Wax the Top of Your Skis

You are probably familiar with waxing skis.  The process is a necessity to create lubrication between the base of your skis and the surface of the snow.  But what about the top of your skis?

The topsheet of your ski is there for many reasons beyond having cool graphics or a place for your favorite stickers.  Sometimes it even has strategic reinforcements and plays a serious structural role in the performance of your skis.

We wax the bottom of our skis so that we don’t stick the the snow when going downhill.  You should wax the top of your skis so that snow does not stick to you when going uphill!

When hiking up dense wet snow, you may experience snow clumping on the top of your skis.  Most people will think nothing of it and go on with their climb; or maybe give a little kick of the ski to knock off the snow. 

But this tiny bit of extra weight stretched over thousands of steps uphill can add up to a lot of wasted energy.  After all, we want to use our energy to bring our bodies and equipement up the mountain.  We don’t need to be carrying clumps of snow along with us or expend energy by kicking our skis every few steps.

A little bit of wax on the topsheet can go a long way.  It will help to prevent snow from clumping on the top of your ski and save valuable energy for the rest of your day.

You can wax the top sheet the same way you would the base; by using a waxing iron.  However, I find the lower quality “rub-on” wax does the trick for the top and is much easier to spread on bumpy and hardware-filled topsheets.

Give this a try before your next climb and your legs will thank you!

Stay safe, stay Savvy, and get out there!

Avi Kleiman
Founder, Savvy Touring Company Ltd.
For Life in the Backcountry