Ed Driscoll

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Downhill Racer

December 16, 2009 - 7:15 pm - by Ed Driscoll

Or, ride the incline!

WILKES-BARRE, PA – Like most people, Ed Perry can’t feel the climate warming, but he has noticed one detail over the years that tells him it’s happening – he’s had to switch to unwaxed cross-country skis.

“My skis recognize that climate change is happening,” said Perry, an outreach coordinator with the National Wildlife Federation’s Global Warming Campaign. “We are creatures of catastrophe. We wait until things are in dire straits. And if we wait until we are in dire straits on this one, it will be too late.”

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Perry was the first to speak among a panel of outdoor recreation officials and industry members he gathered to Wilkes University on Friday to discuss the impact of climate change on Pennsylvania’s outdoor options.

The lack of snow is a bigger problem for Barbara Green, the president of Blue Mountain Ski Resort. “Climate change is going to decimate our industry,” she said. “The models I’m seeing, in 25 years, we may not have any ski areas.”

Ted Danson could not be reached for comment.

Filed under: Bobos In Paradise, Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, God And Man At Dupont University, Liberal Fascism, Oh, That Liberal Media!, The Assault On Reason, The Return of the Primitive

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4 Comments, 3 Threads, 1 Trackbacks

  1. 1. Steven Den Beste

    I’m convinced! Let’s spend a trillion dollars on remediation measures so this guy doesn’t have to change how he waxes his skis!

    December 16, 2009 - 8:19 pm   Link to this Comment
  2. 2. Ed Perry

    Steve – I see you didn’t understand what I was getting at.

    Waxless skis only work well when the temperature is below 32 degrees. Once it gets above that temperature, you have to put on a wax called klister, which is the stickiest substance known to man. And it’s hard to get off your skis. In the 80′s and early 90′s, it was usually cold enough that I didn’t have to worry about putting on klister, but starting in the mid 90′s, it was often too warm to ski without putting on klister, so I gave up my waxable skiis and went to waxless skiis.

    The point I was making is that if you are an outdoors person, and have been paying attention, you will notice is has been slowly, slowly, getting warmer. You have to be in denial not to accept the fact it’s been getting warmer.

    But like Paul Simon sang “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”

    December 17, 2009 - 8:04 am   Link to this Comment
  3. 3. CR

    http://www.skiwax.ca/tp/klister.php

    Klister is a grip wax. As with regular grip wax it is designed to allow the snow flakes to penetrate into it. Regular grip wax is designed to work with snow flakes that have fairly stiff, strong and defined shape. A defined snow flake shape, for example, is with arms (as shown in the background of this web page). Klister is designed to work with snow flakes or crystals that are softer and are lacking much shape. The change in shape occurs for many different reasons.

    Conditions that klister can be used in are:

    * warm snow (snow @ 0°C, air @ >0°C)
    * very aged snow
    * ice glazed track

    Essentially any condition where there is difficulty with the snow penetrating into regular grip wax.

    So, Ed, it appears there are a few reasons for needing klister that do not involve warming temperatures. Are your usual ski tracks seeing more use than in years past? Lots more people tramping the trails might be causing the snow cover to deteriorate faster, yielding more of “corn” snow and/or ice. That in turn could be the cause of your needing more klister; the powder/packed powder that ski enthusiasts prefer simply wears out faster.

    There are multiple potential causes of your dilemma.

    December 17, 2009 - 10:32 am   Link to this Comment