Its been warm recently and the moisture content in the snow is high. Great for snowballs but, we have seen several skiers coming in with snow sticking to their skis turning a good day into a bad day. Its been happening with our grooming equipment also with clumps of snow sticking to our roller. Most people these days have no-wax skis with fish scales being the most popular type base material. People ask if they should wax their no-wax skis. Yes you should. No wax skis just means you do not have to apply a sticky grip wax to the grip or kick zones ( the fish scale area ) in the mid section of the ski. The best case scenario is to keep the glide zones (tips and tails of the ski ) slippery and the kick zone clean of snow. The bottoms of your skis should be black and shiny. If they are dried out they will have a grey or whiteish color to them. That means saturated, moist snow will collect in those areas and you will have heavy skis to deal with. “Some skis have a white bottom but this still applies”. You can go to You-Tube and type in ” wax your waxless skis” in the search bar and several videos will pop up. There are three types you can try out. Liquid, paste or iron on. Liquid is the easiest to apply but they are only effective for one day and need to be re-applied for best results. Paste wax is applied with an rough cloth that usually is included. There are several products from wax companies that will work. Most known is Swix. They have a liquid all round product called Easy Glide that comes in a warm and cold temperature range or a universal all round glide wax called F-4. Toko makes Grip and Glide, Maxx Waxx and Maxi-Glide Quick Wax are similar products that are designed to be used on no-wax skis. If you do wax your skis, apply it to the kick zone too as that area needs to be treated also. For best results you should buy a stiff nylon brush for pre waxing preperation and a softer brush for working the wax into the base after application. Waxing doesn’t have to be tricky or confusing, just get the basics down. Bighorn Outdoors has these products and they can get you going to a better day on the trails.

Bob