2009 US Nationals, Anchorage, AK & Swix LF3 Cold Powder

2009 US Nationals proved to be some of the coldest racing we have experienced in a long time. The race organizers did a great job, but the weather just did not cooperate. The result was two of four events were canceled due to cold temperatures.

Despite the cold conditions, Swix Sport USA had outstanding success on the waxing front. With the week of racing said and done, more than 55 viles of Swix LF3 Cold powder were sold in the Anchorage area! The optimum wax combination for these cold temps with snow close to -22C the entire week was using several layers of Swix CH4 to harden the bases, Swix LF4 as a race base wax, and Swix LF3 Cold Powder as the topcoat overlay. “It amazed me how many coaches and wax techs came by the Swix Racing Service wax cabin asking for LF3,” reports Swix Sport USA. “Fortunately AMH stocked up well for the week and even shipped in an extra 30 viles to keep coaches supplied. I was not surprised that LF3 ran so well. It is a very hard wax with good flouro content which aids in its ability to bond to an LF base wax which provides durability. We continued to test throughout the week and our results were consistent. We posted these and we knew we had a good combination early on as glide was exceptionally free and durability remained as we tested after skiing five and ten kilometers on the test skis,” reports Swix Racing Service which was at the races for the week providing Racing Service to all competitors and coaches.

Toward the end of the week, since we really did not receive any new snow, the snow crystals became more and more transformed and dirt was brought to the surface. The snow, while still very cold, behaved a bit warmer. With these conditions, as expected, the new HF4 Black Wolf began to run extremely well. This was covered by the FC7 Cera F powder and was the recommended race wax combination for the Sprints.

For kick wax Swix recommended using V05 Polar most of the week. V20 with a thin layer of V05 on top also worked well. For some of us it has been a long time since we used such cold kick waxes! Once again, supplies ran low as demand increased during the week as the word spread about Swix cold wax success.