The last day of the 2011 Junior Olympics, the classic relays, favored skiers with experience.

Winter returned to Minneapolis in the form of temperatures in the low twenties, strong winds, and a trace of new snow. The course was firm-to-icy and the tracks were filled with the fresh drifting snow. Given the abrasive conditions, coaches tested a variety of klister or binder bases covered with waxes slightly warmer than the temperature. The savvy athletes double-poled out of the tracks and strided in the tracks. Coaches tried to find the balance between wax that wouldn’t shear off on the ice and wax that offered good glide on the dry snow that filled the tracks.

Read more at Cross Country Skier Nordic News