Hot waxing skins - Åsnes Academy

Wax your ski-wigs

Wait. What. You mean – deliberately melt wax into the skin? Like… glide wax? Won’t they melt? What’s wrong with that two-coloured wax stick that lives in the breast pocket of my GoreTex shell? Well, gather round as we spill the secret to rapid ascents. And, no, it’s not intravenous coffee or being gene-spliced with sea mammals that can hold their breath for an hour. Many experienced rando-racers, ski guides and summit-hungry skidorks like the rest of us simply wax their skins in the same way they do their skis. It improves glide. It prevents icing up. It protects your skins. Yes, many skiers carry small blocks of wax to crayon on to the skin to prevent them icing up. This works; out in the field it can save the day. But hot waxing in preparation for a tour is much more effective and gives better performance. Rando-racers and national teams wax their skins for better glide. And there’s no serious reason why the rest of shouldn’t either. Less ice. Better glide. We all deserve this. So let’s get into the details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xPmg3tmtg&feature=emb_logo

Here are the details

Use glides that are fluro-free or contain as little fluro as possible. To keep it simple, you can use “universal glide” (the range -4° to -10°) in all conditions.

With the skin attached to the ski, put the skin on the workbench. Crayon the glide until the entire skin appears to be well covered with wax. You can actually rub in both directions: the hairs on the skin are pretty hardy.

Set the iron to the correct temperature, usually around 60° C. Iron the skin as if it were a base. Keep the iron moving. Heat the wax in an even layer along the entire length of the skin. Be careful when you begin – test briefly to make sure you’re not going in too hot.

Repeat the process on all your skins. Wait four to five minutes for the wax to cool. To comprehensively saturate the skin, you can even go over it a couple of times once the wax has cooled.

Once the wax has cooled, you don’t need to do any scraping. Just lightly brush over the hardened wax until the skin looks smooth and nice. Don’t use a metal brush or anything like that. A blue nylon brush will do. A nailbrush or vegetable scrubber will do if you’re cheap.

Enjoy your freshly prepared, fast, hardy, non-stick skins – and don’t keep the good news to yourself!

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