henry, Andrey, Dan Packman, Dave Bowman and I all skied this morning at Bachelor. In order to get back to work by 9:00 we left town at 6:30 and skied from 7-8. I had an attention deficit disorder moment when the sun was coloring the clouds with brilliant pink at the same time I was working on classic technique. I wanted to attend to both at the same time and still am not so good at multi-tasking.

For those of you who want to share rides and workouts, this could be a good place to get in contact. I am planning on skiing tomorrow, Thurday, December 18 from 7-9 and in to work at 10:00. Anyone want to join me? Reply to this post.

For folks doing other days, post here too.

I will be hosting a classic wax clinic tomorrow night 5-6 pm. Nancy P's classic race is Saturday.

Full speed ahead,

Bert

How's the snow

Last night Aaron Tarnow and I ventured out on skate skis in the moonlight at Mt Bachelor on the Cascade Lakes Highway. No wind, good-excellent ski surface. We didn't even need head lamps. Skied to Todd Lake turn off, back to the car, out on Mt Bachelor's beginners oval, up to the Nordic Center and back to the Oval. Pretty nice 90 minutes and home by 8:00 PM.

Is anyone else out there skiing? How is the weather?

The Mount Bachelor Sports Education Foundation Par Fore the Course 10 km skate race scheduled for this Saturday, December 13, is not happening. They may try to reschedule if the stars align correctly. The NOAA forecast is as follows:

Thursday Night: Increasing clouds, with a low around 28. Southwest wind around 8 mph.

Friday: Snow. High near 35. Windy, with a west wind 16 to 19 mph increasing to between 30 and 33 mph. Winds could gust as high as 43 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Friday Night: Snow. Low around 15. Windy. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Saturday: Snow. High near 17. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Saturday Night: Snow likely. Cloudy, with a low around 9.

Sunday: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 17.

Keep the faith,

Bert

Mind Set

Saturday morning I got up early, took the rollerskis to Tetherow and enjoyed the sunrise. Cascade peaks glowed in low angle light. Road surface was dry and the cold wheels on cold pavement were a bit faster than normal. After a good workout I went home for breakfast and off to work at 9:00. It was a good start.

Saturday at work, Dave Bowman called and suggested skiing on snow from Dutchman Flat on the Cascade Lakes Highway. Rumor was that the skiing surface was OK. I was convinced and so Sunday morning Dave and I pulled into the parking area at Dutchman Flat at about 8:45 under cloudy skies. Rumor confirmed, the skiing surface was really quite good. Maybe only 2.5 inches of packed snow, but on the pavement, that was enough. We skied for 90 min working on technique. We saw a handful of dedicated WebTeam skiers, Cynthia Engel, Kerrie Raymond, Kathleen Vu, Dan Packman. There is a good set of classic tracks and descent skating down to the turn off to Todd Lake. I know for a fact that before the Sparks Lake turn off the road becomes dry pavement. Was it nice winter skiing? No. But it was better than a poke in the eye with at sharp stick. Another great start to a day.

One inch of new snow over night on December 8 should help the ski surface. Keep the faith, take what you can get and set your mind to be positive.

Have one,

Bert

Communication

This new blog may be a way we can keep in touch on any number of issues from race schedules to trail conditions. If you have been skiing and have found the conditions noteworthy, either good or not, you could add a comment here so others can check. You can share ideas about wax or suggestions for products, recipes, good books ;-)

Lets stay connected.

BWH

Early Morning Roll

If any of you Bend skiers want to join Dan Packman and me for a 7:00 am rollerski lets meet at the end of Metolius Street near The Parks development, Saturday Dec 6.

Have one,

Bert

Evaporation

There is snow in a few places across ski country, but most of us are still rollerskiing. I just spent 7 days at West Yellowstone and skied on an excellent surface up on the South Plateau. But when I returned to Bend, Oregon, it was 58 and sunny. Oh well, back to rollerskis. So, this morning at 6:45 I put on my S5E skate skis and headed out into my favorite venue, the Tetherow golf course road system. It had rained a bit last night and the roads were wet. A quick test of easy step turns and a "snow-plow" proved successful and the wet road surface felt ok. I decided, just to be on the safe side, not to do the steep hill sections. On a fairly flat part of the road I encountered a physics lesson. I was skiing and easy V2 out in the right lane when I heard a car behind me. I pulled into the bike lane and began to double pole until the car came past. It was just before sunrise and there was a slight breeze, the humidy going down. What I found in the bike lane was black ice! I now know that you can do a real snow-plow on rollerskis if there is a thin layer of black ice under your skis. The evaporation of the moisture in the decreasing humidity, the breeze and the overnight low temp just before sunrise all combined to create little patches of ice that looked like wet road. As I headed back to the pickup I encountered more of the wet/icy road. Caution prevented any falls, but I did cut the workout a bit short. So, remember those old high school physics classes and the cooling effect of evaporation.

Happy rollerskiing until the snow flies. It looked like there was some new snow above 4500 feet.

Bert

Old Stuff

Bert Hinkley is our in-house SOLDA Wax Tech and the newest member of our WebSkis.com team...

8/7/08 ROLLER SKIING IN OREGON

Most of Oregon is “chip-seal” pavement. A chip seal is an application of a binder (hot liquid asphalt) in the form of an emulsion or hot spray and an application of an aggregate (small stones) as close to single size as possible. Chip Seals protect and preserve, and extend pavement life. This results in a pavement that is better to drive on, look at and will cost less in the long run. However, it is not much fun to rollerski on. The vibration is uncomfortable on the feet and legs and rolling resistance is considerably greater than a “hot-top” smooth pavement. Generally new housing developments have smoother pavement. The more expensive the houses, the smoother the pavement will be.

Wherever you choose to ski, pick a time when the amount of traffic will be lowest. Often, early mornings before commuter time, or early evening after commuter time are good times to roll. Roads outside city limits are often pretty quiet after 6:30 PM. Early Saturday and especially Sunday are great choices.

Here are my current favorite places to rollerski in Bend, Oregon...

Bend is the place to ski! Amazing hill climbing up 9th street to Awbrey Butte, although the descent will put hair on your chest and take skin off everything else. Skyliners road, out and back, is an excellent up
grade on the way out, and pleasant, even exciting downhill on the way back. If you go to the end of the road it's about 16 miles. Or, you can ski up to Mt. Bachelor. It's best to do early in the morning as the road gets way hot later ( at least in the summer ). The total distance is 22 miles, but there are lots of places that make for great natural stopping points. You do need a shuttle, unless you want to ski down which means
real screamers. (Recommended by Stuart Craig)

Another good place, although a little short, is the Skyliner Ranch/Tetherow road system. Access this west of town from Skyliner Drive. There are nice wide, smooth roads and with the current slow housing market, no houses. There is golf course construction traffic during the day, but early evenings are nearly devoid of cars. There may be more walkers, some with dogs, than cars. The terrain is not exactly beginner friendly. There are significant ups and downs. Be sure to not ski through the few gates that are closed. Gates that are open are fine and provide enough distance and variety to get a good workout. Starting at Summit High School it is easy to get 80-90 minutes. The hills would be excellent for short, uphill intervals. (Recommended by Bert Hinkley)

East of town, near the airport is another low traffic area in which to ski. If you drive north, out Powell Butte Hwy, turn right on Larsen Rd, then park on a dirt island just south of the airport complex. You can ski out Nelson Rd, turn right or left on Waugh, go up and down it, then go right or left on McGrath, up and down it. Follow it out as it turns to Stenkamp. Cross Alflalfa Mkt where it turns to Bennett. Turn around at the Stop sign, or brave the rough chip-seal part of Bear Creek until you get to smooth, new pavement south of Hwy 20. But then you are far from where you started. (Recommended by Hilary Garrett)

About 18-20 miles east of Bend, north of Hwy 20 is George Millican Rd. It runs north through the desert with awesome views to the west of the Cascades. The pavement is new and pretty smooth. It starts with a significant climb, followed by a downhill that will challenge the best. The next few miles roll along and are mostly flat. One way, out to SW Reservoir Rd is about 12 miles. (Recommended by Bert Hinkley)

If you know of other good rollerski routes in Oregon, or any place, drop me a note.

Happy rolling!!

Bert Hinkley
SOLDA Wax Tech & WebSkis.com Sales

Bert Hinkley is our in-house SOLDA Wax Tech and the newest member of our WebSkis.com team...

5/28/08 SKI TO SEA RACE REPORT

Last weekend saw the staging of the Ski to Sea adventure relay race from the ski area at Mount Baker to the town of Bellingham, WA. The modern incarnation of the race began in 1973. It now begins with a difficult and technical 6.5 km cross-country ski course at the base of the Mount Baker ski area. The cross-country skier finishes the figure 8 course and passes the timing chip to the alpine skier who skis to the bottom of chair lift
#2 and then climbs to the top of lift #1. From here the skier skis downhill to the start area and passes the timing chip to the runner. The running leg is a brutal 8 mile downhill course on the Mount Baker access road. With throbbing squads and aching knees, the runner passes the chip to the road biker who then pedals 38 miles to the Nooksack river at Hovander Park in Everson, WA. Here the team of canoe paddlers takes off for an 18 mile run on the spring high water of the Nooksack to the waiting mountain biker. The nine mile mountain bike leg ends at Bellingham Bay and the final leg of the race paddled by the sea kayaker to Fairhaven Beach 5 miles away.

Over 400 teams entered this year’s race. The weather was sunny and mild. This was both a boon and a problem. Certainly it was great for the skiers, runners and bikers. But the warm weather caused the abundant snow pack to melt rapidly and the river level was too high to run a safe canoe race. This leg was dropped and all other legs were contested to the grand finish in Fairhaven.

SOLDA wax played a significant role in the success of the winning team sponsored by the Bagelry of Bellingham. Over 400 cross-country skiers lined up for a mass start at the Mount Baker base area. I loaned the old ’02 Fischer RCS “695” skis to my son Jed. These skis were the perfect choice for the slushy spring snow. Waxed with SOLDA F40 Yellow and Fluor 100 and rilled with a 2mm coarse linear covered with an interrupted pattern structure, these skis handled every part of the course. In 19 minutes Jed had covered the 6.5 km of steep up hills and screaming downs where he passed the timing chip to the alpine climber/skier in 3rd place. The alpine skis were prepped with a top coat of SOLDA Powerjet 5 that was polished and brushed just before the start. This helped the team to move to second place at the exchange with the runner. The team moved up on the #1 team and soon after the exchange to the bike they had a firm hold on first place. The Bagelry Team, waxed with SOLDA, finished the race in 5:29:40 in front of the favorite team timed in 5:31:29.

SOLDA F40 Yellow and Fluor 100 also helped me to 36th place in the XC race. I got the second best pair of old Fischers from ’04 with a Plus Base and aggressive rilling. Our family and friends team finished in 121st place out of 440 teams. Great weekend, great energy, great support and great wax.

That should be about it for the Webskis race reports for this season. The US Ski Team is coming to town for a training camp at Mount Bachelor in June. Participants have been in the shop making sure they had the SOLDA wax they would need for the warm weather skiing. Our new shipment from Italy will be arriving in October. Stay tuned for more tips on using SOLDA products.

Bert Hinkley
SOLDA Wax Tech & WebSkis.com Sales

Bert Hinkley is our in-house SOLDA Wax Tech and the newest member of our WebSkis.com team...

5/22/08 SKI TO SEA WAX RECOMMENDATIONS

The Ski to Sea race takes place in NW Washington this weekend. The race begins at Mount Baker with a 6.5km cross country ski leg. This is followed by an alpine ski segment, then an 8 mile run, a 36 mile road bike leg, an 18 mile canoe course on the Nooksack River, 9 miles of mountain biking and finishes with 5 miles of sea kayaking on Bellingham Bay.

The weather forecast for Sunday is overnight low of 25. Cross country Race time temperature should be around 38F, partly sunny, old snow, humidity 77%. Start with clean skis that have a good aggressive warm snow grind and layer SOLDA F31 and F40 Yellow. Scrape and brush each layer well leaving a clean, shiny, dry base. Top coat with SOLDA Fluor 100. Be sure to brush all layers well. Any excess wax will collect dirt and prevent moisture from moving away from the ski. When finished apply a 2mm coarse linear rill to the base and follow this with an interupted structure on top. Brush again.

Bert Hinkley
SOLDA Wax Tech & WebSkis.com Sales

Bert Hinkley is our in-house SOLDA Wax Tech and the newest member of our WebSkis.com team...

5/14/08 POLE PEDAL PADDLE WAX RECOMMENDATIONS

Waxing for old spring snow brings it's own particular problems. If you have been skiing lately you know that the snow is DIRTY. This dirt clings to ski bases very well. So, the first thing to do for PPP is to clean the bases. If you have been skiing this spring, it would be a good idea to use a base cleaning solvent. I use the SOLDA Eco 2000. Apply this with a clean rag or a sturdy paper towell. You may be shocked at the amount of dirt that you clean off. Wipe it dry with another cloth. Then apply a soft base wax to recondition the skis. I use SOLDA Universal Base. You can use any warm snow, soft wax. Scrape this while the wax is warm and brush it out.

Next step is to select a warm snow wax. The weather is forecast says overnight low of 41F and nearly 60 by 9:00. I am prepping my son's skis with a layer of Performance Yellow, scraped and brushed, followed by F31 Yellow scraped and brushed, followed by F40 Yellow, scraped and brushed. I finished with SOLDA Flour 100 powder. Sprinkle it on the ski. Use a cork dedicated to fluoro application to tamp and spread the powder evenly. Then, with a very hot iron, iron down one side of the groove. Take about 7-8 seconds. Repeat on the other side of the groove. Follow this with a lot of corking with plenty of elbow grease. When the poweder is smooth and evenly corked, polish wtih a felt polishing brush. Then finish with a horse hair brush.

Now the last step is to apply a rill to the bases. I am using a coarse, interrupted rill to handle the excess moisture available in the old snow. It depends on the grind on the ski base, but once or twice down the ski with a toko rilling tool seems to work pretty well.

Finish by brushing this out well until the base is shiny and dry and smooth.

Then ski fast.

Bert Hinkley
SOLDA Wax Tech & WebSkis.com Sales