The transition from Winter to Spring appears to take as long as you want it to around here. I’ve been on a few great mountain bike rides already this Spring -the trails in Squamish are dry and in great shape, and the temps have been comfortable. But there is plenty of skiing still to be had as well. The Callaghan Valley still has 154cm of snow on the ground and the crew up there is keeping things in great shape. This week the US Biathlon Team and the Norwegian XC Team are in town skiing at the venue. Coming up we’ve got USST and Canadian XC teams. The report is that they’ll continue to groom through May 25th. [Read more →]

Race season is over, and as of yesterday there was a 200cm snowpack on the ground at the Environment Canada automated weather station at the Callaghan Valley. The groomers only have contracts through the next two weeks, but there is quite a line-up of camps scheduled right into May, so we’re looking at a long Spring of great skiing. The photo to the left was taken April 1. That’s Amy, Chris Werrell, and Ron Carmichael (one of the groomers for the venue). Nice day, with heli skiers working the slopes visible in the distance. The day before, Chris and Amy went mountain biking in Squamish, while I skied up to the Callaghan Country Lodge with Amanda Ammar. Callaghan Country Lodge is situated further up the Callaghan Valley - about 12K and 500 meters above the venue. It was sunny in Squamish the day we skied up there, and we skied through a localized storm that dropped 15cm of new snow on top of a 3.75 meter snowpack. It’s a lot for an Eastern boy like myself to absorb.

The 200cm we’ve got on the ground at the venue right now is within a few cm of last year’s snowpack at this time. In general it hasn’t been as snowy a season as last year. It started out very well, but then the weather got warm a nice in February and we dropped from about 2.5 meters down to about 1.6 meters. However, March has seen a very active weather pattern culminated in a week of craziness at Canadian Nationals. That’s brought us back up to the 2 meter mark, and the conditions have stabilized recently with cold nights allowing things to set-up very well.

The season has given me a really new set of experiences. I’ve had the opportunity to do more intensive testing than I’ve ever done before, and it looks as though that opportunity will continue for quite a while this Spring. The Callaghan Valley has stretched my understanding of the snow/ski interface quite a long way, and I’ve learned a huge amount. It’s a little scary how much there is left to learn about this place, and how little time there is until the Olympics. What seems clear to me after this year, and in examining historical records, is that there is very little grounds for predicting what conditions might be like in February of 2010. It could be literally anything. Rain, snow, ice, slush, powder. It’s all in play. It’s all in play on the same day. In fact, it’s all in play on the same day, on different parts of the course, at the same time. Canadian Nationals was a challenge, but it wasn’t the most difficult conditions we saw this year.

OK - it’s been a while since I posted anything here. Believe it or not, I know that. A whole bunch of people seem to think that I need to be told. What can I say - I’ve been busy. Mostly skiing, but I try to call it “work”. I’ve run a ton of tests up at the venue, and have learned a great deal. Mostly, that it keeps changing. But this year is all about “big picture” stuff in any case. Next season we can start to narrow the focus a bit.

Canadian Nationals starts Sunday, and things will be quite hectic here for a while. I’ll probably shoot for a run-down post on the races once it’s all said and done. I’ll be working with the US Ski Team, and with INDi2010. In general I’ll be at the venue in the mornings and in the shop in the afternoons. Cell phone is the best bet. 802-345-5498. Don’t call just to chat. Please.

I will be grinding skis this week, and will be willing to get things into batches quickly. I already know of a handful of folks who are planning to leave race skis after the races for pre-season grinding for next year. Good idea!

I don’t think I’ve passed along anything useful recently, unless you’re looking to water-harden a bit of steel. More of the same today, but with pictures (click on the thumbnails for bigger versions). Weekends recently have been pretty low-key. Gunnar hasn’t exactly latched onto skiing with any vigor, but he enjoys it for an hour or two on a nice day. And we’ve had some really nice days.

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Somehow I managed to forget that I had my burnisher in my carry-on bag when Larry and I flew back to Vancouver from Calgary after the World Cups. The burnisher is a critical part of the sharpening process for my metal scrapers, and the metal scrapers are a critical part of the flattening process for ski grinding. Without that little bit of hardened polished steel I’m pretty much out of luck. Needless to say airport security didn’t like the look of the thing and my only option was to mail it to myself.  Nobody to blame but me - speaking of tools. If it had already arrived I wouldn’t be writing this post, but it hasn’t [Read more →]

From a service perspective the Canmore races wrapped up very well. Everybody was happy with skis in the 15K, and the skis were visibly fast in the skate sprint heats. We had a brief period of uncertainty toward the end of the day Friday. We had wrapped up the distance skate day, we’d put base layers on all the race skis for Saturday’s sprint, and we’d put together our powder test for the morning. Then Chris Grover came back from the coaches meeting with a revised forecast suggesting temps moderating and not hitting the lows in the negative teens celsius that we’d been seeing. We all looked over at the thermometer after hearing this and saw -3. Previous days at that time it had been -7 or -8. [Read more →]

I’m back in Squamish, and am not planning to take any more trips for quite a while. I’ll be grinding small batches regularly, and doing a lot of testing. Always plan to call before dropping by!

We’re half-way through the racing at the Canmore World Cups, and things have gone well enough. No disasters, but also no really notable successes so far, at least with respect to ski service. We’ve been putting people in the races, which is our number one job. We’re still looking for advantages. [Read more →]

I’m in Canmore for World Cups through the 27th…

Just got the following message from Chris Klebl who is currently in Germany racing the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) World Cup:
> From: Chris Klebl [mailto:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:19 AM
> To: Zach Caldwell
> Subject: 10k race Germany
>
>
> 1st place.
> Large field
> Tight results
> 902, Q3, star F1 on top
> Nasty, dirty, corn slop
> More rain on the way
> Finish lactate 14.2
> 4 laps
> HR increasing 170’s first 3 laps, solid 180’s last lap. Won race in last
> lap, skied according to plan.
>
> Thanks for all your help
> C
Congratulations Chris, and many thanks right back at you. That’s the first World Cup victory for one of our grinds!