Birkie Thoughts for Vauhti Wax


Forecast for the Birkie: Low in the mid teens with high temps climbing to the upper twenties or near freezing. There is snow likely on Thursday into Friday, so we’re expecting new snow conditions.

Our Vauhti wax recommendation:

Paraffin: Start with a Vauhti LF green layer followed by Vauhti HF blue

Powder: HFC15

Topcoat: HFC15 liquid

 

Discussion:
Paraffin – The LF Green is a really broad range hard paraffin with great base properties for the HF Blue top layer. We like this as a base hardening step to ensure durability and speed, especially considering that Birkie morning turns out colder than the forecast more often than not.
HF Blue is a fairly cold call for paraffin based on the forecast, but we’d prefer to err on the cold side. Also, the HF Blue has performed extremely well for us in temps well up into the 20s, and is an excellent base for the hfC15 topcoat.
Why no black underlayer? In new snow conditions graphite and moly underlayers can be a liability. While this is not always the case, we have seen those black underlayers slowing down waxes in our Birkie testing. Last year we did not find good performance from black underlayers, and the race winning wax jobs did not include them. While they may well be a good thing to have this time around, our experience suggests that using them without positive test results is a bad idea when the forecast includes new snow.

Powder: hfC 15 has been reformulated this year and is really good in new snow. Last year’s version was excellent in our Birkie testing, and we have every reason to like the new hfC15 better.

Topcoat: Normally we don’t recommend a topcoat unless it tests really well at the venue. The hfC15 liquid has been really excellent in new snow, which is uncommon for a liquid. It’s a new product this season, but we’ve used it in races both domestically and internationally, and have quickly developed a lot of confidence in its performance in this range of conditions.