by Mr.
Klister
Dealing with Bad Wax
Bad wax days can happen to anyone. Maybe you misjudged
the snow temperature or air humidity. Maybe the track
was icy and your kick wax has worn off. Or, maybe the
trail was dirty and your klister picked up a lot of dirt
and leaves. Regardless, whether you missed the wax, conditions
changed, or your grip wax has simply worn off, you have
to make adjustments if you want to keep skiing.
The first thing to do is stop and analyze the situation.
What's the problem? Too little grip and too much glide;
or, vice versa. Once you have determined what's wrong
you can begin to formulate a strategy to deal with it.
The secret to devising a successful strategy is to properly
adjust your skiing technique to get you through the difficult
stretches of trail. This brings up another thing to keep
in mind. Either of the problems described above will affect
only part of your skiing experience. The rest of the time
your problem will actually be an advantage: Not enough
grip means great glide on the downhills, while too much
grip means climbing uphills will be a snap. Now let's
look at how to deal with the two main problems you are
likely to encounter.
GREAT GLIDE; NO GRIP. This is the most common problem.
It will be most frustrating on uphill sections of the
trail. Here are some tricks to help you keep going when
the trail goes up. First, get out of the tracks and look
for soft, new snow. Also, take lots of little steps. If
there is enough room, zig-zag or traverse your way to
the top. As a last resort, you can always fall back on
the herringbone. If there is enough room you might even
consider uphill skating if their is enough room, although
mastering this technique may take some practice.
On the flats you will want to adjust your technique to
kick early. You can accomplish this by sliding your foot
slightly forward of where you would naturally place it,
almost as if you are trying to sneak up on someone. Next,
"grab" the snow with imaginary "claws"
and smoothly push it behind you. Lastly, spring forward
onto your opposite ski as soon as your kicking foot moves
under your body. Extending your kick too long will result
in your ski slipping because it does not have enough weight
on it to force the snow crystals into the kick wax. You
might also experiment with double poling or skating.
GREAT GRIP; NO GLIDE. This situation often occurs when
new snow falls and covers old, icy tracks. The main thing
to do under these circumstances is to keep your skis in
contact with the snow. Lifting your ski up and setting
it down again will provide the opportunity for fresh,
sharp snow crystals to stick to your wax and start to
form clumps. The other thing you should do is to keep
your skis moving. So, when you stop shuffle your feet.
Before you start out again, slide your feet back and forth
to scrape any accumulated snow off your skis so that you
can easily get started. When you are going downhill, try
to keep the pressure on the tails of your skis, not the
tips. Also, tuck on downhills to reduce wind resistance.
