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 temps would indicate.
Amy’s ran a speed-trap test in order to get some hard data, and as always she paid attention to the ski feel as well. The test was structured to review examine the race paraffin layers, but also underlayers or hardening treatments. She ran a range of paraffins on top of Vauhti LF Base, which is very neutral mid-range basewax. In that test she had the following results:
1 HF Violet
2 LF Green
3 HF Blue
4 HF Pink
5 HF Blue/Yellow
She also ran a number of additional skis with HF Blue paraffin over different underlayers. This test yielded the following:
1 10F Hardener / HF Blue
2 LF Base / HF Blue
3 LF Green / HF Blue
4 LF Graphite / HF Blue
The short story is that the 10F hardening powder (a synthetic paraffin used for hardening, but targeting mild temps around and near freezing) was clearly the best base for HF Blue. In fact, that pair won the test outright, with HF Violet in second. The ski with 10F under the blue also felt fast under foot. Good indications all around.
Based on today’s test we would recommend 10F under HF Violet. Simple.
Discussion…
We have often mentioned that LF Green does surprisingly well in new snow at warm temps. It’s performance in this test isn’t a shock, but it’s worth noting that Amy really didn’t like the feeling of the skis with LF Green. It’s not all that uncommon for ski feel to be different from the speed trap – this is a case where the running speed might be good, but the bulk properties of the paraffin aren’t helping the release or acceleration. For skate races you ignore ski feel at your peril – we’re not recommending LF Green!
Why is LF Green sandwiched between HF Violet and HF Blue in the speed trap? Well, it’s worth noting that all three tested closely, with confidence in the difference between them only running at about 30-40%. It’s also worth noting that LF Green is not you average green paraffin – it has kind of astonishing elasticity for a hard paraffin. So – we take it as it comes and report the results. My guess is that HF Blue would make better race skis than LF Green.
It’s interesting that HF Pink was quite far down the list, with as much warmth and moisture as people were reporting. Clearly the snow is still acting new and crystalline. If temps stay high and grooming and traffic break through the initial hard glaze, then HF Pink might come into its own.
HF Violet has impressed us in older snow more often than newer snow. The fact that today’s tracks were packing in pretty hard may be significant and worth keeping an eye on. If the snow starts packing less then it may fall out of range.
HF Blue/Yellow mix has often been good for us in mixed crystals and greasy snow – it’s enough of a standard to be worth testing frequently. However, it’s clearly not getting it done now in West Yellowstone. When you mix paraffins you end up with different carbon chain lengths – it’s not the same thing as an average of the two waxes. Generally the mixed paraffins are better in older snow, though that is surely not a hard and fast rule. In any case, it’s no shock that the Blue/Yellow mix isn’t good in this case, and I would be inclined to think critically about other mixes based on this data point.
OK – about these underlayers…
It’s notable that LF Graphite appeared to be a liability. I will say that Vauhti LF Graphite is not among the most tolerant of graphites, and we don’t find ourselves using it or recommending it often. We don’t sell a ton of it because I believe there are better products on the market. But when it tests as badly as it did today, I would look skeptical at ANY untested recommendation of graphite. We tend not to recommend graphite underlayers unless you have extensive local knowledge, or test results to back it up.
LF Green fared far better as a glide wax than as a base layer. But did it really? It didn’t feel good in either case. And it was clearly slower than the LF Base.
Speaking of which, LF Base is a product we’ve been using in our service work more and more frequently because it has a nice neutral quality, feeds the base well, and leaves a shiny surface which make you think of fast skis. Have I mentioned lately that psychology is important? It irons at 130 degrees F and is a nice way to ensure that there is good saturation in the base without softening it too much. Anyway, it was a good base for race layers today, apparently, by comparison with LF green and LF graphite.
10F Hardener. This is clearly the most notable data point in the test. 10F as an underlayer carried the HF Blue from middle of the pack to the test winner’s position. During the testing the performance of 10F and LF base skis diverged – in the first run the 10F was 0.025 seconds faster, in the second it was 0.068, then 0.167, and finally 0.156. In an 8 second test that tops out at a 2% difference. We can usually reliably detect something on the order of a 0.3% difference by feeling. That’s a big difference. I wish I knew this wax better, or had a more satisfactory explanation for why it made such a big difference. We’ve run it as a final layer more than as a base layer – in fact this is the first time we’ve run it as a base layer. We’ll keep trying it, and will keep you posted.
OK – powder and top coat test tomorrow. More information to come!