Tips & Tricks for Full Length Climbing Skins

**This blog applies to removable Full Length Skins NOT permanent Imbedded Skins.

With the longer hours of sunlight and the warmer spring temperatures it is much easier to undertake longer back-country ski trips.

Tip: Always pack a headlamp and spare batteries just in case things go off the rails.

Full-length climbing skins become essential for extended climbs in hard-packed, icy & wet snow conditions. Ski touring success often hinges on ensuring that your full-length climbing skis are working adequately with the changing snow and temperature conditions throughout the trip.

Tip: It is critical to make sure that the glue on your full-length climbing skins is in excellent condition because it is primarily the glue that holds the full-length climbing skins onto your skis.

Trick: Before any back-country trip do a thorough inspection of your full-length climbing skins and even install them on your skis to confirm that the glue is holding adequately. If you can peel off the full-length climbing skins with ease – consider refreshing or replacing the glue.

Before installing full-length climbing skins on skis ensure that the bases are clean & dry.

Tip: For grip waxable skis ensure that you adequately scrape off any grip wax warmer than a Swix green before you install your full-length climbing skins – a small bottle of wax remover can assist with stubborn grip wax removal. For waxless skis use a scrapper followed by a stiff brush to remove all of the ice and snow from the profile section.

Tricks: It helps to warm up the bases with a clean cork before attempting to attach the full-length climbing skins. Between uses keep your full-length climbing skins warm by storing them inside your jacket up by your chest. Use a mesh Skin Saver during your trip but save the original papers that came with your full-length climbing skins for long term summer storage.

Full-length climbing skins should be installed under adequate tension to allow for thermal expansion and/or water saturation.

Tip: Pre-adjust your tip and tail connectors at home before your trip for the proper tension. A sturdy front clip really helps to keep your full-length climbing skins on and aligned properly.

Trick: I prefer to install the front clip first and then hold my ski in one hand and the full-length climbing skin in the other and pull just enough tension so that the full-length climbing skin will not contact the middle section of the ski – then I accurately line up the full-length climbing skin and attach it at the heel and then firmly press down on the entire length of the full-length climbing skin to ensure excellent contact everywhere. Having a friend help you install your full-length climbing skins makes this much easier. Note that too much tension may result in the full-length climbing skin becoming detached underfoot due to the camber of the ski… it takes a bit of experience to get the tension just perfect.

Several things may go wrong with full-length climbing skins:

(1)   The glue will get wet and it just won’t stick to anything.

Tip: At home between trips thoroughly dry your skins with clean, indirect heat. For long term storage use the original papers provided with your full-length climbing skins.

Trick: The only solution for wet glue is to have a roll of Gorilla Tape and simply tape your full-length climbing skins onto your skis in at least 4 places: right in front of the binding, right behind the binding heel plate, then halfway to the tip and again half-way to the tail – hopefully your tip and tail connectors are still working adequately too.

(2)   The glue will become fouled by wax, pine needles, dirt, wood chips, or even smoke particles from a fire.

Tip: It is NOT recommended to dry your full-length climbing skins beside a fire or fireplace. Always use a Skin Saver for temporary storage to keep your glue clean and working properly.  Never roll your full-length climbing skins or stick them glue-to-glue.

Trick : Again, the only solution for heavily fouled glue is to tape your full-length climbing skins to your skis and get back home to either clean, refresh, or replace the glue.

(3)   The full-length climbing skin material will become water saturated and will clump snow or ice up.

Tip: Pre-treating your full-length climbing skins with any one of the many available skin treatments before your trip will help prevent this - but eventually it is going to happen.

Tricks: The first line of defense would be to use a scrapper to knock off the snow clumps and squeegee excess water from the full-length climbing skin – sometimes this is enough to keep going; but if excessive clumping occurs you need to apply a product like Black Diamond Glop Stopper Skin Wax. A word of caution… Glop Stopper Skin Wax will degrade the grip performance of your full-length climbing skins until you can get back home and properly clean them. If you have a long way to travel or time is critical it is often best to pack a second pair of full-length climbing skins so you can just swap out the ones that are no longer working properly and keep going.

(4)   Full-length climbing skins will stretch with warmer temperatures and when they get wet. Tail connectors are notorious for falling off – or breaking - at the worst times.

Tip: You need to have a solid back-up plan (that can be implemented quickly) for when your connectors fail. A one-inch roll of Gorillia Tape is recommended for quick repairs.

Tricks: I now just tape the tails of my full-length climbing skins directly onto my skis with Gorilla Tape (which seems to work better in the wet and cold). This way I am certain to have my Gorilla Tape on hand should things go sideways anytime during the trip plus I can easily make tension adjustments as needed with just a quick wrap of tape. Gorilla Tape can also be used to temporarily solve a broken boot lace, parted zipper, torn clothing, broken pole, or even a broken binding.

Removing & replacing heavily fouled glue on full-length climbing skins is a very messy, time consuming, and labour-intensive process – often it is just easier to purchase new.

Tip: Sometimes the tackiness of the glue can be somewhat restored by heating the glue with a hair dryer – do NOT use a heat gun or you could risk burning the glue necessitating a complete cleaning and glue replacement.

Trick: If your glue has become fouled with wax you can try to evaporate the offending wax with a hair dryer or cover it with SWIX Fiberlene and quickly pass a clean, low temperature waxing iron over the Fiberlene to absorb the wax – this is not ideal but takes a lot less time than removing the glue and re-gluing.

Please send us a note if you have any questions or new tips & tricks for us to try out!