Suuuuuuper slow, wet, spring snow. How to deal?

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April 20, 2012 at 7:09 pm #655315
philip.ak
Participant
Zardoz does in fact help in wet snow sometimes, but I think the only thing to do with our current snowpack is wait until it corns up a little and some of the water held by capillary action gets a chance to drain out. It fell as super-saturated flakes mixed with rain and held the water like a sponge. Once the grain structure changes some of the water will evaporate out, or percolate down. It’s sunny today so we will go up and find out. 🙂
April 20, 2012 at 8:07 pm #655316
b0ardski
Participant
the Idea here is to break the capillary action/skin tension of the water in the snow flakes, graphite is an extremely hydrophobic material so it counters the skin tension. It’s a great lubricant that also doesn’t stick to much of anything, i.e. dirt, pollen, even pine tar; that’s why zardoz or any thing else that needs to be applied every run :scratch: will never come close to performing like graphite, especially in dirty spring snow.
April 20, 2012 at 8:54 pm #655317
Scooby2
Participant
+1 on don’t mess with your base, it isn’t going to help much. if it isnt 50 degrees out, and the skies are clear, sometimes there is a little window about 10-30 minutes after a goo slope (wet fairly recent fresh snow-not old settled firn) has gotten in the shade when a little easily breakable zipper crust refreezes on the surface. before it gets too frozen and annoying, it is really fast and keeps a fast barrier between your base and the wet goo below. Best to find kind of a cone shaped mtn facing east, south and west, so you can pick the right degree of refreeze.
Caveat emptor/no comment on the avy hazards at the end of the warm day here, go fast, don’t ride above terrain traps, use brain at all times . . .
April 22, 2012 at 4:33 pm #655318
philip.ak
Participant
Well, all it took was one cold night’s refreeze to speed things up LOT! There were still some pokey parts near the bottom of the mountain where it never really got cold, but everything else turned sublime.
April 23, 2012 at 7:38 pm #655319
iriecoyote
Participant
Great photo. Glad to hear conditions worked out in your favor.
I didn’t structure my board. I may use a wire brush in the future but I’m not so keen on 80 grit after all. Wax doesn’t seem to last more than one ride down the hill in the spring. This time of year, I wax to clean the base and protect it from oxidizing between trips.
I rode this weekend under a blazing sun on a dry, factory base and things worked out as conditions allowed. I’m sure some slush wax would have helped for a couple turns but not enough to make it worth me while.
April 24, 2012 at 1:02 am #655320
longboardkook
Participant
@philip.ak wrote:
Well, all it took was one cold night’s refreeze to speed things up LOT! There were still some pokey parts near the bottom of the mountain where it never really got cold, but everything else turned sublime.
Got to be one of the best photos I have seen on this forum.
April 24, 2012 at 3:47 am #655321
dln
Participant
I’ve had decent luck with the bluebird slush wax (black bar)
April 24, 2012 at 4:50 am #655322
Skideuce
Participant
That photo on the last page is really cool.
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