It rained yesterday in Lake Louise which would have made for very icy conditions today during the loppet. Fortunately there was already 5 cm of new snow by race time at 11 a.m. Unfortunately it was wet snow which made for challenging waxing conditions.
India McIsaac was the fastest 10K skier. Here she is passing me on the Fairview trail
I started out on Moraine Lake road at 11:05 a.m., knowing that hundreds of ski racers would be breathing down my neck shortly. The air temperature was -1°C with lots of fresh snow in the tracks. I didn’t have to ponder too long about which skis to use. These were perfect conditions for the skintecs.
Risto complained that he had no glide today but still finished second in his category
Besides myself, there were already a few recreational skiers on MLR skiing in the tracks. I stopped at the Fairview junction and talked to race volunteers Greg and Florrie, acquaintances from my Calgary Ski Club days.
20K winner Brian McKeever, now out for a recreational ski. Peeking over his shoulder is the 2nd place finisher, Ian Murray.
I made it to the top of the Fairview hill where volunteers Sylvia and Mike Carleton were stationed. It was nice to finally meet Mike after talking about him on this blog last year. Mike actually lived his first five years in the little house near the end of the Cascade Valley ski trail.
20K skiers coming through the feeding station
Still no skiers in sight so I continued along Fairview. Near the 8K mark of the race course, India McIsaac caught up and passed me in the blink of an eye. She was the overall fastest in the 10K race with a time of 42:36.
A common problem today – clumping on the wax
I was expecting to see a lot of racers over the final 2k but only one more passed me before I reached the lake(the finish line) where I took some photos and talked to skiers about their waxing situation. I don’t know if anyone found the perfect recipe for grip and glide today. I would like to hear your waxing stories if you’d care to leave a comment.
The 20K winner was Brian McKeever who didn’t use any grip wax, as he double-poled the entire race. When I ran into Brian later, he said if he had used wax it would have been Rode Super Blue. Brian’s time was 1:09:09 and was over four minutes ahead of the second place finisher.
It snowed the entire time that the race was on, and was still snowing when I left for home. The temperature was zero. Near Castle junction, the snow turned to rain. It was +6 when I reached Canmore and it was not raining.
You can see all the Lake Louise Loppet results on Zone4.
Hi Bob,
Not only Brian double poled the course.
First 4 skiers did it.
In fact, third place finisher – Eric Carleton is also captured on your picture with Ian and Brian.
As for the grip wax: I used thin layer of Vauhti K12 (+1-2 new snow) covered with very thin layer of Rode Fast 0 -2 (one step warmer than Super Blue).
Worked fine.
One needs to remember than flex of skis plays big role in grip wax selection/application as well.
btw, in Cookie race at least first 3 guys double poled the whole course as well.
I used vr55 (thank you Kim) which worked well for me. I found if I kicked any clumps off quickly it was fine. I actually had 2 thin layers of vr 45 and 3 thin layers of vr55 and a thin layer of something colder (blueish) on top – not sure if that really made any difference. Other family members used only vr45 which they said was ‘perfect’.
Hi Bob, you were right, it was the kick wax that was slowing me down. My grip zone had chunks of ice on it. I was using VR45 covered with VX43. I might have used too many layers. I should have just gone with VR40. Maybe I’ll pick up some Rode Super Blue 🙂
Sorry I couldn’t stop to chat when I saw you later on Fairview. I was double poling through the 10km course on my skate skis to see if I could do it, and to see if it was faster for me. Maybe it was the fatigue from having just raced 10k, but my second time through was actually slower.
My kids did well at the loppet today using vr55. Instead of having to deal with wax problems on the ten k my wife used skinteks she rented from Wilson mountain sports. She was very happy with how well they worked in the wet snow.