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Use this instead of ski wax

Jully

Active member
Joined
Dec 13, 2014
Messages
2,487
Points
38
Location
Boston, MA
3 snow surface conditions where wax 100% helps.

1) Fresh, ungroomed, base building type man made snow
2) REALLY cold, dry snow (like air temps below 0 cold)
3) Wet spring type snow

General mid winter day to day groomed snow, or mid winter soft pack/powder, the average skier won't notice a difference

Agreed with this. Even midwinter ungroomed stuff back east you do not notice a difference.

That said though, powder (when it gets flatter/compressed on run outs), spring snow, and fresh man made (the surface temp of the snow in all these cases is kinda high) it matters SO much. This spring I was out in Utah and skiing powder in 40 degrees. I had not waxed my skis in 3-5 days before going out there and noticed a substantial drop each day. I broke down after 4 days and paid for a wax because it was getting hard to stay balanced because the skis were gripping so randomly. You COULD fight through it, but why the hell would you?

I suppose if I never waxed my base, it might be a different story as maybe the old wax that had dirt and stuff in it causes the performance issues when wax is 'old.' I do buy the chemical argument presented in the article VT posted.
 

Domeskier

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 15, 2012
Messages
2,274
Points
63
Location
New York
ID One tells customers that its skis don't need to be waxed. Anyone notice other manufacturers doing this? The only time it ever really occurs to me that maybe I ought to have my skis waxed is on grippy pow bump days. Fortunately (or unfortunately, I guess), those days are rare where I typically ski.
 
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