The Craftsbury Outdoor Center is about to host a remarkable series of races over the next two weekends, including Masters Nationals, The Craftsbury Marathon, two Super Tour weekends, Dartmouth Carnival, and an Eastern Cup weekend. We’ll be floating around the place in one capacity or another for most of the racing. Aside from doing race […]

Amy and Erik Mundahl have set up shop and started testing out in Houghton for US nationals. In this first round of testing they’re just trying to get the lay of the land, and get a handle on some of the basics. There will be more testing tomorrow, and then weather turning colder for the […]

Today was the first NENSA Eastern Cup of the season, and it’s impossible to imagine a better kick-off. The crew at Rikert did a phenomenal job putting the course into shape. It’s a really challenging and fun five K loop supported by really good snowmaking capacity, and what looked like a healthy amount of shoveling. […]

You can always learn new things when you put the time and effort into ski testing and wax testing. This week in West Yellowstone was a good case in point. This week we only focused on skate skis because the races in West Yellowstone were skate races. Even given relatively similar conditions for the few […]

Amy has submitted today’s test results from West Yellowstone, where she’s been testing powders and topcoats. She didn’t test a huge number of products, instead trying to nail down some application variables. In the past we’ve seen top-coats make a huge difference out there, and Amy wanted to get an idea of what role application […]

Amy arrived in West Yellowstone yesterday, and headed out on the trails to test Vauhti paraffins today. They’ve been in an active weather system out there with quite warm air, but lots of new snow. The snow has been packing in to a fairly hard glaze recently, and isn’t acting as wet as the above-freezing […]

Nov 8 Grind & Wax Test Fairbanks AK If you want good help, you need to find a good helper. If you want good wax testing help, you need to find a helper who is about 80% wax nerd, and about 30% just plain crazy. Yes, I know that adds up to 110%, but tired […]

Introducing the Star Digital Pro 190C Iron Davide Mosele, the son of the founder of the Star wax company, and the head engineer and product developer, has a degree in electrical engineering. When the guy who designs the wax also designs the iron you use to apply the wax, you’ve got a good idea that […]

Every year there are new waxes that hit the market, and it can be difficult to figure out what’s hype, and what’s really a step forward in performance. We don’t have any answers about what new stuff might be more hype than substance; in general we like to wait for new products to prove themselves […]

Erik Mundahl made our first test of the season in AK yesterday, and sent us this report: Girdwood Nordic Ski Club Trails: Girdwood, Alaska – No testing was planned for the weekend given the generally poor early season snow conditions in Alaska. Snow in Anchorage is extremely thin, bordering on dangerous to attempt to ski. […]