wax on/wax off

Maple Highlands Trail Taylor Wells Bridge

I've had a few ski sessions this week. On Sunday, I followed Larry and Daryl around at Girdled Road Reservation. Then yesterday and today, I got out on Maple Highlands trail, which has a perfect surface right now.

Sunday was pretty tough on me. I haven't been out on skis since the big melt on January 14 and I haven't waxed my skis since the beginning of January, so the base was bone dry. I'm purposely lax about ski techie stuff; I need a break from that mentality during the winter. I had to work pretty hard to stay in sight of those guys. That put a big load on my shoulders. After 90 minutes, I could barely lift my arms.

Today, I put a new coat of wax on the skis. It's an easy, although a little messy, job. In cycling maintenance terms, waxing the skis is somewhere between pumping up a tire and changing a flat tube.

It's ridiculous how much of a difference it makes. I was going about twice as fast for the same effort, so for the rest of the season, I'll try to keep a fresh coat of wax on the skis.