Physics-Based Wax Recommendations for Race Morning

The same physics that govern how snow changes over 10,000 years govern how it changes over two hours.

WaxOracle’s wax prediction engine is grounded in physical principles from snow and ice science research. Dr. Erich Osterberg is Professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College and one of the world’s leading experts in ice, snow, and climate science — his specialty is analyzing the chemistry and physical properties of snow and ice to understand how they change over time and in response to atmospheric conditions.

His research spans ice cores from mountain glaciers and ice sheets across Alaska, Greenland, and Antarctica, giving him a uniquely deep understanding of how snow temperature, crystal structure, humidity, solar radiation, and atmospheric chemistry interact at the surface level — the exact conditions that determine how a ski glides.

Dr. Osterberg holds a B.A. from Middlebury College, an M.S. from the University of Otago, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maine. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers in journals including Nature Geoscience, Geophysical Research Letters, and the Journal of Glaciology.

The snow surface energy model at the core of WaxOracle — combining solar radiation, longwave exchange, latent heat, sensible heat, and deep snow temperature evolution — is grounded in the same physical principles researchers apply to understand how snow changes across decades and centuries. WaxOracle applies that science to a two-hour race window.