April 14, 2020 - To maximize your on-snow time come this fall, a little effort in spring making sure your skis are well taken care of will go a long way. Glide zones left dirty and dry will oxidize over the summer and this can leave skis feeling slow, even with their new wax in the fall
With this past season officially in the rearview mirror, we welcome the 2020/21 training cycle and the dryland season. Here are a few tips to ensure that your skis are well prepped for fall’s first snow and to get ready for rollerski season.
Spring-cleaning Tips
It goes without saying that the last thing you want to do is grab a pair of classic skis and find that, over the summer, the klister has run down the bases, leaving you with a real mess to clean.
Start by cleaning off any remnants of klister and kick wax. Scrape off the excess with a klister paddle. Next apply liberal amounts of wax remover. Wipe clean and dry with Fiberlene or shop towel. Feel the surface with your hands to make sure there is no sticky residue. Also remember to wipe down the glide zones, bindings, topsheet, and sidewalls of the skis.
Once clean and dry, brush firmly with a bronze brush and apply glide wax to all glide zones. Avoid glide-waxing the kick zone on classic skis. Use a medium-hard glide wax such as Swix CH/LF6 or CH/LF7 or a similar one designed for cold skis from other manufacturers. For warm skis, CH/LF8 or CH/LF10 or similar works well.
On my cold skis, I like to use a medium-hard glide wax for summer storage, as it saves having to re-wax when you are ready for the first ski of the year. Just scrape off your summer wax and go!
Rollerski Preparation
With skis waxed and put away, take stock of the rest of your gear. Look over your poles and repair or replace any baskets or broken parts. If you are using the same poles for rollerskiing, now is a good time to switch from snow baskets to rollerski ferrules. This can be done at home using a small pot of boiling water to warm the pole glue.
There is often enough glue so that you don’t need to add more, at least for the first couple of times. Simply warm the basket in the boiling water, gently remove the snow basket, slide on the rollerski tip, and let cool. Be mindful of the heat. When complete, save the baskets in a convenient location so that you can change back to them come fall.
One thing to keep in mind is that rollerskiing is particularly hard on carbon race poles, as the repetitive pounding on pavement puts a lot of stress on the carbon fibres. Therefore, you might consider whether you want to use your best carbon poles for everyday rollerski workouts. Snow is more forgiving than pavement and doesn’t create the same kind of impact.
Also, when switching to rollerskiing, you will be using a thinner glove, so getting the most out of the pole requires adjusting the strap properly and keeping your rollerski ferrules razor-sharp. Dull ferrules increase the impact from pole planting on elbows and shoulders, which are the most injury-prone joints when rollerskiing in terms of overuse.
Sharp ferrules prevent the poles from slipping and provide a more snow-like feel, reducing the need to pound your poles into the pavement with unreasonable amounts of force.
Wax Box Tips
Finally, take a quick inventory of the wax box. Hopefully, you’ve found a few trusty favourites over the winter. Make a note of which “old faithfuls” you’re low on.
As for wax and grooming tools, klister tubes that have been opened often pose a problem, and the summer heat will not help. Grab some Fiberlene or shop towel and some base cleaner and wipe down all the containers and make sure the caps are on tightly. Push the klister to the front of the tube and roll up the end, as you would your toothpaste tube.
Store klister standing up (cap pointed up) to prevent it from running out of the tube. If you have a second fridge in your garage or basement, this makes a great summer storage spot for klister. Other ski wax can be stored at room temperature.
Finally, clean off your wax iron, tables and wax forums, brushes, and scrapers. Putting your brushes in the freezer for a few hours will help to remove the old wax shavings from the bristles. You can carefully use a shop-vac to vacuum away any residue.
The work you put in now in both ski preparation and in maintaining rollerski-ferrule sharpness will pay off now and, in the fall, when you’re on sweet glorious snow.
