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It’s looking like some transformed snow for the Skiathlon. There will be a chance of snow Friday night, but it will likely get groomed right into the more transformed base (on account of warmth and rain Thurs/Fri and a lack of recent snowfall).

For glide, having a neutral but mostly colder glide wax would be advised. Toko Blue or Swix PS6/PS7 would be great starting points. MNC will have wax support consisting of some liquid or wool non-fluoro topcoats, and these are best applied over a well scraped/brushed ski with a recent coat of traditional wax!

For kick, a klister binder would suit the conditions best. It’s possible we will use hardwax, but a klister binder will help the wax stay durable and handle the aggressive, transformed snow that forms the main base of the trails. You can see a clip of some klister binder waxing at the bottom of this page.

We will be testing kickwaxes on the day of the race, and can provide recommendations or even just some wax itself. For klister application, we will have our wax roller to help apply klister quickly and easily. Check in with coaches to get the latest!

Thanks to massive snowmaking efforts (and machinery), Craftsbury was able to re-build a melted loop and create awesome conditions over the weekend. A good crew of Masters raced in the Silver Fox Trot events alongside MNC Juniors and BKL skiers, and on Sunday we had a really great turnout for our Masters ski day.

Over 15 skiers gathered after lunch for some klistering and ski prep in the MNC trailer, and then met with coaches Adam, Sara, Kristen, and Rosemary for drills and skills before taking a few laps of the 2km manmade loop.

Sara leads some drills as the group gathers in the upper field

We were fortunate to end the week with a bit of snowfall, as right after we began the flakes started coming down. All of a sudden, the brown landscape off the loop was looking more like winter. It was great to get some daylight skiing in, take some video, and meet up with new and returning skiers in the program.

Some of the crew opted to head home after the classic portion, but a group switched to skate skiing for an additional hour of snow time. We got a quick group photo of the skate squad by one of the multiple Pisten Bully groomers Craftsbury uses to help create some fo the best snow around.

Winter is off to a slow start, but cold temps and some incoming snow may help us out. We’ll need to stay flexible with Range access and snowmaking/lighted loops such as Sleepy Hollow, but skiing is finally starting to come around. Thanks to all that joined us yesterday!