Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

This is my second season on wax skis and I'm loving them! I'm only using the WL for temps above 32F days. At the end of last season I played around with Swix waxes but cut my fingers too many times with those metal tins so I've switched over to Toko and recently bought a kit with Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow. I've got a nice build of Red on right now but today I skied on a couple inches of fresh snow at 22F and the snow globbed onto the grip zone like crazy! According to the Red temp range it "should" have worked but didn't. The snow and temps tomorrow will be about the same. Should I try a layer of Blue over the Red? Appreciate any Toko advice. Thanks!

people will provide better answers - but one issue could be that air temp is not necessarily the same as the snow temp.

the air may have warmed up to red temps, but the snow might still be in blue temps. from what i know - this would be a blue wax day.

That happened to me with some ooold red swix. I was wondering if it was bad or spoiled. I think I had better results with yellow, but I can't remember exactly what I used.

As for Toko grip waxes, I found them quite decent, but not as good as Swix. I wasn't always happy with them in the declared temperature range. To me, they disadvantage is not recognizing types of snow, fresh and old, as done by Swix. This may be also your problem, as you said that snow is fresh, then asking rather for colder wax. But tomorrow, if there will not be snowing again, some transformation will take place and your Red may work?
I would try first scraping some of Red, leaving thinner layer. If that not helps, scrape Red completely and use Blue, experimenting with thickness and lenght of grip waxed zone (it would be rather difficult to spread harder Blue over softer Red). If you like experiments, you can also try "mixing" of Red and Blue.
On the other hand, Toko waxes are convenient, due to their "lipstick" design.

SnickBreck wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 14, 2022 9:22 pm

This is my second season on wax skis and I'm loving them! I'm only using the WL for temps above 32F days. At the end of last season I played around with Swix waxes but cut my fingers too many times with those metal tins so I've switched over to Toko and recently bought a kit with Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow. I've got a nice build of Red on right now but today I skied on a couple inches of fresh snow at 22F and the snow globbed onto the grip zone like crazy! According to the Red temp range it "should" have worked but didn't. The snow and temps tomorrow will be about the same. Should I try a layer of Blue over the Red? Appreciate any Toko advice. Thanks!

Fresh snow. My friend. My enemy.

Well, this isn't SO common at temperatures like 22°F (-5.5°C). This would often simply mean your wax is too warm/soft on nice, sharp, fresh snowflakes which can dig in and aggregate clumps of annoying white nonsense.

This is a bit of a hazard on warmer snow, of course, especially with those big, fat, fresh and humid snowflakes we all get more of these days. But that's a problem about half a degree either side of freezing (0°C).

I don't understand the physics, but it seems to happen when you've got too much wax on, too. It's quite tricky to scrape off in the field, being covered in compacted snow and frozen to your base at -5°C, of course, but you might try scraping off the snow, warming the wax with a vigorous cork/ getting it smoother and then having a scrape. I have done this with a credit card, the edge of a ski and an old sharp-sided iPhone before.

Or you can do what I'd do, which is say 'Fuck it', give it the cork and then stick something colder on top. Something bluer. This is the kind of thing my old landlady who telemarks down from the satellite station on her E99s would do, and I follow her wisdom.

It could feasibly be grubby bases? Snow collects around contaminants on the base. Maybe give them a clean and try a new thinner layer.

As @Musk Ox says

Or you can do what I'd do, which is say 'Fuck it', give it the cork and then stick something colder on top. Something bluer. This is the kind of thing my old landlady who telemarks down from the satellite station on her E99s would do, and I follow her wisdom

Sometimes I get it wrong, the easier thing to do is make it right fast. The above is the fastest easiest method.

Toko is something I like and use a fair amount. I find i can go up in temps with the stated temps. 19 is the top for blue but I've had success higher. 22degF and new snow? I'd prob try Blue first with a good cork.

Thanks everyone. I'll try corking some blue over the red and test it out in my yard. If no go, then I'll scrape in the warmth of the house then apply some blue. I have a couple of hours till I head to the trail to play around with it.

slightly off topic - does anyone have a source for the small "tins" of swix, toko etc waxes in early 2022? im only finding the bigger blocks right now.

thanks for any tips

I bought the grip wax kit w/4 waxes, a cork, and a scraper + case off the Toko website.