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How do you tell when cross country skis need glide waxing?

How do you tell when cross country skis need glide waxing?

Cross country skis need a glide wax job in the following situations:

  1. when you first buy them
  2. at the beginning of each season
  3. when the bases look dry
  4. about every 50km of skiing
  5. before a special event or race
  6. at the end of each season

This applies to all non-wood types of cross country skis: waxable, waxless (fishscale), skin, classic, skate, backcountry - because all cross country skis have glide zones. The glide zones are the smooth sections of your ski (except for the middle third of the ski if you have a waxable ski).

Glide wax, whether applied with a hot iron or in liquid form, protects and hydrates your ski bases. Think of it like lotion on dry skin. You can do this at home or take your skis in to a shop to get it done professionally. 

professional waxing skis

1. When you first buy them new skis don't have wax in the bases so the more applications of glide wax the better. They should be waxed and or hot boxed right off the bat before you use them. Higher end skis have bases that can absorb more wax so should be glide waxed as often as you can the first year.

2. At the beginning of each season you should do a wax job. It's best to do this just before the snow season so the wax is fresh when you start skiing. If you do them too far in advance the wax gets "old". Your bases may start to turn greyish which shows the wax is not fresh.

3. When the bases look dry it's definitely time to wax. This is what dry bases look like:

dry ski bases

And below shows an image of a dry ski base next to a freshly waxed base:

dry and waxed ski bases

4. Every 50km of skiing is a good rough measure for how often you should glide wax during the season. This is snow dependent: dry, abrasive snow (as we have in Saskatchewan) and man-made snow strips wax off more quickly than humid, soft snow. For this type of maintenance wax job, use a glide wax that covers the temperatures and conditions you're likely to be doing most of your skiing in.

5. Right before a race or special event you'll want to put a fresh glide wax into the bases. This one can be more temperature and conditions specific as you should have a pretty good idea of what that's going to look like. Racers often wax their skis on site, leaving it as late as they can so they can nail the right wax.

6. At the end of each season it's a good idea to melt a soft storage wax into your skis and leave them unscraped. This seals the bases against contaminants. Next season scrape off the storage wax and apply your fresh glide wax, and you're ready to go.

Happy skiing!

Kevin Robinson skiing at Ebs Trails 

Previous article Cross country ski sizing | the importance of a proper fit
Next article How to get your xc skis snow ready | Jeff Roe the tech guy

Comments

ebsadventure - December 3, 2021

Hi Maria,
Excellent question! (Although they should have been more clear at the store when explaining what to do.) Some skis, usually higher end skis, do come pre-waxed. This needs to be scraped off and the skis brushed. If you try to ski on them without scraping the wax off they will not glide well. The wax is probably a softer wax so if your conditions are warm, go ahead and ski on the skis after scraping and brushing them. If it’s colder, you may want to glide wax them again with a wax meant for colder temperatures. To be clear, “storage wax” refers to a glide wax – any glide wax, but usually a soft one is best – that is left on the skis without scraping, and is done to seal the bases against the environment. This protects the bases while the skis aren’t being used.
Hope this helps,
-the Eb’s team

Maria - December 3, 2021

Hi, I’m completely new to this.. I live in Norway and have just bought myself a pair of cross-country skis (skin ones). They had a layer of wax (not sure if it was storage wax or glide wax) already applied on them, and I was told at the store I’d need to scrape it off before I use them. Your article doesn’t say anything about scraping the glide wax off. Is it just because it’s so obvious? ;) Or should the glide wax in fact stay on the skis until it gets worn out, and only then I should scrape the remaining wax off and reapply it? I’m quite confused whether what was on my skis was a glide wax or storage wax (I was told that it prevents the ski base from becoming dry).
Please shed some light on this :)
Thanks!
Maria

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