The climbing skins backcountry skiers use are little miracles of physics—strips of fuzzy fabric that press onto your ski bases with just enough adhesion to stay in place and scoot a 200+ pound person up a slick snowy hill, then easily peel off at the top. Then you fold ‘em up in your pocket, ski down, and do it all again.
Our climbing skins probably don’t get the accolades they deserve. And they sure don’t usually get the TLC they deserve, either. Many of us commit the mortal sins of storing them haphazardly, then wonder why they eventually fail us. And a skin failure deep in the mountains is no picnic—they might stop sticking to our skis altogether, or leave chunks of glue residue on our bases, which makes it impossible to ski smoothly. Tip and tail clips can fail, or “gloppy” heavy snow can clump on their fuzzy surface and prevent gliding.
When lots can go wrong, it’s important to do everything in your power right. Take care of those babies, and you’ll get a few seasons’ use out of your investment.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Keep the skins’ sticky side away from floors, carpets, couches, car interiors, etc. All sorts of dirt, pet fur, pine needles, lint, and other small detritus sticks to them and is impossible to get back off. Every particle sticking to the glue blocks that glue from sticking to your ski like it’s supposed to!
Dry the skins properly after a day out. This means you hang them to air-dry in a room-temperature place, away from fireplaces and heater vents.
During days out, stuff your folded skins in your jacket during ski descents. This keeps them from icing up, which ruins all glue stickiness.
Keep anti-glop skin wax in your pack at all times. Before leaving the trailhead on any warm-ish sunny day (especially in the spring, but even on abnormally warm or wet midwinter days) rub the wax on the plush side of your skins. Really get it in between the fibers and coat the whole surface. This prevents water from soaking into the fibers and ruining the skins’ glide with clumps of sticky snow.
Store your skins for the summer in a cool, dry place. Your basement or bedroom closet might be great—skip any non-air-conditioned rooms like the garage or shed. Your skins originally come with a “skin saver” made of mesh or some sort of synthetic fabric. Now’s the time to apply those to your skins’ sticky side, fold them up neatly, and store for the summer.
What to do when skins go sour:
What happens if you have a
skin-cident in the field? Here are a few saving graces.
Always carry a few Voile straps in your pack so you can strap skins to your skis if the glue fails or if a tip/tail clip pops off. Note that this is still a crappy skinning experience—there’s no way for the ski to glide smoothly forward if it has multiple Voile straps wrapped around it, but it’ll let you cover some ground in a pinch.
If your skins are icing up (which takes away the stickiness), try scraping the glue side briskly against a ski edge, rubbing the skins back and forth across the edge. That can warm them up and scrape the ice off enough to get them working again. It can also help to warm them up in your jacket.
Never leave the house without anti-glop wax. Ideally you’ll always apply glop wax before leaving the trailhead on a warm day, but it can still help in the field. Apply it the moment you realize glop is happening so you can stave it off early.
If your glue has truly failed—either completely losing its stickiness or peeling off and leaving glue clumps on your ski bases, the skin glue may be at the end of its life. According to the interwebs and skin manufacturers, glue can be re-applied. However, we’ve never had any luck doing this—it’s a messy, time-consuming process and only works sometimes. We recommend turning used skins into some kind of creative craft project instead. (Weaving a rug? Upholstering a backyard bench? Send us your ideas!)
If a tip clip or tail clip gets lost, don’t panic—spare parts are available from shops you can find online or from the skin manufacturers. These things can be repaired!
Don’t throw skins away just because you bought new skis. If the new skis are a similar dimension to your old ones, you may be able to trim them to fit the new ski’s shape—at least close enough. This is especially true if your new skis are skinnier or shorter than your old ones. And if they just won’t fit, consider selling them—or donating them to a newbie friend.
That’s our crash course in skin care 101 … Send us your own care tips, and share your best ideas for upcycling old skins into new craft projects. We love to hear ‘em.
Beth Lopez is a seasoned writer and creative director who loves to tell tales of adventure and discovery—and finds writing a powerful way to give a voice to people, causes, and places. Beth runs amok in the Wasatch mountains when untethered from her computer. She believes there’s no such thing as a bad ski day and considers animals her favorite people. Don’t tell her mother about her Instagram mountaineering photos.
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