YEAH- Crystal Mountain is Soft again!

09 Jan 2014 6:21 PM | Deleted user
So- you have those Race Skis RAZOR sharp now to deal with the ice, right? So now what do you do: ski on them, dull them, re-bevel or what?! My suggestion is a little bit of all three.

BIG Quiver guys:
You already have Soft and Hard Slalom and GS skis right? Well, if you do, they should be in varying states of tune: High side bevel angles and SHARP for ice, lower side bevel angles smooth (but not too sharp) edges for softer conditions. Why? Because Over Sharp edges are SLOWER and MORE DIFFICULT to ski on in soft conditions. It is almost always true that bases are faster than edges. Going straight is faster than turning. And any un-needed sharpness will tend to slow the ski down because the ski will hook up more than is ideal for speed. Also, a bit more base bevel tends to let a ski "float" a little bit more on soft snow and not hook up so fast- which makes the ski more forgiving and faster.

Racer/Trainer guys:
Time to break in the racers a little bit. The kids need to know how to ski them, and you can make any fine adjustments to the tune and/or setup once you've used them a little. Whatever ski you use, gummi stone the edges enough that the sharpness burr is about half gone. Whenever possible at this time of the year, make your final tuning and waxing decisions AS LATE AS POSSIBLE. That way, you can adjust as conditions change. If your skis are sharp from last weekend, keep them sharp in the morning, let the kids try them, then reduce sharpness and smooth/repair the edges at lunch. In this fashion, the racers will get to try the skis in a variety of tunes.

1 Ski Per Discipline Guys
:
You should smooth the edge, but remove the minimum material possible. The skis need to be preserved so that you can sharpen again later. Several times.

Waxing:
New snow is more abrasive than old snow, so you should wax slightly colder than he thermometer would otherwise indicate.

If you want more ideas, drop me a note!
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