Skin Waxing Kit

This past trip up Copper made me think about about how going from sunny snow to shaded snow can really ice up your skins. It's not even like the springtime mush that clings to them, this is full-on ice frozen to skin material. But it's easy to remedy if you are carrying a simple, and I mean simple kit.

It's nothing more than a gift card and a broken off chunk of skin wax. My favorite is Black Diamond Glop Stopper Wax. There are other products to help treat your skins, but they are less portable.

When you get your chunk of Glop Stopper, put it over a sharp edge and break off about a 1" section. There is no need to carry the full bar and grams accumulate! The next component of the kit is a gift card or expired credit card. You could carry an actual wax scraper, but it would be heavier.

When you start to feel resistance, STOP! You might be able to kick off some of the ice as you skin, but it's a losing battle unless you stop and wax. Take off one ski, and scrape the total length of skin with the gift card. You're going for a "squeegee" effect. Once you are satisfied, take your glove off and rub the skin wax the length of the skin. I usually give the portion underfoot a good back and forth rub. Click back in and repeat for the other ski.

Stopping and waxing is a pain, but it's like the deal with the guy cutting a tree down with a dull axe. He doesn't want to take time to fix the problem, so the work is even harder and even more time is spent.