Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Hi all,

Newby here with a basic question.

This is my first season with BC skis, got an Asnes Nansen/NNNBC Magnum/Alpina Alaska set up for use in Quebec in Gatineaus, Mont Tremblant Park and around Baie Saint Paul. Just got back from an awesome March break on Les Sentiers du Cap in Charlevoix. Now my season is over with snow gone in Toronto.

Question is on summer storage. For those of you using Swix Polar on the length of the base, how do you store your skis for the summer? Normally I would expect to cover the entire base in glide wax for storage to prevent oxidation. But I've read that for BC skis you don't use glide wax at all. So do you iron in Polar over the length for summer storage?

Anything else you do to prep skis for storage?

Thanks for the help, David

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David, if you use glide wax, its perfectly fine to iron in glide wax for storage.

I will let the Polar-wax pros guide you on their particulars.

I suggest running a candle or parrafin along the metal edges...to help prevent rusting. keep 'em dry as best you can.

For storage, I like a good coat of a warm temp, or base prep wax, even if it's a ski I grip wax in season. It's easy to scrape and brush the bases clean before season, and then cork in, or hot wax, polar for the winter, if desired. I also often leave the tips and tails glide waxed in season; again, I can grip wax over that if I need a longer wax pocket.

The soft glide or prep waxes will be much more effective at conditioning the bases than the polar. As bgregoire suggests, you do want some kind of wax over the edges, too.

I run a generous coat of paraffin over everything. I like paraffin because it's cheap, does the job, and it removes easily when snow comes. If my skis have a kick wax on them full length, it seems like it is still there after I strip the paraffin. I'm not implying that I kickwax over that residue. I spray some Goo Gone, brush out with a brass brush, then wax with Swix Polar. Because I iron the paraffin with a hot enough iron that it melts quickly, I don't believe it penetrates through the kick wax. Therefore I am not worried about the paraffin residue preventing good adhesion of next year's kick wax.
That is just how it seems to me. I really don't put too much into ski maintenance. I like my skis waxed, my edges as sharp as they need to be, however I haven't used a file in a couple of years for anything but burr removal, and fast easy protection for summer. My edges used to be like razors, hand flat bases, then stone ground structure. That was when I was single, and had an easier work schedule, and alpine skied some pretty challenging terrain. However even if I was skiing the same terrain, I doubt I would do more than keep my edges a little sharper.

Great advice, thanks all!

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Hello David,

I have moved away from glide wax with all of my off-track Nordic touring skis- both XC-focused and downhill focused- both smooth-waxable bases and scaled bases.

My base layer, for both the ski season and storage is currently Swix Polar.
I crayon in the Polar and then iron it into the base- the ironing improves wax retention and saves wax.
Once the wax cools I buff it with a cork.

Super thanks, I'm going to try the Polar I technique.

Bringing this post back up as its the most relevant to my question.

I'm going to give the "Polar as base wax" a try next year. I've got a bunch of old skies I'm restoring, and I'm going to try and get the bases as close to a new base grind as possible with hand tools and then saturate the bases with a base wax to clean and store. Right now I'm looking at buying a pound of Purl 3 in 1 wax and having at it.

https://purlwax.com/products/purl-3in1- ... bulk-brick

Will there be any compatibility issues with Polar wax and the Purl? Or is there a better base wax for this purpose?
Thanks, Woody

That Purl wax is a glide wax, grip wax does not adhere well to glide wax. I used to use paraffin for winter storage, now I just use Polar.

fisheater wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 08, 2022 9:54 am

That Purl wax is a glide wax, grip wax does not adhere well to glide wax. I used to use paraffin for winter storage, now I just use Polar.

I picked the Purl because it isn't represented as a glide wax. If it is, what sort of base conditioning wax options are there? Or is straight canning paraffin a fine base ? Just starting with polar on "fresh" bases seems like it would get expensive for multible skis.