Up North: Wax technician for U.S. National Team Jason Cork imparts wisdom at Ski Hut

Jessie Diggins is a United States Olympic gold medalist in cross country skiing and like any athlete you need people and coaches around you to be successful.

One of Diggins long-time coaches and Duluthian, Jason Cork was at Ski Hut late last week, helping Northlanders with storage waxing and other invaluable information.

“A lot of different ski shops over the years have asked if I could come in and talk about training or talk about waxing. So normally I have to make a PowerPoint and I thought, this is a much better way to do things. I’m really familiar with waxing skis and people can ask questions and get the answers they’re looking for,” said XC ski coach and wax technician for U.S. National Team Cork.

Cork started skiing in middle school all the way in Alaska. He then heard about a club in Duluth, the Gitchi Gummi Sport Association and fell in love with the city, working himself all the way to the U.S. National Team in 2012.

“It’s been 11 years that I’ve been with them. It’s really long seasons, I think I had 126 days in Europe this year. You get to go to world championships, I’ve been to three Olympics and get to see the world so it’s just a cool experience to have,” added Cork.

The event was originally meant for people to get their skis storage waxed for the summer months, however in typical Minnesota fashion ski season is still going strong even in April.

“It turns out there’s still a lot of skiing out there so people are just coming in and getting their skis waxed to go skiing tomorrow or this evening. Either way is fine with me, it’s the same process, but it’s nice to talk and hear people talk about the winter, how their winter was and what they thought of our winter,” Cork concluded.