KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | A look into the wax bunker at U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships

A look into the wax bunker at U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships

by Christine Kim
Monday, January 04, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- When it comes to competitive skiing, it takes more than training and the right pair of skis. At this week's U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships, coaches are spending hours of their day testing and layering on a critical last element and layers of hard work to create the perfect combination of wax.

"At the level of many of the racers here it is very, very critical," said Patrick McGowd, the Wax Bunker Chief.

"You'll see if you go out there and watch a downhill and when some racers come down the hill you'll see one's probably gliding a little faster than the other one and that could very well be the function of the wax," McGowd explained.

It's something that Alaska Pacific University's wax tech Casey Fagerquist knows very well.

The team has 16 athletes, 350 pairs of skis and 36 test skis.

"Between our first race and our last race at the end of nationals we're going to have about 3,000 pairs of skis that we've done," Fagerquist said.

The skis have on three types of wax: two base layers and a top coat.

"We call it a top coat, usually for races we do a couple of base layers depending on what the conditions are, and then we cover everything with a pure fluoro top coat. We put the top coat on and burn it in with an iron," Fagerquist explains.

The blocks or cylinders of wax can add up to a hefty price.

"It's over a hundred bucks for this," Fagerquist said, holding up a canister about the size of an aspirin bottle.

"If you're lucky you get about 10 pairs of skis out of it. So, it goes quick," he said.

Before the wax is coated onto the race skis, coaches use test skis out on the course.

"When they have half a dozen runs for each wax combination and look at that data and see which one scores the best then they'll combine that with feel," McGowd said.

That's when they'll determine the best skis for their racer.

"Right now we're doing our last layer. This is what our racers will be racing on for the day," Fagerquist explained.

And the masks? They are why you won't see any of the athletes linger long in the waxing bunk.

"The coaches are doing the waxing. This is a fairly dangerous environment for racers because you've seen all the irons around here so they're ironing and the smoke's coming up and they're brushing so you want the racers to stay out of here so they're not breathing the stuff," McGowd said.

As Fagerquist and his team's coaches scrape through 30 pairs an hour, it's just another layer that helps athletes glide through the snow to the finish line.

Contact Christine Kim at ckim@ktuu.com