Larch Hills Ski Team

Wax Info for 2024/25

Here are the glide wax product lines the club plans to work with for this race season. The selection was made based on the notion of sticking with the brands we know and products that are locally available (mostly). Swix and Vauhti can be found at Skookum and John’s Ski Shack, respectively. Discounts available for team members! Team members are not expected to buy all of these product lines, pick one and go with it. The team will produce glide wax recommendations for each race that give you an option no matter which product line you choose.

Swix

• High Speed (HS) paraffins (HS 5/6/7/8) + PS Polar

• These are paraffins that are applied with a hot iron although some of the warmer ones (HS 7/8) can also be applied by roto-fleece

• https://www.swixsport.com/en/collections/pro-by-swix/

Vauhti

• Pure Pro liquid glide waxes (base, cold, mid, wet)

• https://vauhti.fi/en/ski-waxing/pure-products/pure-liquid-products/

MasterWax

• https://www.masterwax.it/index.php/

• https://skiwax.ca/collections/masterwax/products/masterwax-racing-fluorfree-manual-kit

For those who want to nerd out a bit more on the subject of waxing and ski preparation, here are a few potentially interesting links:

• https://fasterskier.com/2021/10/escalating-cost-of-world-cup-ski-service-creates-immense-pressure/

• https://www.mansfieldnordic.org/keeping-up-in-a-non-fluoro-world/

• http://www.caldwellsport.com/2020/12/waxing-paradigms/

• https://www.albertaworldcup.com/aiawca-ski-waxing/

 Grip Waxing Tips:

• Please arrive early.  Arriving early allows time for grip wax application and testing. Quite often the first wax that is applied does not work and requires adjustment.

• Most kids skis require between 3 and 5 layers of grip to be effective depending on the camber of your kids skis.

• Ask a coach or knowledgeable parent which wax is working for the day. We are there to help you.

• Purchase a line of wax with multiple different temperatures ranges -10 to +3. Rode and Swix are popular with the ski team. Just buy one brand and get used to which wax works at a particular temperature.

• It is recommended that old wax be removed with a putty knife after practice and residue removed with a wax cleaner.  Warmer wax can be layered on top of colder wax.  If the temperature drops, warm wax must be removed before applying colder wax.

• Make sure that you cork in each layer of wax before adding a new layer.

• If you need support in learning to grip wax, search on you tube and there will be some great videos. Or of course you can ask one of the coaches or experienced wax technicians for a demo.

• Make sure your grip zone is clearly marked with permanent felt on the side of your kids skis. Put your kids name on their skis while you are at it.

Klister Demystified by Brian May

There are basically 4 types of conditions that require the use of Klister.  These are…

1. Corn snow: Snow that is fully transformed and in between “hard and icy” and “sopping wet”.  Good waxes include:

   1. Swix K22 Universal (in a white tube)

   2. Rode Rossa

2. Wet, Fresh Snow:  Fresh snow with warm conditions.  Best waxes include:

   1. Swix K21 Silver Universal (in a silver tube)

   2. Rode Universal

   3. Start Universal Wide (not as grippy as K21N)

3. Really Wet snow: Snow that is fully saturated, really warm or rainy weather.  Best waxes for this condition include:

   1. Swix KR70 or KR75

   2. Rode Rossa Special

4. Icy Corn Snow:  Transformed snow is still hard and frozen.  Waxes include:

   1. Swix Purple (KX45 or equivalent)

   2. Rode Multirange

At a minimum, it’s a really good idea to have some “universal” klister for those corn snow days.

Note that Rode waxes are often used mixed:

1. Multirange + Rossa for corn snow

2. Universal (or Rossa) + Silver for wet, fresh snow

3. Rossa Special + Silver for really wet snow