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.

Well, no big deal. Just test everything again - right? We made up five new pairs of paraffin test skis, including some warmer waxes, and adjusted a couple of the pure fluoro skis. We went to bed that night expecting a 4AM call from Larry if he got up to temps warm enough that he felt the multiple layers of CH4 in the race skis had to be significantly softened. Apparently Larry was satisfied that the massive and very cold snowpack would continue to demand some well hardened bases, because it was business as usual in the morning. Waiting in line for the breakfast doors to open at 6:30, and off to the venue as soon as we’d eaten.

I got designated test pilot for the pre-dawn session (OK, so dawn was running pretty late - like around 8 AM) because my Star chronotest speed trap was working reliably. When it’s too dark to read the numbers on the thing, it’s important that the memory works. The USST tester (one of those orange italian jobs - I’ve got one as well) was held together with duct tape, and would only produce reliable results for Peter. Even he had given up the day before, and just asked me to run his test.

Anyway, first order of business was paraffins. It was apparent as soon as I started skiing that the snow felt different from any previous day. It was still crunchy and cold, but had a silkiness to the texture that I hadn’t felt before about 11AM on any previous day. I was testing blind, and didn’t run averages on the data before sending the raw numbers into the wax cabin with Ben Grassechi - my roomate and pre-dawn testing partner. But I felt a clear preference, and I was pretty sure I knew what it was because it just felt right. Don’t ask me to describe the feeling of Ski*Go HF ultima in the right conditions - I can’t. But that was my guess, and that’s what it was.

After paraffin I moved on to testing powders. Another six pairs of test skis to run through the trap, and another set of clear preferences. This time I didn’t hazard a guess at what the wax was, but I did pick the right skis. And finally, speed trap and feel testing for structure modification. Again, a clear pick. It all seemed too easy.

Most of the race skis had been rewaxed with Ultima by the time I got back to the cabin, and we started setting up fluoro-block and fluoro liquid tests almost immediately. These were to be tested by feel for the most part, and a crew of similarly sized (larger than 64kg) guys went out to test on the race course.

After sprint qualifying we started over again. Nathan Schultz and I tested paraffins together - this time for feel on the course. Others retested powders and top coats. Adjustments were made, skis were rewaxed (from the ground up) and more tests were sent out. It was clear that the World Cup guys simply expected to test everything they could until they simply ran out of time and had to make a call. There was a mad rush to get skis out the door - Ultima and HF yellow mixed with blackfox powder and FC8 liquid. Or was it C105 powder and FC8 liquid? Or HP05 powder and C105 liquid? I don’t really remember, but it all happened fast and then it was over. Time for the races - so I headed to the best place on the entire course to watch: the athlete’s lounge where they had a TV set-up showing the live feed. When the skiers got to the last corner I could turn around and look out the window. Then back to the TV for the finish. Best seat in the house.

The morning after the sprint Larry Poromaa and I flew back to Vancouver for several days of checking out the Callaghan Valley and working on the grinder. Unfortunately for Larry the weather was uncharacteristically cold - pretty similar, in fact, to what we’d seen in Canmore. The good news is that a bunch of the other service teams had taken advantage of the opportunity to come check out the venue at the same time. They saw enough to realize that the snow is different, but I’ll be surprised if temps that cold are a common occurance at  the Olympics.

It was great to have several days with Larry to do nothing but plan for 2010 and compare notes on grinds and waxes. I think it gave us both a lot of perspective and confidence on the program. I’m pretty sure that no other nation has set-up the opportunity to get as much testing done in the next couple of years. It’s going to be a good project.