The Elves find it impossible to resist the tub of ski ties.

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This is my first-ever trip to Canmore, but after the trip to Europe it felt like coming home. When we woke up this morning it was -29C. Canmore got almost a foot of snow a couple of days ago, but it was pretty well mixed with the manmade base by this morning. And it was dry - Canadian Rockies dry. None of this crazy wet-grinds-running-well-in-the-cold-crap. When I tested grinds mid-afternoon ZR1 and C40 were both running well. C44 was a bit off the mark, and Z40 was a little further back. And TF02 was bad - quite bad. Actually, it ran OK on a flat ski, but as soon as the ski rolled onto an edge it stopped short. Tomorrow is a skate sprint. It’s quite cold again tonight. Based on the way things looked today it wouldn’t surprise me to be on something hard and unfluorinated for qualifying in the morning. But we’ve got some good top-coats in the mix and we’ll see what happens for the heats in the afternoon…

Well, I just couldn’t sit still. My shop is still a construction zone, and the snow up at the Callaghan took a beating in recent rain storms. So Gunnar and I will catch a flight to Calgary this afternoon to meet Amy and the CVTC crew for this weekend’s Nor Am competitions in Canmore. I’ll be working with the USST service staff again in Canmore in January, and I’ve never even been there. So I’m calling this a work trip - scouting the venue, if you will. Heck - I needed some excuse. Actually, it was just going to too tough sitting still this weekend with racing going on all over the place. And the paper work just wasn’t calling to me loudly enough to keep me here.

Gunnar and I will drive back with Amy on Monday. Back at work Tuesday. On the phone and e-mail though the weekend.

The World Cup trip wrapped up very well from my point of view. Last weekend was a good one for the USST. Newell’s fourth place in the sprint and Kris’s 5th in the 15K classic were great to see. I’ve been frustrated often enough just hearing the reports back here on how things are going. Kris has always been able to tell me what he’s skiing on, and sometimes he’s even been able to mention some waxes that were in play. But often I’ve just been confused and out of the loop. Confused because the limited information that I’ve got doesn’t make sense, and out of the loop because I’m here, not there. This trip tied a lot of stuff together for me, and also provided a really good framework for working with the USST World Cup service staff. [Read more →]

I returned from Finland yesterday, and am back in BC. For the next week I’ll be getting caught up on desk work and phone calls, and hopefully getting on snow. My shop is getting finished up - new sheetrock on the ceiling, lights, a bathroom, etc. They did most of the work while I was gone, but have a little finishing up to do. I’ll be grinding skis again next week.

The learning curve is steep over here, and I’m starting to expect to be surprised. [Read more →]

The snow here is very different from the snow at home. It’s white. It’s cold. It squeaks under foot. But it acts a lot wetter than it looks. It snowed about 10cm the night before last, so there’s new snow mixed into the manmade stuff, and the temps today were pretty chilly - in the low 20s, I’d guess. Kris’s best pair of skis was his best pair of slush skis, and none of his “cold” skis worked well at all. However, the hardest paraffins in the test were running the best. It’s clear out right now, and quite chilly, but tomorrow’s forecast calls for -4C and the possibility of snow. The men’s race starts at 12:30, but we’ll be out there surveying the situation at 7.

My test skis just arrived this evening, so I haven’t had a chance to work those up and get them on snow. But I’ll have a chance to learn something Sunday and Monday, before an Early Tuesday AM departure for Kuusamo.

I’m out of the shop attending the Beitostolen and Kuusamo World Cups with the USST. I will be checking e-mail but will not be available by phone until I return to Squamish on December 4th.

My computer clock says 1:08 AM. According to my calculations that means it’s 6:08 AM here in London, where I’ve just arrived in transit to Oslo - departing Heathrow in about at hour. Theoretically there will be somebody to meet me in Oslo to drive me to Beitostolen. I should be there mid-afternoon. Perhaps even in time for a quick ski.

I slept pretty well on the flight here, and dreamed of structures. This often happens this time of year. In the past couple of weeks I’ve sent a whole bunch of skis off to various places - Michigan, Yellowstone, Silver Star, Canmore, Beitostolen, and others. Some of these skis have new structures, and reports have just started to trickle in. In the next few days I’ll hear a whole lot more.

Usually, at this time of the season, I’m chained to the grinder and don’t have much opportunity to be part of the testing corps. This time around I’ve got a bag full of test skis and I’m headed to the early World Cups. This is going to be different for me, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I’ve got a new laptop up and running (thanks to my brother Sam), so I should be able to keep things updated here.

I’m back East now - currently visiting my good friends at Fischer US. Actually, Fischer and Swix, since Andy Canniff (who’s putting me up for the night) just moved from Fischer to Swix. On Wednesday I fly over to Norway for the Beitostolen World Cups where I’ll be working with the USST service staff. From there I’ll accompany the team to Kuusamo for the second World Cup weekend, and then fly back to Vancouver on December 3rd. I’ll be difficult to reach while I’m gone, and I won’t be grinding any skis until I return!

Last week was nuts. I ground over 200 pairs, almost entirely by myself. I had help from Chris Werrell before he headed off to Silver Star and from Amy when she got back. In between I had a huge amount of help from Gunnar who spent a couple of very long days in the shop. Once or twice he’s said that he wants to work on skis when he gets a job. Now he wants to be a baker in a pizza store. The only place we went aside from the shop was the pizza store, where we got to watch the guys toss the pizza dough. That looked a lot more fun than working on skis. [Read more →]

I just got home from a 15 hour day in the shop. A little better than 100 pairs finished in the last few days, and another 100+ to go in the next few days. Then I fly back East to pick skis, and continue on to Norway and Finland for World Cups. I’ll be ready for a bit of sanity when I get back here on Dec 3rd.

Bed Time.