New WebSkis Blog

We have a new blog, so if you have this URL bookmarked, you will need to change it. The new blog is at http://webskis.wordpress.com

A Better Binding

How often is "new and improved" just marketing hype? I love it when people are thinking and actually improving a product. That is my sense of the revised Rottefella Xelerator NIS binding. It was tested and approved all winter on the World Cup and at the Olympic Winter Games. You will see the binding branded with Rottefella, Madshus, Fischer etc, but it is the same binding with a different label.

First, the mechanism that holds the boot to the ski is simplified, stronger and lighter. It is a lever/hook system that contains no moving parts, cams or springs. Two hooks engage the bar on the sole of the boot at the edges of that bar. this provides a more secure grip than the old NNN system. It also "punches through" any snow that might build up on the boot sole. The hooks are the back end of a front throw lever that is simply pushed down on a slot on the binding plate. Easy to close and open.

Second, the new binding fits all your old boots with NNN soles. No need to change out the boots that fit the R3 or R4 NIS bindings. It also fits on the same NIS plates that have been on the skis for a couple seasons now. The NIS plate is unchanged and the new Xelerator bindings slide right on and off those plates. You retain the same binding movement flexibility as always and can swap the bindings between those favorite skis.

Third, these bindings are light. Lighter than the NNN R4, or R3 or any SNS binding. Couple these with a new Fischer Hole ski or the new Madshus Nanosonic skis and you can be flying light.

I know that all sounds like a sales pitch, but those are the facts. Pretty cool bindings that work.

Have a good spring. Stop in Bend, OR if you can and enjoy the fantastic spring skiing.

Bert

Finding Rhythm

I was skiing this morning at 7. My back was a little stiff from the 2.5 hours of trail riding on my cross bike on Sunday and the trail run I did last night. But the snow was perfect and the temperature about 30 with a light snow falling. At first I struggled to find balance and rhythm with the stiff back and the early hour, but as I warmed up things began to come together. This not being a race, and with nobody else around (I had the entire Mt Bachelor Nordic trail system to myself) I noticed and enjoyed the woods, the trail’s turns and twists, ups and downs. I was able to tune into the terrain and sense adaptations I needed to make to ski efficiently. I have heard people talk about how difficult this area, and other areas are to ski because they don‘t have any “rhythm”. But I believe that they have a rhythm and as a user of the trail I have an opportunity to find it and apply the technique needed for that time and place.

There are certainly lots of ups and downs at Mt Bachelor, not a lot of flat to rolling terrain. So that means that the skier has to switch gears, just like driving a stick shift on a mountain road. Shifting smoothly and with the right timing lets the car and driver adapt to the layout of the road. I think of V1 as first gear, V2 as second gear, V2-Alternate as third gear, Open field skate as high gear. The tuck is overdrive. So, as I come down a long hill and approach the flat and transition at the bottom I sense the speed of the skis slowing down and it is time to shift to V2-Alternate (third gear). This allows me to keep the momentum generated by gravity and keep the speed and glide going. When I feel the speed again slow a bit as the terrain starts up the next hill I shift to V2, again seeking to capture the forward momentum from the flat. Now the uphill slope increases and it is time to shift again to V1 before I have bogged down trying to V2 up the steeper slope. I can do either a long strong V1 or if the slope increases and is not too long, pick it up with a quicker hop-step V1. Now as the crest of the hill approaches and I feel the speed picking up, it is a shift to the long-strong V1 and then up to V2 to cruise along the gentle grade.

I am tuning into the terrain change and my speed change and sensing when to shift. Like any mountain road with turns and ups and downs, I cannot drive the whole thing in one gear. I watch the tachometer, the speed, the radius of the turns, take into consideration the road surface and shift into the right gear to do the job. It is the rhythm of the road I feel.

By skiing this way this morning I felt better and better. I noticed little terrain changes and opportunities to shift smoothly. I learned the terrain just a little better than before, even though I have skied these trails dozens of times.
Maybe I should ski by myself more often.

Have a good one,
Bert

Is it Spring Yet

At Mt Bachelor at the moment, it is 22F, snowing and there are 112 inches of snow on the ground. The skiing is going to be good for another month. But the days are lighter and the daffodils are up. The bike business is picking up and we had our first kayak slalom race in Bend last weekend. Team WebSkis was well represented at this rite of spring. Aaron Tarnow completed his first ever whitewater race. Kerie Raymond, again off the couch, jumped in to have a couple good runs. I was both race organizer and competitor. That is not the way to have the best performance. But my main masters level rival and I teamed up in the K2 (two paddler kayak)and had a great run beating the local favorites.

Kerie Raymond exiting gate 8.

Dave Johnson and me at the end of our winning run.

There is one more xc ski race, the Great Nordeen at Mt Bachelor coming up this weekend. There is also a big group ride supported by WebCyclery. Too much to do. Think I will try some new Madshus skis on Thursday, ride on Sunday and more paddling next week. Hope my body holds up.

Solda Performance Series

All over the world those who wax skis for both nordic and alpine racing are familiar with Solda HP05. National teams buy it and use it for cold, transformed snow in conditions of high humidity.

There are many other Solda waxes that may be less well known, but no less effective. Locals in Bend who come into our shop are always asking about a good wax for training and recreational skiing that is not too expensive. The answer is easy. The Performance World Cup series comes in three flavors. Green for cold snow, Red for most snow, Yellow for the warm days. You don't need snow thermometers or barometers to figure out which to use. The temperature ranges overlap at the upper and lower ends. You can go outside, or to the website of your skiing destination and see what the weather looks like. There are temperature ranges on the packages (the same is true for all other Solda waxes). Here in the shop we use the Solda Perfromance Red for nearly all of our wax service business because it has a wide range and runs well in most all snow conditions.

The other go-to wax for us is Solda UF7. It is a Universal low Flouro wax with a wide range too. I have used it as a race wax before and won my age group. As I prep skis for race day, I usually start with at base of a mix of Perfromance Red and UF7 50/50. I scrape and brush this and then apply the race wax over the top. These waxes saturate the bases well and provide the hydrocarbon/fluorocarbon mix that the more highly fluorinated waxes can bond to.

Waxing skis for fun and glide does not have to be complicated. Check the website for glide wax to see these and other wax options.

I hope you have some good spring skiing ahead of you.

Bert

Web Team Doings

One of the great things about my job is that I get to hang out with and correspond with a group of active people who really add spice to life. Here are a few examples of what members of the WebSkis Team have been up to recently.

Pat Lanin

I took an hiatus from the Birke, and did the Korteloppet (a measley 23 km) classic. I did the same event two years ago under similar conditions, and was 6 minutes faster this year. Two years ago I won my age group, this year Marty Hall showed up and gave me a ski lesson, beating me by ten minutes!
This is the first time that Marty has beaten me.

On the glide I had Violet F15, covered with Power Jet 2, and a top coat of S-20. On the kick I had Swix VG 35 binder, covered with a very thin layer of Rex Power Grip Blue, and 4 layers of Rode Special Blue over. The kick was great, except for some of the South facing slopes in the last 2 km...even then not bad. I think the glide may have been compromised a bit, by a slight over kill on the kick. None the less, I still had great glide, and was out running about 80% of those around me. The temp was +10 F at the start and +21 F at the finish, a bit over an hour and a half later. The track and the snow was pristine. A fantastic day, all in all, Mr. Hall notwithstanding.

Byron Roe
Wendy and I were up at the Olympics where there was no skiing-OK, not within
2 hours anyways. But we do have some cool stories and images though....

Aaron Tarnow
Par for the Course II at Mt Bachelor

Skied on UF7, F40 Red, PJ1 Skies where a bit slow first lap, I think do to too much structure in base. By second lap skis where very fast on the up hill. I think good overall wax choice, wrong ski choice.

Dave Knoop
Another year another Birkie.
Skis were dang fast, could take a break for water or gels and easily pull my group back in a tuck down the next hill.
Conditions were cold and blue! Probably about 5f air temp at the start warming to about 20f by the end.
Hard track, old snow and little humidity. Pretty sure that snow never warmed up.

Wax Used:
A base layer of black carbon for durability on old abrasive snow.
Then Solda F15 Blue. A layer of Solda S20 then another layer of Solda S30 to harden the base.
Put Solda HP05-S30 50/50 on as top layer.
Grind was a cold fine grind with a little structure in it, i.e. Nordic Ultratune 615b grind.
Ski's: an old pair of Rossi's circa 2006 yet they had plenty of attitude or stiff flex.

Result: 113th overall, 3rd in old guys division.

Post race beer was Beck's.

Mark Nienstaedt
I skied well from start to finish in the Birkie Classic yesterday on good skis. For the third year running, I've made it into the top five of the 55-59 age group (187 strong this year) with a fourth place, 99th of 1,429 overall. Very fast conditions. 2:28:39.4 for the winner and 3:07:56.6 for yours truly, a half hour faster than last year. Ironically, the sting of missing an age group trophy by a place was reduced considerably by the fact that the 3rd place spot when to my good friend, training, and travel partner Jim Agre, a serious guy who flew out of the Twin Cities for Sweden hours after his finish headed for the original Vasaloppet.
My skis were good (you have the technical wax description already) but I'm always ready to learn more. I spoke to some Stevens Point, WI, skate skiers after the race (they saw my SOLDA/Webskis vest) who enthused about having used warm Fluor 100 successfully. I also know a good master skate skier who I race compatibly with who turned in a 2:31 skate race on a SWIX pure warm powdered fluor pair of skis. He had tested both a cold fluor and the warm fluor pair of skis pre-race and picked the warm fluor skis as fastest. This despite that the announcers noted the air temperature was minus 3 degrees as we lined up for our 8 a.m. start (just about as forecast). The snow was a bit squeaky and definitely abrasive. What else have you heard? What accounts for warm fluor success?
Thanks for your support. I ski a local "Lakeland Loppet" 25km skate at Minocqua, WI, Winterpark next Saturday and then the Great Bear Chase 50km skate on the 13th. And I'm always looking for the edge.

Dan Packman skied in the Masters World Cup races in Sweden and on the Vasa Loppett course.
Today I endured a new dimension of the nordic ski experience. 90k on the legendary vasa trail with new slow snow. I started wave 4 and passed about 4000 people the first 5k. I got in good small group and we motored along. After 65k someone said in Swedish, fertun, femtun, sixtun - 14, 15, 16, then in english - top 20! The group was down to a few guys the last 10k. I went with a fast move with 7k to go and we hammered hard, yet I had to let it go with 5k to go and paid dearly the last 2 k. Only the 2 guys I just dropped caught me, but man the last k was Painful.
5:55, good for 16th place. Folks said the best times today were 30-40 mins slower than typical. skis were great, 6 layers of blue hardwax over binder, f40 red glide wax with power jet 2. The long trip home is tomorrow.

Packman on MWC

Fun relay today. 5k is definitely not my thing but it was a beautiful day.
-12 C snow, sunny and slightly warmer than past few days. Jan Spurkland (ppp winner a few yrs ago, Jan and I did the Sapporo marathon in 2005) started strong putting us in 2nd after leg 1 behind the Italians. JD (US team director from Bend) pulled 5k worth of mojo out of his 'I haven't raced in ages but I ski everyday and can get on it'. I held 3rd, no one around me for 2 mins ahead or behind, so I just cruised it and Dennis from Missoula brought it home with a minute to spare over the German team, so we ended up with bronze. M5 USA team also 3rd. Now it is time to focus on the 45k Friday skate race. Still cold here, below 0 F in the morn, warming slightly the next few days with snowstorm predicted by the weekend.

There you have just a few of the good stuff being done by WebSkis Team members.

Have a good one too,

Bert

Birkie Pre Race Ski Prep

Those who have been in Hayward and Cable, Wisconsin, have told me that the snow is abrasive and dirty. It snowed a little today, a very fine snow coming off the lake. The forecast from NOAA:

Tonight: Scattered snow showers, mainly before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -6. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 17. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around -12. Calm wind.

Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 25. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around -7. Calm wind.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 31.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 4.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 33.

So it looks to me like the snow will be cold and abrasive. If you want to start prepping skis do a hot scrape and clean the bases. I would pick a cold base ski with a fine grind and start with Solda FC27. Crayon on the FC27 and drip on Solda Performance Green, Iron, scrape and brush. I would then apply a couple of layers of Solda F15 Blue and wait to watch the weather. For those of you interested there will be some people at the Birkie testing wax. Walter Knight, from Boulder Nordic Sports will be testing lots of waxes. He will have a BNS shop set up in Cable. Chris Wheaton will also be testing Solda waxes. Look for Chris in the Red Solda suit. I will post the wax as the Solda Team sees it on the Solda Wax Blog. Top right on the WebSkis home page.