Training on snow

Well two days training now done.  The ankle is holding up OK - just have to be a bit careful on herringbone up and ploughing down until the lateral strength returns.

Each year I look at one component in a bit more detail. Last year it was nutrition. This year, prompted by someone asking me about skis, I decided to look into skis a bit more. Until now, I have basically told people what I am using them for and gone with the recommendation. But it occurred to me that when I say I am not a very good skier, but have skied the "Border to Border Ski", then perhaps they are overestimating how good I am.

I have four pairs of skis - two waxless and two waxed. Generally I use waxless in the Alps and waxed in Scandinavia, although I did buy one pair of these in Sweden. There is no doubt that traditional waxed skis prepared by someone who knows what they are doing, and worn by someone who really knows how to ski, will give the ultimate in performance. Until recently, waxless skis did not perform too well in cold conditions, and do not glide well - just listen to the noise they make as you go downhill in the tracks on waxless skis. In my own tests, I have generally found that the waxless ones take about 15% more effort, although they do gain a bit on the kick at the end of a long day compared to waxed skis when the kick wax is wearing off.

So this year, I am trying to optimise my skis. Waxless skis are a bit of a misnomer - if you are doing any significant skiing, you will still want to wax the glide zones with a glide wax. I took a long hard look at my waxless skis and discovered that they are wider than my waxed skis, and that my waxed skis are racing skis. Leaving aside the difference in type, this extra width results in better lateral stability. I also suspect that they "wander" less in the tracks because they are closer to the size of the track. My waxless skis are also "waisted" i.e. they are slightly wider in the front and rear glide zones than in the kick zone in the middle - the technical term is "sidecut" - so the Fischer racing skis are 41-44-44 and the waxless are 48-44-46 (Salomon are 41-44-43-44 and  51-48-46-49); this "waist" is meant to make them easier to turn.

Armed with a bit more understanding of skis, I found myself a ski technician who understood what I was looking for, and the fact that most of the RR event is on softer snow trails set by a snowmobile. We had more or less settled on a performance touring ski - around 48 at the widest, not quite as stiff as a racing ski, when he showed me the latest in waxless ski technology that he had been trying out himself. Last year, on some days, people had generally done well with the latest "zero skis" - a waxless ski designed for conditions around 0C +- a couple of degrees. Waxless technology has been advancing  - there are removable "skins" that you can fit to waxed skis for some conditions. In the hands of an expert skier they are no doubt very good, but I had doubts whether they would stand the abuse of a non-expert skier like myself.

So enter the Atomic redster skintec skis. These have a removable skin panel in the kick zone, and come with two sets - one for warmer temperatures and one for colder temperatures. A little key and a few seconds is all it takes to change them over. Other than that, their geometry is basically that of the racing skis, but I was told they would have better lateral stability. The only drawback is the glide performance would not be quite as good as waxed skis.

So I bought them and took them out for a spin. What a revelation! Kick performance is as good as well waxed skis with the right kick wax on. The kick performance did not alter significantly as I moved from a well machine groomed track into tracks with snow blown into them or onto softer snow in places. Only once in the first few hundred metres did I feel a "snatch" - just as though a ski had suddenly stuck. This happens (at least to me) with waxed skis, but I know that it caught a very experienced friend of mine out on a "zero" ski last year resulting in a broken collar bone. Subsequently I had no more "snatches" - it may just have been as they were acclimatising to the temperature. Skiing a trail I had skied only a few hours earlier, I could not detect much loss of glide performance. In any case, because of my weight, if I am following someone in a track, I often have to shed speed in order to stop running into them.

So on first testing, I may have found the closest I can to the universal perfect ski for me and what I do. There will always be conditions where my other skis will be better, and I will certainly be taking waxed skis to the RR. But there are quite a few sections and conditions where I will be giving these new skis a thorough test.

Both pairs of boots I have with me have the stitching going in the same place on the left foot. So I have some nice new boots - Alfa - a Norwegian specialist company that makes hiking, skiing and expedition boots. Of particular note to anyone who skied the RR in 2014 they remain dry whilst skiing on ice with water on top of it.

One of the good things about a training week is that you can test things out, find out the capabilities and limitations of equipment, break new boots in etc. I also have to remind myself that most of the places I train (usually Norway) the average speed I do is typically less than I will manage on the RR, and that I should not look at the times too critically. 

I now have had another day on these skis in variable snow conditions - wind blown snow into the tracks and then later a warm wet snow falling such that it was hard to see where you are going. I have also had chance to read up on the technology a bit more - the narrower module is for better glide and the wider module for better kick. Testing yesterday on a variety of trails in Beitostolen showed me that compared to waxed skis, with the narrower kick module, there was little loss in glide. But the kick uphill was superb. I have a simple, but crude test - when going uphill in prepared trails, if I can stay in the tracks until they end, then the grip is good. My technique is not so great, so that I would frequently step out earlier, and with non-optimal waxing, on occasions much earlier. Looking at everyone else's tracks I am frequently not alone. Yesterday, there were not even many occasions when I had to resort to herringbone.

I can see why some top skiers are starting to use them for training. They take out a lot of the variability in performance due to waxing, enabling you to see how your own performance compares.

I have also found a suitable backpack for skiing - nice and light and narrow, designed to keep airflow across your back. The downside is that because it is slightly bigger than my belt pack, one is tempted to carry more, so self-discipline is more important - do I really need to carry this 60-90km each day in my pack "just in case"!