It was very cold when we arrived at Ponderosa today -15C and the snow was cold and fresh.  The sun was out in full force, though and whiel the air temp stayed cold, the sun changed things quickly.  With everyone doing long-distance races and starting right at the point in the day when things changed the fastest, it was anyone's guess what would work towards the end of the races.

We ended up going on Toko Green binder ironed in very thin, with the stronger skiers on Rode Multigrade Blue.  For skiers who needed a little more kick, we used the SkiGo Universal covered with the SkiGo Special.  We had many happy faces on both combinations.  One skier said he did not have enough kick at the end of the race, but other than that everyone said they had the fastest skis of their lives, with solid kick.

For Friday's skate races, we are sticking with the wax that has tested the best for the last few days: Swix HF7 with FC7 powder.  The overnight conditions are going to be much warmer than Thursday, but even when it has warmed up, the shaded parts of the course have continued to slow down warmer combinations.  FC7 was fastest of what we tested Wednesday at 2:30PM and it was very hot.  WIth the majority of the course in the shade, however, the snow is staying cold and fresh.  If you have two pair to play with, Swix HF7/FC8 would be a good combination on a ski with more aggressive structure.

We've been testing structures a lot and we're finding that the fine linear structures are running well in the mornings and as things heat up, heavier broken linear structures are going well.  The Q1.3 grind has been perfect in these conditions.  We've also seen a lot of people happy with ZR2 and Z40XL.  We are running structures on race day, so bring your skis by the Swix tent if you'd like the latest test results and/or we can put structure on for you.