Equipment: When XC skis
ball-up
Date first posted on eCommunity - 24
January 2008
It is turning into quite a snowy winter. Since
November there have
been frequent blizzards in Scandinavia and in many parts of the
Alps. Closer to home, Scotland is having one of its best seasons for
years.
One of the downsides of skiing in fresh snow - we're never happy -
is that the bases of your skis can ball-up. At worst you end up with
high stilts of compacted snow under your grip zones, which make any
progress impossible. More commonly you get a patch of snow sticking
to just one ski, which messes up your rhythm and knocks you off
balance.
Here are some tips on how to prevent your skis from balling-up; and
on how to cope if it does happen.
SKI CARE
Firstly, irrespective of whether you are using waxable or waxless
skis, you need to keep their bases clean. All skis pick up dirt from
the ski-trails. They will also gather road dirt if you carry them on
a bus rack, as well as wax and klister from other skis on the rack.
All this can make the skis sticky, so you should clean them every
day or so, using a proprietary solvent.
If you are using waxless skis with fish-scale bases, then be ready
for the fish-scales to ball-up as soon as it starts to snow (and
probably also for a day or two after that). You should buy a tin of
fish-scale glide spray from a ski shop and apply it before you set
out, and then again as and when you need it. Apply it sparingly. You
often see beginners using half a tin in one go, but a thin
application is all that's needed.
If you have waxable skis then it is more than usually important to
make sure your grip wax is not too warm for the conditions. On any
day the rule for grip waxing is: Thicker, Longer, Warmer. On a snowy
day it can pay to start with a wax that is slightly too cold for the
prevailing temperature. It may work very well. However, if you get
poor grip you should add another layer of the same wax (Thicker). If
you still get poor grip, you should add a Longer layer of the same
wax. And only if, after all that, you still have poor grip, you
should apply a Warmer wax.
CARE WHEN SKIING
When you are in the tracks, keep your skis moving and try not to
stop too often. Always move your skis by sliding them. Avoid
lifting them.
If you do come to a halt, try to avoid coming out of the track
grooves. (This advice contravenes the rules of the track, so only
follow it if there are no other skiers around.)
If you do come to a halt, plant your poles to your sides for balance
and then lift up one ski at a time and bang it down and forward on
to the track. Remember the forward part of the movement: it's like
an aeroplane (bumpily) landing, not a helicopter.
When snow conditions are sticky it can be useful to ski in the style
adopted by many Norwegian tourers. They lead from the knee, each
stride involving a pronounced forward down-sink with the leading
knee, as if they were trying to crush something under the ball of
their foot. This technique looks a bit weird, but it certainly helps
keep your ski bases clean.
If you do feel snow starting to ball up, you can try to scrape it
off by skiing across the skis of a companion. The companion has to
stand with his/her skis across your track and at right angles to it.
You then glide your skis over them.
THE WRONG SKIS?
If one person in a group is consistently having worse problems than
the rest, it may be because his/her skis are too soft or too short.
In that case a hire shop should be able to help by issuing a stiffer
or longer pair. But be careful of putting beginners on stiffer or
longer skis: you may stop the balling-up, but you'll also make the
skier travel faster when coming down hills, which is seldom what a
beginner wants. (Some beginners go around with huge backpacks, whose
weight can flatten their skis excessively. Lightening the load can
of itself solve the problem.)
If you are using wooden skis and they are balling-up, then the
answer might lie in careful choice and application of grip-wax, as
described above. But there may be another problem: your bases might
need to be re-tarred. If you can't get access to the kit required
for this, you can sometimes improvise a short-term remedy by rubbing
the affected parts of the bases with a very cold grip wax (green or
polar) or even with candle-wax. All you are trying to do is seal the
bases, to avoid untreated wood from coming into direct contact with
the snow and sticking to it. When you get home you will need to
remove the wax before applying new tar.
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