This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips / Telemark Francais Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web since 1998. East, West, North, South, Canada, US or Europe, Backcountry or not.
This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips / Telemark Francais Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web since 1998. East, West, North, South, Canada, US or Europe, Backcountry or not.
This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web. We have fun here, come on in and be a part of it.
lots of good advice posted for climbing.
Quick summary of what sounded good to me:
- Make sure you are putting 100% weight on each foot as you move forward (don’t shuffle your feet, with weight on both feet);
- press your climbing foot firmly into the snow and hold all your weight on it;
- make sure your step length is not too long;
- start with a slope you CAN climb and gradually increase the angle to learn skill and limits;
- clean your skis off with a solvent, especially to get the glide wax off, then, if you have SWIX Polar, cork a layer of that on the ski, tip to tail;
- then, cork the right wax for the snow temp on the wax pocket and try that;
- if not enough grip, keep adding wax toward the tip of the ski and test (you could go all the way to the tip of the ski);
Learning to wax takes some time to figure out what works, and even people who are really experienced have grip problems sometimes, but I think you will get it figured out.
sorry I am trying to answer to everyone, I had been busy during this time and now I am back, but something has happened to my wax as I said and I didn't notice, totally gone, zero.
I ironed that and corked it, it's like if it was sanded.
I managed to get to better climb with some weird method, using the steel edges of the skis to dig aggressively, but it seems inconsistent.
@sheep The only time I have had an issue with wax durability, two factors were at play.
One it was on my Madshus M62 which is not a double cambered ski so the wax pocket will spend more time in contact with the snow and wear the wax more quickly.
Two I prep the entire base of my wax base skis with a hot scrape of red base prep wax. This is however a soft glide wax. Kick wax does not stick well to glide wax.
I found for more durable kick wax, especially on skis with less camber, the best practice after the base prep is to iron in a base binder in the kick zone, then cork in a layer of a hard kick wax like polar. From there I will go with a layer of green, then finally three to four layers of the kick wax of the day. (The colors I'm referring to are Swix kick waxes).
This has proven to be very durable even on single cambered skis. Keep in mind that that you must add kick wax after every outing of substantial distance. You do not have to start over though, just add a few layers of the kick wax of the day. If the wax on the ski is too soft for that day's conditions, start with a light scrape. This will not remove all the wax so the base binder is still present and you don't have to start over. That initial application of binder can last indefinitely.
Last edited by wabene on Mon Jan 08, 2024 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I found for more durable kick wax, especially on skis with less camber, the best practice after the base prep is to iron in a base binder in the kick zone, then cork in a layer of a hard kick wax like polar. From there I will go with a layer of green, then finally three to four layers of the kick wax of the day. (The colors I'm referring to are Swix kick waxes).
Ah geez I currently only have blue and I am 1000 in debt right now from all the stuff I got.
@sheep I guess cold snow has lots of friction because it kills glide and speed. And I think the friction will wear out wax.
Did you say you had almost -30’ C? A harder wax would probably be more durable and work well, when it gets really cold. Green or even polar. But now it gets warmer, too. We are approaching blue wax weather in Finland, no polar wax weather in sight (well some put it tip to tail, so never say never).
Did you say you iron in your wax? Then a harder wax would have no extra costs I guess. And waxes cost very little, especially compared to good skis.
@sheep you don't need to iron in grip wax every time. You presumably ironed in a binder, or have ironed swix blue or something in the grip zone anyway, so now you are good to go with just crayoning it on in a thin layer and corking vigorously, a few times so you have a few thin layers of whatever wax you need for the day.
