CSM... Why is aspen hard to mill?

[Sauna freak]

I'm sure folks that mill oak, maple and other "good " wood will get a good chuckle, but I'm in the frozen North and options are limited to softer woods. 

Recently laid down a 20" quaking aspen to mill into bench planks for a sauna I'm building at the hunting camp and it SUCKED to mill!  Was so bad I questioned my chain sharpening and touched up an already sharp chain and took a bit more off the depth gages.  Still cut really hard.  Dove into a jack pine log I had and it melted right through. 

So far I've milled jack, red, white pine, black spruce, balsam fir, tamarack, black ash, SYP creosote treated utility pole, and a couple small red oak planks and the darn aspen was the hardest of all!  Never would have guessed this as a saw flies through it on a cross cut.

Using Bailey's ripping chain on a slightly under powered saw.  Just acted like dull chain with dusty chips and slow progress, not bogging down the saw.  The log was green and frozen, but so was most of the pine and spruce I milled. Am I crazy or is aspen tough to saw for some reason?

[barbender]

That's odd...I've heard guys complaining about basswood before, saying they preferred to saw it when frozen (bandmill) because it was so stringy. I've not sawn any personally so I can't say. I have freehand ripped some aspens in half with a chainsaw before, it didn't give any trouble. Maybe try a regular chain rather than a ripping chain?