Wax Testing at Canmore
January 21, 2008

Canmore World Cup Coverage Special to CrossCountrySkier.com See the rest of our coverage

Photos and text by Matt Muir

Nearly 200 athletes from 15 countries were going through the practiced routine of ski testing here in Canmore today. Racers and techs circled the inner loops of the Canmore Nordic Centre’s race trails over and over again, forming a steady stream of gliding national team uniforms and balaclava covered faces.

Periodically, skiers stopped in the stadium, switched one or two skis, and started the process all over again. From wax rooms adjacent to the stadium, support staff kept a constant flow of skis coming out for the athletes to test in order to find the fastest pair.

Life on the wax test hill (see a larger version)

At 9 this morning, the air temperature was minus 23 Celsius (minus 9 F) at the Nordic Centre. The relative humidity registered an unusually high 80 percent for the normally dry Rocky Mountain air. Temperatures rose throughout the morning and early afternoon to reach at least -7C (23 F). The high for race day promises to be -5C (19 F), but Canmore’s cold overnight lows and short days combined with the snow’s cold thermal mass make it more likely for wax techs to err on the cold side.

Preparing the best skis for racers a day before an anticipated change in the weather is a “hurry up and wait” job. Even though conditions will probably move one notch warmer by tomorrow, the process of testing today gives wax techs and athletes a data point from which to begin what amounts to a process of elimination. Ultimately, each athlete will choose the fastest pair of skis available to them and leave the rest up to the engine.

In the case of the U.S. team, testing was divided into two coordinated groups, the World Cup segment of the team, made up of the USST’s most competitive athletes, and the Nation’s Group segment, made up of the larger-than-normal contingent of Americans who qualified because of the proximity of these Canmore races.

The American WC skiers rely on the USST’s professional wax techs to make the call on the wax of the day and then prepare the skis. The Nation’s Group skiers get their information from the World Cup contingent and then go to work on their skis. In the case of the races here at Canmore, the enormous amount of American secondary staff that made the trip on their own dime has resulted in a crowded wax room full of support for the U.S. Nation’s Group skiers.

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