Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

grizz_bait wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 6:46 pm

Well, I just ordered the 200s along with 45 mm mohair skins. Can’t wait! Looking forward to learning how to wax, I must be a glutton for punishment.

Going to demystify waxing:
- glide wax both ends red if not very cold where you are
- blue if it's &$#@ing cold
- grip wax colder than you think you need, go and try that
- put warmer grip over that when it's not working

Start with this, and embellish with experience.

How do the skis come waxed from the factory?

They shouldn't have anything on the bases but I've never had a new Asnes ski. Waxing should be easy to learn since you can use the skins in warm temps or icy crust. Before you invest in a lot of expensive equipment I'd like to refer you to the DIY Work Bench thread, post # 16, to see what I use. Feel free to ask any questions.

The bases come clean from Asnes. I wouldn’t use any glide wax at all. You’re not racing. I have glide waxed, but much prefer utilizing Swix white polar as my glide wax. Hot wax doesn’t hold kick wax well. When you need to extend the wax forward, it doesn’t adhere well to glide wax.
Utilizing glide wax on the ends is the traditional method, but how traditional? Lilcliffy writes in his kick wax tutorial in the Telewiki section that use of polar was traditional method in Quebec. When I was down at Whitegrass I was talking kick wax with an older gentleman. I commented that I was using full length polar as my glide wax. He gave me a nod of approval, and commented that the old Canadian method still makes sense today.
I recommend reading both Lilcliffy’s tutorial (1rst) but also reading Pinnah’s waxing for the back country also in the Telewiki section.

fisheater wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:38 pm

The bases come clean from Asnes. I wouldn’t use any glide wax at all. You’re not racing. I have glide waxed, but much prefer utilizing Swix white polar as my glide wax. Hot wax doesn’t hold kick wax well. When you need to extend the wax forward, it doesn’t adhere well to glide wax.
Utilizing glide wax on the ends is the traditional method, but how traditional? Lilcliffy writes in his kick wax tutorial in the Telewiki section that use of polar was traditional method in Quebec. When I was down at Whitegrass I was talking kick wax with an older gentleman. I commented that I was using full length polar as my glide wax. He gave me a nod of approval, and commented that the old Canadian method still makes sense today.
I recommend reading both Lilcliffy’s tutorial (1rst) but also reading Pinnah’s waxing for the back country also in the Telewiki section.

I'm not saying 'fisheater' is wrong. I can't, because I've never tried polar, tip to tail. I'm afraid I'm unlikely to, even though my first years of Nordic were in PQ.

I came to Nordic from alpine, and am used to glide wax. I glide wax both ends (ski divided roughly in thirds) red, and they have always been very fast. I use base binder, or a cold grip-wax, as my base in the grip zone. I get good kick, when I adjust for temperature, and wicked glide.

Definitely don't lay down glide wax through the kick zone, as 'fisheater' states.

fisheater wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:38 pm

The bases come clean from Asnes. I wouldn’t use any glide wax at all. You’re not racing. I have glide waxed, but much prefer utilizing Swix white polar as my glide wax. Hot wax doesn’t hold kick wax well. When you need to extend the wax forward, it doesn’t adhere well to glide wax.

I get around this by hot waxing the tip and tail with glide wax, but having a longer area in the middle of the ski covered with polar wax (two layers corked and/or ironed in) than I intend to use as my kick zone.

Then I put kick wax over a portion of the polar wax zone in the middle of the ski, but can extend it later if needed.

Full length polar simplified and improved kick and glide performance for me. I have never glide waxed the kick zone.
I’ve been skiing cold snow for a couple weeks mostly. Temperature has been pretty consistent from 10F to 25F. Snow has been powdery on top of a base mostly. Wax of the day has been Rex Universal Tar. No guessing between blue and green, with outstanding grip and glide performance in well preserved snow.

I haven't glide waxed in almost 20 years. Polar is my glide wax.

It's what we did with wooden skis, that's where I got it. I think I'm the first one to promote it here, and people were skeptical.

grizz_bait wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 30, 2022 7:17 pm

How do the skis come waxed from the factory?

They come sexy and nude.

You'll know how to get grip wax right by the end of your first outing. I mean literally.

If something's not working, there's a very small number of things that can be wrong and the solutions are just obvious when you can feel it and see it. When you're actually on your skis in the snow you just go 'Oh, right' and fix whatever if you have to.

There are, of course, exceptions... but the sheer pleasure of skiing on waxed bases outweighs anything you might experience learning or getting annoyed by when it happens.

Tell us where you're skiing and we'll recommend the simplest pack you need. That could be diverting for a few days.

Where I live, you could basically get by the whole season with this and a couple of skins:

https://www.swixsport.com/us/ski-wax/wa ... 5950376648

(I also want to talk you into getting a narrower skin too for those days when waxing is tricky or you can't be bothered... a few cm of snow on top of a hard base and 35mm skins on a pair of Gammes mmmm)

Musk Ox wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 31, 2022 2:39 am

Where I live, you could basically get by the whole season with this and a couple of skins:
https://www.swixsport.com/us/ski-wax/wa ... 5950376648
(I also want to talk you into getting a narrower skin too for those days when waxing is tricky or you can't be bothered... a few cm of snow on top of a hard base and 35mm skins on a pair of Gammes mmmm)

Others and Åsnes recommend that you should not use soft wax with skins. Is purple wax still hard enough with skins?

I look forward to getting a pair of Gammes tomorrow. I was planning to wax them when below -1’ C, and to use skins in zero weather, warmer, and on icy snow. Then I might need only the Swix V40 Blue Extra from the package @Musk Ox linked. When snow gets sticky, I could also add a thin layer of Vauhti GF carrot on top of the blue wax.

EDIT: advice is not to use fluorinated (glide) wax with skins because it kills glue. Does same apply to fluorinated grip waxes? If so, I might have only blue special left from my current wax kit Things might get simple.