Skins are relatively low maintenance, but they are an important
part of your backcountry experience. Take good care of them
and you'll get years of trouble free climbing.
Most importantly, KEEP THE GLUE CLEAN!! When you
take off you skins, make sure you don't get dirt, pine needles,
lint, dog hair, or anything else on the glue. Dirty glue
does not stick nearly as well to skis. Carefully fold the
glue side of the skins onto itself. Some people fold one
end of the skin onto the other end, and others fold each
end to the center. Either way is fine - just make sure to
try and cover as much of the glue surface as possible.
Always remove extra wax from your skis and clean the snow
off your bases before attaching skins. Really try and make
a conscious effort to keep snow from contacting the skin
adhesive. Between laps, put them in your jacket pockets
if they'll fit. Your body heat will help the adhesive work
better and keep moisture on the skins from freezing.
If you are skiing in the spring or in wet snow conditions,
skins will often get wet and freeze up. Carrying an extra
five pounds of wet snow under your feet can be a real bummer
- and has caused an early end to many days in the backcountry.
Treat your skins before a trip with some spray-on Freeglide
or Skin Waterproofing.
Keep a scraper and a rub-on bar of Glop
Stopper in your pack for field maintenance. Dry skins
not only weigh less, they glide much better!
After using your skins, hang them to dry. Make sure not
to place them too close to heaters or fireplaces as direct
heat can cause damage. Between uses, store your skins in
the sack they came with in a cool and dry place. Many new
skins now come with a synthetic mesh material designed to
be used for long term storage. Cut this material to half
the length of each skin and then fold the skin over both
sides, glue side down. If used properly, this material should
substantially increase the life of the adhesive.
After many days of use and abuse, your skins may need to
be re-glued. We sell the glue
you'll need for $19.95 and you can battle it out on your own.
If they are in real bad shape, you can send them to us and
we'll re-glue them for $50. We will completely remove the
old, dirty glue and then iron on a new layer of adhesive.
We can turn them around in about a week, and have them working
like new again.
If you are looking for new skins, click over to our How
to Select Climbing Skins page.
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