How to Wax Downhill Skis
The maintenance of your skis is a prime factor in how they perform on the mountain. Whether you ski telemark, alpine or alpine touring, backcountry or groomed runs, waxing your downhill skis will help prolong the life of your ski bases and your maneuverability on the snow.
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Instructions
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Choose the kind of wax you need for your skis. There are numerous waxes on the market, ranging from super soft to extra hard. Waxes come in all different colors; generally, the warmer colored waxes like red, orange and pink are meant for warmer snow, and the colder colors like blue, purple, white and green are meant for colder snow. Waxing for racing gets complicated, but in general, the everyday skier only needs a block of wax for cold and dry snow and one for warm and wet snow.
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Clean off the bases of the skis with a dust cloth to remove any large dust or dirt particles. If you have some large gouges or deep scrapes on the base of a ski, you can use filler like P-tex (polyethylene candles) to putty it before waxing the overall base. This will help achieve the smoothest surface possible.
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Scrub the ski bases with a Brillo pad. Do not scrub against the grain of the ski base. If there are visible areas where the ski has been previously waxed, take a metal or sharp plastic ski scraper to these areas and remove as much as possible.
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Plug in the iron and let it warm up to a medium temperature. There are expensive flat irons specifically for this purpose, or you can just buy a cheap one you don't mind reserving for the sole use of waxing. Either one works fine. Lay the skis down on a work table, the bases facing up. Hold the block of wax to the surface of the iron over a ski base. When the wax starts to drip, run a line of wax down the length of the ski in a continuous, wavy line. Do not drip on the curved ends, only the flat section of the bases.
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Run the iron along each ski base that is now dotted with wax drips. Hold the iron down and rub along the ski base as if you are ironing a shirt. Melt the wax line into a smooth coating along the base, but don't hold the iron down too long in any area. Constantly move the iron around to avoid burning the wax or ski base.
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Affix the skis with a clamp, or hold them down in such a way that you can scrape them without the ski moving too much. With your scraper and starting at one end of the ski, thin down the melted wax into an even layer. Rub down both ski bases with the cleaner pad into an even smoother sheen of wax.
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Tips & Warnings
Hot waxing should be done at the beginning or end of a season. Depending on how often you use your skis and on what terrain, you may need to wax midseason. Many people rewax with a wax for warmer snow temperatures for spring skiing.
Be careful not to burn yourself or the skis with the iron, and always be sure to turn it off after use.
- Photo Credit Naomi Judd
