Nordic Racers Ski Club:
The Leading Edge,
February 2000

Promenading at the Reino Keski Salmi Loppet

The RKS Loppet at Salmon Arm has been the biggest loppet in BC for the last few years. This is because there is a great course and the loppet is usually well run. This year was no exception, with the course in great shape and the waxing conditions pretty good.

The race, however, is only a fraction of what skiers enjoy when they do the loppet. Upon finishing to enthusiastic applause from the crowd of skiers and volunteers, you are instantly given a Kleenex to wipe your face so people don't have to look at the detritus which accumulated during the race. Next, you hit the food tents where the local club serves everything from home-made beans and cookies to the "beef on a bun" which is sliced from a delicious side of beef that's cooking at the site.

Once nutritional requirements have been attended to, it's on to the recovery phase in the whirlpool at the local rec' centre. Here is where you get to meet all the skiers you missed on the course, since you are jammed in the tub with them. After some heat and stretching on the rope swing, you start to come around.

At cocktail hour, people start collecting at the awards ceremony. A spread of local cheese, wine, apples, and oranges (local?) is laid out to offset the hunger that is starting to affect most of the skiers. The temperature in the room rapidly rises as everyone's bodies - still running on high - start to metabolise the food and drink. The awards ceremony allows everyone - including the volunteers - to be recognised for their efforts.

By now, hunger is starting to reach a high pitch which is enhanced as everyone watches the servers set up the buffet tables and lay out the food. But wait! Will your table be called first, last, or somewhere in the middle? Perhaps for twenty minutes, the competitive spirit re-enters the room.

Sure enough, though, everyone gets to eat and gastronomic order is restored.

On with the evening. This year was the best I can remember for entertainment at the RKS. Soon after dinner, the band started playing and got everyone dancing. There was an eclectic mix of Celtic, country, and even some Hungarian waltzes. At one point, the band got us into square dancing (the Virginia reel) and there were probably 100 people do-see-doing and generally messing up the fine traditions of square dancing.

Finally, the evening ended - but not the weekend. The next day, we stopped at Stake Lake for a relaxing ski - anything to avoid going back to the monsoon.

- Dave McKee, 1999

Tales From The Cariboo

The tracks were fast, the weather was clear and the temperatures were cold. Yes, Toto, this is Cariboo Country! The 21st Cariboo Marathon went off with a flurry as 400+ racers dashed to the trailhead. Congratulations to the twenty Nordic Racers who participated in the Cariboo Marathon!

Special congratulations to the following people for their noteworthy accomplishments:

Chris Bowlby finished first amongst females in her age category and fourth overall amongst all females! And this was accomplished after missing the starting gun by five minutes!

Ingrid Otto finished third amongst females in her age category!

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Doug Wiebe jettisoning his broken pole.
Just how much did that pole cost, Doug?
Photo courtesy of Tony Chin

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Per Gaarder finished second amongst males in his age category! Jorgen Dahlie finished second amongst males in his age category!

Darrol Proskow entered and completed his first loppet! And finished fifth amongst all males in the Recreation Category! (Next time don't stop for the martini!) Jon Strom entered and completed his first loppet! Jon did the full marathon of 50km! Good luck in your next race in Sweden.

The perseverance in the face of Murphy's Law award goes to Doug Wiebe. Not only did Doug miss the starting gun, but he broke his pole at the 27 km mark and had to ski with one pole! Doug skied to the next aid station and asked for someone to lend him some poles. The good samaritan happened to be a fellow considerably taller than Doug and his classic poles looked like skating poles in Doug's hands! Doug completed the race with skating poles!

- Tony Chin

[Congrats also to Nordic Racer / Sigge's Team member Greg Inkster, who won his category and placed ninth overall. - ed.]

Challenge Biathlon Results

BC CUP 1 & 2, SILVER STAR, NOV 28, 1999

The Lower Mainland / Nordic Racers Junior Challenge / UBC contingent to the first Biathlon BC Cup races did very well this year, winning medals in every race and in every category where we had a racer. While the older folks were up at Silver Star working on both their skiing and partying techniques, the juniors were working on straight shooting and fast skiing.

Matt Rance, two gold, and Roger McMillan (UBC), two silver, led the way in the Junior Men category, followed by Martin Utley, with a double bronze, in his first year in the Boys category. Britta Tilgner, also in her first year as a Girl, split the bronze medals with Jennifer Martin (Chilliwack Air Cadets). We are working on recruiting Jennifer into Challenge too!

The races were part of a successful three day Biathlon Training Camp, organized by Alan Ball, our Junior Challenge leader, who also serves as the Biathlon BC Development Squad Coach.

BC CUP 3 & 4, PRINCE GEORGE, FEB 5/6, 2000

Nordic Racers Make BC Biathlon Team

At BC Cups 3 & 4, three Nordic Racers entered the fray. They came home with six medals: two gold medals (Matt Rance) and four silver medals (Britta Tilgner and Martin Utley).

Matt, who made the BC Team for the first time last year, made it easily this year with two first place finishes. Martin and Britta did very well to make the Team on their first try.

The Nordic Racers' Biathlon Squad trains at Pacific Shooters Range in the Seymour Demonstration Forest and at Ski Hemlock.

Nordic Racers Online

We've finally put up a WWW site of sorts at

http://www.nordicracers.bc.ca/

or, if that doesn't work for you,

http://www.infomatch.com/~feng/nr/
[n.b. no longer current; use the other address]

This and subsequent newsletters will be posted on the Web site. Consequently, if you ticked off the "receive newsletter by e-mail" box on your membership form, this will be your last paper copy of The Leading Edge; instead, you'll receive e-mail notification when the Web version of the newsletter is ready.

To change your choice - or to update your e-mail address - please drop a note to Julia McDonnell.

Also on the Web site: a buy and sell page for Nordic Racers wishing to trade equipment. Adverts can be sent to Feng Chen (fengski@yahoo.ca, 738-5695) for publication both online and in The Leading Edge.

Club Events

FONDUE NIGHT

Back by popular demand! For $15, enjoy a cheese and chocolate fondue in rustic Hollyburn Lodge! (Liquor not included.) For more information or for reservations, please contact Nancy Crump or Richard Sones. Or, come out to the Wednesday night hot chocolate sessions.

The deadline for sign-up and payment is Wednesday, February 23; please make cheques out to "Nordic Racers Ski Club." Dinner itself will be served the following week, Wednesday, March 1, at 8:00 p.m.

[Apologies for the late notification - ed.]

BARBECUE / CABIN PARTY

Close out the season with a barbecue at the Hollyburn Ridge First Aid Ski Patrol Cabin on Saturday, March 25. Ski in the afternoon, then join us afterwards for a BBQ in this cabin hidden off the Grand National Trail.

If you're too tired for the drive home and wish to stay the night, bring your own sleeping gear. Remember to park in the overnight section of the parking lot, though.

For more details or to sign up, contact Richard Sones or Craig Oliver. A registration fee of $10 is due by Saturday March 18, so that appropriate quantities of food and utilities can be purchased. Again, please make cheques payable to the Nordic Racers Ski Club. Please let Richard or Craig know if you can help to cook or to ferry supplies.

MEET AND SKI CONTINUES

The Wednesday night "Meet & Ski" programme continues at Hollyburn Ridge until the end of March. Meet at the Chuckwagon at 7:00 p.m. and find someone to ski with.

Afterwards, join us at Hollyburn Lodge between 7:30 & 9:00 p.m. for free hot chocolate. Ask the Nordic Racers host for your drink ticket.

MOUNT WASHINGTON TRIP

Now that the Cariboo Marathon is over and the Nickel Plate trip finalized - thanks to Tony for booking the accommodations - Tony Chin has offered to organize condominium rental for the Vancouver Island Loppet, to be run on Saturday March 18. This is a 35 km free-technique loppet, with a 16 km half-loppet option.

Contact Tony ASAP so that he can gauge interest in this. Tony also has race entry forms he can fax to you.

Cerax Ski Polymers

I read the blurb in the October Leading Edge, rushed to my computer, and checked out the web site. Cerax sounded too good to be true. This year I am the Development Coach for Biathlon BC, and persuaded the treasurer that we just had to have some Cerax for our athletes going to the World Junior Selection Trials in Canmore (January 23/24, 2000).

I expected the conditions to be cold, in the -18°/-16° range, and already knew that the snow in Canmore would be predominantly artificial. We purchased Cerax Pro 2, for fine grained snow, and Cerax Pro 5 for extreme cold.

Testing: we used three sets of Biathlon BC test skis that we knew from glide testing with a light system were matched ±1%. On the first race day, the temperature was -18° at the start and warmed up to -12° in the air, but the snow stayed down around -16°. The snow was 90% artificial, but it started snowing during the race. Relative humidity was 55% - very dry.

We glide tested the Cerax 5 and 2 against Nordlite Graphite, Swix LF4 over Nordlite Graphite, Toko Fluoro Blue, and Kuu Mach II Blue. Skied 5 km on the Cerax pairs and re-tested.

Mach II Blue and the two Cerax waxes were clearly superior to LF4, which was better than Toko Fluoro Blue, which was better than Nordlite Graphite. The Cerax 5 was slightly better than Mach II Blue for the heavier glide tester, the opposite for me (on the same skis). Cerax 2 was almost as good (about a 6 - 10" difference in a 30 foot run out).

Mach II is a Silicon-Oxygen polymer; Cerax is a Fluoro monolayer, something like Teflon, while the Swix and Toko waxes are paraffin-fluoro mixes and the Nordlite is a paraffin wax.

We gave the athletes with two sets of skis: either Cerax 5 and Cerax 2, or Cerax 2 and Mach II Blue, depending on how well we thought they might do. (Mach II Blue is cheap, Cerax expensive).

Most of the athletes chose to race on Cerax 5 or Mach II Blue (at -16°). Reports after the race ranked the Cerax skis as "rockets." Athletes with Mach II were very happy too.

The next day, the new snow had been tilled in and it had started to snow again by race time. The temperature was -15° at the start and rose to -8°. After re-glide testing with Briko BFK Violet (low fluoro, -7° to -13°) added to our set, we decided that Cerax 2 was a better bet under the new conditions and left the Cerax 2 skis from day one unchanged.

We re-did some of the other pairs with Mach II Blue and some with Briko Violet. Some athletes skied on Cerax 2, some on Blue. Some Saskatchewan athletes skied on the Violet. Relative humidity was in the 65% range, so it was still pretty dry.

Athletes with Cerax 2 reported the same "rockets." Everyone else reported fast skis from Mach II Blue and BFK Violet.

Summary: Cerax 5 was slightly better than Mach II Blue at marginal race temperatures (-18°), low humidity and fine grained artificial snow. Cerax 2 was better than Cerax 5 or Mach II Blue in -15° to -12° snow temperatures, but with fresh snow, sharp and fine grained by West Coast standards. Mach II Blue was a very good alternative on both days. This inexpensive Canadian wax, from Kuu Sport in Toronto, really has legs in the cold. All were better than last year's cold favourite, Swix LF4.

Application: Cerax was applied over Nordlite Graphite, scraped and polished really clean. It applies with a sponge applicator - just wipe it on and dry it off with a hair dryer. Fantastic! First time I have had to wax 10 pairs of skis, yet had time for coffee before the race. One of the Cerax 2 racers reported that his skis "died after about 2.5 km." After-race analysis discovered that these skis had been skipped in the pre-race multi-person assembly line and had not been properly brushed out. The Cerax came off with the excess wax.

Post race, we have noticed that both regular and fluoro wax are repelled by the residual Cerax. You need to wipe off the Cerax mono-layer with solvent before re-waxing.

Cost: Cerax cost US$59 per 50ml bottle, plus shipping and tax of Cdn$25.00. Pretty expensive compared to Mach II Blue at about $35.00 per 100g. I estimate that 50 ml. will do at least 15 pairs of skis.

- Alan Ball