Advice on a BC touring setup?

[snow-mark]

Good find on those old Europa 99s. I’ve never skied them but know they are well liked for efficient touring. If memory serves, people say they have a stiff camber, but since yours are pretty old, that may be softened up.

I was going to recommend Glittertinds (now BC 55) which is what I use most of the time for this kind of skiing - hiking trails, sometimes tracked, sometimes not, usually powder (Colorado), moderate amount of up and down. In fact, I’m now shopping for a pair of BC 55s (or similar) for my wife. She always uses her Eons, which are great for when we do tours that are more up-and-down focused, but for flat or rolling terrain those things are just so inefficient for kick and glide.

I will add that I’m a waxing newby and I’m kind of lazy about it. Good friends here in Colorado told me the following: you need Swix Green for cold days, and Blue for not-so-cold days. If it’s too warm for Blue, stay in the lower altitudes and go for a bike ride. One of those guys was fond of saying “friends don’t let friends use klister.” But that’s Colorado - cold, dry snow most of the time.

I’ve decided to be a little less lazy about waxing. I’m going to buy an iron and iron in a base hard wax and clean my skis more often. We’ll see if it makes much of difference.

Good luck with those new-to-you skis. You’ll have fun exploring with them.




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[AKengr]

Read the wiki sections on waxing and picked up some wax.

First I cleaned the bases with goo gone and a scraper. Happened to already have some at home and it worked well. Leaves a little bit of an oily film, so I used some windex to remove the film. The top sheet is all scratched up on these skis but the bases look pretty good.



Rubbed on some swix polar v05 over the entire ski base and then ironed it in. Let that cool and scraped it. Estimated the wax pocket on these about a foot either side of the bindings and marked that with a sharpie on the side of the ski.

It was a terrible day to try out a new set of skis, but I was curious. We have about a foot of old snow on the ground but it was very warm today with a high of about 40 oF. The net effect is that the local groomed trails are pretty ice tonight. So this evening I waited till it cooled down to an air temp of about 35. Used an IR thermometer, because I already own it, to measure the snow temp at 28 oF.

Rubbed on and the corked some swix special violet wax in the marked wax pocket. Some what skiable but not enough grip. I was sliding around a bit when compared to waxless skis.

So I applied swix special red to about 2/3 of the ski length. Left the tip and tail sections without wax, but waxed and corked the rest.
Wow! What a change. Way to much grip.... hard to ski because it kept grabbing the snow surface. I found a small slope and could easily climb it without having to herringbone up it. Very impressive traction when compared to waxless skis!

In retrospect, if I had applied the special red only to the marked section it probably would have been perfect; however, it was a great learning experience. I had read that the right wax is key but now I really believe it!

Thanks again for all the advice and information. I will wait for better weather / snow and try again.

[Smitty]

It's wild to feel the difference in grip / glide with different waxes at different temperatures, isn't it!

"Rubbed on some swix polar v05 over the entire ski base and then ironed it in. Let that cool and scraped it." -AKeng

Just a note on using the hard Polar wax tip-to-tail. Unlike a traditional ironed in glide wax, there is no need to scrape the swix polar after ironing it smooth! You can just leave it in place to protect your bases. Even though the Polar may be several "colours" colder than your wax of the day underfoot, leaving it on the base after ironing it smooth will still provide a bit more grip but with minimal affect on glide.

Also, you mention some drag with the swix red underfoot. You can generally stop applying your kick zone wax at the heel mark or your binding. Using wax of the day any further aft than your heel will only increase drag with no appreciable increase in grip. Try starting at the heel mark and waxing to a foot ahead of your binding. If you need more grip, extend further ahead or go softer.

Happy skiing and happy New Year!!





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[AKengr]

It's wild to feel the difference in grip / glide with different waxes at different temperatures, isn't it!

"Rubbed on some swix polar v05 over the entire ski base and then ironed it in. Let that cool and scraped it." -AKeng

Just a note on using the hard Polar wax tip-to-tail. Unlike a traditional ironed in glide wax, there is no need to scrape the swix polar after ironing it smooth! You can just leave it in place to protect your bases. Even though the Polar may be several "colours" colder than your wax of the day underfoot, leaving it on the base after ironing it smooth will still provide a bit more grip but with minimal affect on glide.

Also, you mention some drag with the swix red underfoot. You can generally stop applying your kick zone wax at the heel mark or your binding. Using wax of the day any further aft than your heel will only increase drag with no appreciable increase in grip. Try starting at the heel mark and waxing to a foot ahead of your binding. If you need more grip, extend further ahead or go softer.

Happy skiing and happy New Year!!





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Happy new year! And thanks for the comment.

[AKengr]

I really like these skis.

I have just been playing around on groomed trails to start with, while figuring out the wax. Today the air temp was -17 C (2 F) and the snow surface temp measured at -23 C using an infrared thermometer. About an inch of snow fell a few days ago.

Appeared to be on the line between swix green v20 and polar v05. I had already stripped off the old wax and then coated the skis from tip to tail with polar and ironed it in when the weather was warmer. So two thin coats of green in the wax pockets was close but just a little too much grip. For the groomed trails I think just polar in the wax pockets would have been the ticket.

But even with the v20 I was able to ski fairly well and enjoyed them. With my limited experience I think waxed skis perform better than waxless in terms of up hill grip. Probably obvious to those of you who have been doing this for years.

You can see where the snow was sticking to the v20, which I understand indicates a wax which is too "warm".

[Chisana]

That bit of snow mostly in the kick zone,doesn't look like you are waxed too warm to me. When you start skiing the backcountry trails you talked about in earlier posts,I would rather err on the more kick and less glide side. Nothing more fatiguing than skis slipping back every kick. That being said, too warm of wax grabbing on a downhill is a drag as well. Anyway, seems like you are getting the hang of it. Waxing is much like tying flies for the fisherman or reloading for the shooter. If you hit it right, it is much more satisfying.

[greatgt]

Last hear it was mostly polar and various greens.....So far this year green and some blue...Yesterday figured it was in the 20's so put on a light amount of blue wax and they went up like a dream, figured I'd have to knife off at the top...But the skis took off like a shot on the down no sticking or grabbing at all....Today would be White or green as it's around zero...TM

[lowangle al]

Hey AKengr, the little bit of snow we just got made for some fun xcd skiing in the state park. If you are interested in getting out send me a PM I have free time right now. I'd be happy to give you some pointers. Alan