Sandpoint Nordic Club Newsletter - February 2019 Photo of the Month A blue bird day. Beautiful grooming and Upcoming Events scenery on the trails of Western Pleasure Guest Ranch. Feb. 6th - Youth Hill Climb 2:30pm @ Schweitzer Nordic Trails *Remember all club members Rec and race team skiiers challenge get discounted trail passes at themselves to the annual hill climb. Western Pleasure! Come cheer them on! Send your photos and caption to Feb. 10th - Langlauf [email protected] and 10am @ Mt. Spokane Nordic Trails it may be featured in next month’s 39th year of the 10k classic race. newsletter. One of the largest races in our area. Free registration for children 10 and 200k Challenge Check In under with a registered adult! http://spokanelanglauf.org How far have you skied this year? Have you been keeping track of your kilometers in your trusty ski journal, gps watch, Feb. 12th - Club Meeting or a ski app? If so, you are well on your way to the chance of winning a new pair of skis! If you have not been tracking your New location! kilometers, it’s not too late to start (very honest estimations 5pm @ Matchwood Brewery are also accepted). Youth are encouraged to participate Join us in the community balcony in the 100k challenge where they will be entered to win a for an evening of club news and Sandpoint Nordic puffy coat. nordic camaraderie. All participants who complete 200 & 100k and submit their ski logs have an equal chance of winning as this challenge is a random drawing! For a sample ski log and more info visit the wepsite: www.sandpointnordic.com/200kchallenge A special thank you to our sponsors this year: Idaho Pour Authority, Syringa Cyclery, The Hound Downtown, Sandpoint Property Management, Sandpoint Surgical Associates, and Alpine Shop. New Sandpoint Nordic Club Gear! Tri Blend T-Shirts $18 1/4 Zip Fleece $49 Ladies fit in charcoal grey Ladies fit unisex in grey Unisex fit in red Available now! Represent your love of Nordic and your Nordic community. Items will be for sale at the club gathering on Feb. 12th. Pre-sales can be made on the website and picked up at the gathering. All procedes from sales will be going to Nordic trail development at Pine Street Woods. www.sandpointnordic.com/snc-gear sandpointnordic.com Newsletter - February 2019 Ski Wax Evolution By Jared France Major changes are happening in the ski wax industry. For years perfluorocarbons have dominated the ski wax scene. Perfluorocarbons aka fluoros are a significant ingredient of the LF and HF waxes that many of us use as well as the bank breaking nearly pure fluoro blocks and powders used by elite racers. Fluorinated ski waxes repel water and reduce friction. They are created by stripping hydrocarbon molecules of their hydrogen and replacing them with fluorines. Health risks associated with applying fluoro powders at very high temperatures have been known for a few years. Protective masks for wax techs are available and widely used. Research has now shown that these complex molecules can be broken down into toxic particles. Scientists believe that these toxic particles are transferred to the snow and may end up in the water system once the snow melts. Last year the FIS and EU announced a ban on perfluorocarbons in wax beginning the year 2020. The USSA is expected to follow suit and many Alpine and Nordic ski resorts have already taken their own initiative on banning the use on their ski trails. As of 2021, fluoro waxes will not be legally sold on the global market. Wax companies such as Swix, Start, and Toko have been working on replacement products for a few years and have not yet found waxes that outperform the current fluorinated products, but they are getting close. They are concentrating on new liquid waxes and gels that don’t require heat to apply. This eliminates the dangerous fumes associated with HF waxes and powders as well as reduces the risk of damaging ski bases. The world cup level products are as good or better than current HF waxes and training and entry level products are on par or better than the current LF waxes, but they still haven’t developed something to compete with fluorinated powders. Getting rid of fluoros is a good idea and can only help the sport long term. Purchasing powders is very cost prohibitive especially for youth ski racers. We banned the use of fluoro powders when my kids were racing, but it was difficult to enforce. Some parents chose to ignore the ban just to give their kids an advantage. The same may happen once the global ban goes into effect. Hopefully the next generation of clean products will perform as well or better and combined with their ease of application will result in the extinction of these harmful products. When looking for a spray or rub on ski wax, consider wax with a water based carrying agent. They don’t dry out the skis like gels or pastes made with alcohol. Application is easy. You simply rub the gel into the glide zone of the ski, then hand cork it in. Start Ski Wax company has some of these revolutionary wax products available in the US at this time and they were named Outside Magazine’s Nordic Wax of the year. Other major wax companies are sure to follow. Dear Ski Curmudgeon Dear Ski Curmudgeon, I have always downhill skied, and I recently took up Nordic skiing. I feel confident on the flats and totally crush it on the uphills, but how in the world is someone supposed to control these skinny sticks while going downhill and on downhill corners? Tentative Dear Tentative, Skiing down steep hills and cornering can be a daunting and somewhat terrifying experience on Nordic skis. Lucky for you, going downhill on Nordic skis is similar to descending on alpine skis. The principles are the same except for the facts that your skis are very thin, you don’t have edges, and they weigh a fraction of alpine skis. If worse comes to worse you can always use your butt as a brake. SC *More information on this subject can be found in the December 2017 and January 2018 SNC Newsletter Archives (“What Goes up Must Come Down”). sandpointnordic.com Newsletter - February 2019 Meet Carrie Nylund By Bill Tregoning Schweitzer Nordic Trails Lead Groomer While flailing my way to Cloud Walker last week, I stopped to enjoy the surrounding beauty that Schweitzer views have to offer. I was further amazed at the snow crystals sparkling under the blue sky and bright sun on the freshly groomed trail. After continuing my trek, I began to wonder, “who grooms out here, when do they do it, and how long does it take?” At the speed I ski I’ve got plenty of time to think. I called Carrie to get the answers. Carrie Nylund is our lead groomer and her backup is Croix Dussalt.Carrie started working for Schweitzer in 1984 and after 16 years took a hiatus. She came back to Schweitzer in 2011 and started grooming as a relief groomer. She learned the art of grooming from someone who had previously groomed at both Royal Gorge and Sun Valley. Carrie is an avid snowshoer and sometimes gets out on a pair of HOK skis. Her workday begins at midnight and ends between 8:00 and 9:00 AM. During the week, half her time is spent Nordic grooming and the other half grooming access trails, and the village. Since the majority of Nordic trails are groomed for the weekend they get all her attention early Saturday and Sunday morning. Coyote Canyon here we come. She has some things to consider before heading out in the Prinoth BR350, made by Bombardier. A route must be planned to eliminate backtracking over previously completed trails to get to another needing work. In addition, if there is snow in the forecast, knowing when it will begin or stop can have a bearing on what is groomed first, either the village or Nordic trails. The consistency of the snow is also a factor. Fresh snow can be groomed and tracks set while driving at a faster speed, upwards of 5-8 miles per hour! Firm, frozen snow requires driving at slower speeds to give the tillers more time to chew up the snow before the track setters can do their work. During her shift she typically drives 38-40 miles and the machine will consume 40-55 gallons of diesel. I could hear the frustration in Carrie’s voice when I asked her about the center groove often left in the snow when the temperatures get warmer. This is officially called the “center mark drag”. Apparently, the tillers move snow from the outside of the trail to the inside as they work. There is also a u-joint in the center of the machine that allow the tillers to articulate. This u-joint prevents snow from entering about an 8” area. The movement of the u-joint can create heat melting the snow which freezes in that area. That ice can drag in the snow. Conditions have to be just right for this to occur. It also happens on the Alpine hill but is easily corrected by overlapping the groove on your next pass. This cure isn’t available for Nordic grooming as the Prinoth BR350 is as wide as the trail. When I asked her what she liked the most about the job she said that she loved being in the woods at night.