Ski tuning

When I go around on cross-country skis, I like feeling them sliding adequately on the snow. As they are meant to work on flat ground and uphill, as well as downhill, most of the time my weight will work against them, and a well prepared ski surface makes the difference between a peaceful and pleasant tour and very, very sore legs at the end of the day.

I like to think that ski tuning is not a difficult task at all. It requires very little equipment and simple manual skills, which can be easily acquired with a few trials. Of course, I am not speaking of the refined art of racing ski preparation, which involves high costs, training, and a great deal of experience. I have gathered in this page the steps I follow in order to tune my skis for a one-day winter trip on a beaten track. The information is by no means absolute, but represents my personal way of doing things. I consider it very introductory and certainly not up to ski-racing levels, but for touring purposes it has always seemed to work fine.

How cross-country skis work

If you put skis meant for the classic techinque on the ground and you stand on them, you will notice that they touch down only on the tip and heel, while in the middle they do not touch the ground at all. So, when you are sliding forward on the snow, you are actually sliding on the tip and heel. The centre touches the ground only when the ski is dynamically loaded during the stride. During this moment, the centre of the ski 'locks' to the snow, in order to allow pushing forward.

The tip and heel of the ski must therefore be treated in order to slide as much as possible. For this reason, they are coated with a paraffin-based glide wax. The centre of the ski must be coated with kick wax (also called grip wax), a 'glue' that sticks to the snow during the stride only, and that glides freely when it is not loaded.

Skating skis are somewhat different in the fact that they are meant not to stick on the snow at all. Actually, they are used as a very long pair of skates. To all practical purposes, they should be coated with glide wax over the full length.

Wax will work only if the ski surface is properly grooved with a fine and regular pattern. A groove structure is therefore cut into the sole of skis.

In order to avoid the kick waxing chore, there are waxless skis, with 'dimples' in the centre, or with a chemically modified middle portion. It must however be considered that the tip and heel of such skis should be glide waxed as much as on ordinary ones. Because of the decrease in performance of such modified skis and of the simplicity of basic kick waxing, I feel that these solutions do not present any real advantage, except in very peculiar snow conditions (e.g. during a snowfall), and may actually be a disadvantage even to beginners, as they tend to be slower and much less stable than properly prepared ordinary smooth skis.

When to tune the skis

During use, both kick and glide wax wear off. Once you get used to the feeling of well-waxed skis, a well prepared glide wax will not last longer than a single mid-length excursion, and you will feel the need to wax every day or two. Moreover, the skis should never be left unwaxed for longer than a few days, especially in a warm climate (as when storing them for the summer), as they tend to become rough and 'dry'. The minimal maintenance to avoid gross damage to the skis is therefore a 'storage' waxing at the end of the season, and a re-waxing at the beginning of the next one.

Kick waxing is needed at the beginning of every excursion, and must be adapted to the snow conditions whenever they change significantly. Typically, this will mean retouching kick wax at least every significant stop (e.g., lunch break), and sometimes even more frequently. If possible, kick wax should not be left on the skis after use, but cleaned off immediately.

Please note that new skis are sold as not waxed. On new skis, round off (un-sharpen) the edges with very fine sandpaper pulled in the direction from tip to heel, and proceed with glide and kick waxing.

Occasionally, when you run into a stone or a tree root, you will damage the ski surface. In general, for excursion use, the damage can easily be repaired. After a bit of practice, surface inspection and damage repair becomes a natural step in the ski tuning procedure.

Ski tuning equipment

Cross-country ski tuning equipment

For the full sequence of tuning steps, a basic but complete equipment set consists of:

• A ski vise, if possible of the integral one-piece kind. They tend to be very expensive, and the cost is not really justified by the complexity. A professional quality vise can be however easily homebuilt with no special tools bar a hand drill and a screwdriver. My vise is in the photo; I have put the plans in the designs page. It might be worth a check.
• Sticks for damage repair (black or white, according to ski surface composition).
• A cheap electric soldering iron, which comes very handy for melting damage repair sticks.
• Two-component epoxy glue.
• A scalpel (an x-acto knife).
• Fine sandpaper.
• A surfacing tool.
• A properly sharpened stiff steel scraper.
• A couple of plastic scrapers.
• A bronze brush.
• A nylon brush.
• An old nylon stocking, wound on a scrap of soft wood.
• An old non-steam clothes iron, or a ski-waxing iron (much, much more expensive, and not really different from the clothes iron), or a gas ski-waxing torch (that has the advantge of not requiring electricity, and the disadvantage of giving off dangerous fumes if used with fluorinated waxes). The old clothes iron is probably the best and less expensive choice.
• A kick-waxing cork pad.
• A thermometer. I tend to like the electronic 'home heating' ones with a second probe, that are made to measure the inside and outside temperature. By sticking the 'outside' probe into the snow, on the skiing tracks they can be used to measure both the air and the snow temperature at the same time. There are electronic snow thermometers which are basically the same thing, give basically the same performance and cost ten times as much.
• A set of glide waxes (see later).
• A set of kick waxes (see later).
• Some ski solvent. Purists (or even I, on a bad day), tend not to like ski solvents, as they tend to 'burn' the ski surface if abused of. Cleaning without solvents is as fast, as effective, and actually gentler than chemically dissolving dirt or wax, but tends to be quite trickier and messier. For the description, I will stick to solvents, leaving exotic cleaning tecniques to future updates. However, do use proper ski solvent. Cheaper or more readily available surrogates (trichloroethylene, oil derivates) tend to be quite too harsh for the surface.

To this you will eventually end up by adding:

• A couple of spare tips for the poles.
• A few old rags.
• Some scrap paper or tissue.
• A bit of hand-washing compound (such as that used by workshop mechanics).
• Stick-all glue.

For all ski tuning, work in a well ventilated area, as the process gives off all sorts of gases, smells and odours, and some may be quite bad for your health. As the process involves heat, beware of fire hazards. Keep away fom flammable stuff and, if possible, keep an extinguisher handy. Please note that waxes are very flammable. And please (disclaimer...), even though I try being accurate in my description, if you are doing the job, you take the full responsibility for it.

Tuning step 1: repairing damage

Repairing the base surface is my first tuning step. After the full ski base tuning, properly made repairs are almost totally invisible. It may be useful trying this step first on an old pair of skis.

To repair a hole or a bad scratch in the surface:

• Mount the ski on the vise.
• Clean the hole area thoroughly. Be aggressive. In this case, do not be afraid of 'burning' the surface. If the case, use solvent. What you want is to get rid of all wax, as wax prevents the repair material from sticking to the surface.
• Pre-heat the soldering iron, and test it on the repair material. The iron should be hot enough to melt the material freely and easily. If the material boils, however, the iron is by far too hot, and should be cooled down.
• Melt the material on the hole. Work it in with the iron, evenly melting the top of the ski surface if possible, as this helps the material to stick. Do not overdo it. Even though I have heard of the surface detaching from the wood backing because of overheating, I have personally neither experienced such problems nor directly seen them, so I would not be too worried. If the repair material is well molten into the surface, it will need no further help to stick. Put on enough stuff to fill the hole and to bulge out of the ski.
• Wait for the ski to cool down completely. If the repair is large, wait overnight. Do not try accelerating the process by putting the ski outside, as this tends to yield weaker repairs.
• Using the scalpel, even out the bulge to the ski surface. Work slowly, a little at a time, and stop when the repair sticks out of the surface for just the thickness of a sheet of paper.
• Using the stiff steel scraper, pulled in the direction from tip to heel, smooth out the repair completely. On a 'black' base surface, if the repair material has been well molten in, with some practice the repair will now be invisible. A light touch with very fine sandpaper in the direction from tip to heel may help the look of it, but do not expect to remove material this way.

In my experience, chipped edges can be repired, even if the repair tends to be somewhat weaker than for holes. It is however essential to work accurately, as ragged edges may slow down the skis more than the original damage. Proceed only after some practice, and always evaluate the possibility of leaving the edge as it is, just sanding down the sharp chips with fine sandpaper from tip to heel. To repair edges, proceed as with holes, but:

• Use the scraper flat on the sole surface only. Never drag the scraper over an edge, as it digs in.
• Perform the final shaping of the edge with the scalpel and fine sandpaper on a wooden block. Again, never use the scraper directly on the edge.

To repair chips and voids in the wood structure, fill them with two-component epoxy. Inspect the ski carefully, to evaluate whether the crack has weakened it, compromising safety.

After a high number of repairs, or to renew a 'dry' surface, the ski may need to be fully resurfaced. I normally do the job at home with the basic equipment. The principle is to use the bronze brush with enough pressure as to 'lift off' the surface, and then to smooth it out by shaving it with the steel scraper. As the job needs a good bit of 'feel' on how it goes on, it is better, at the beginning, to have it done by a professional ski repair shop, that is typically equipped to do it quickly and efficiently.

Even if it is not strictly a ski repair, occasionally you will have to change a cracked pole tip:

• Note the tip orientation.
• Heat the tip gently with a flame, in order to soften the glue (not the tip!).
• Pull off the tip.
• Apply some stick-all glue to the pole and inside the tip. Do not use PVA glue, as it comes off, nor two-component epoxy, as it will stick, but will not come loose the next time you will need to change the tip. 'Hot' glue (the kind that is used with a glue gun) works fine, but tends to make the tip a bit too heavy, and therefore should not be used on high-quality poles. Moreover, if you decide for hot glue, you will have to work quickly. The advantage of hot glue is in being able to use the pole a few minutes after the repair.
• Apply the tip on the pole, adjust and check the orientation.
• Wait as much as you can - at least overnight - before using the pole again.
• If you put on new tips that differ from the old ones, replace them on both poles to keep the weight and push balanced.

Tuning step 2: structure

Before the actual waxing, inspect the base structure. If the structure is not cleanly visible on the whole ski length, it will need to be cut again. This will tipically happen after large repairs, or after some heavy skiing in very cold snow. Do this on both skis, to maintain them symmetrical. Just lock each ski in the vise, clean them from dirt, and drag the surfacing tool from tip to heel in one go, applying a moderate but firm pressure according to the tool manufacturer's instructions. Do not cut the new structure in a damaged surface or in a partially cut old structure, but repair the skis first if needed.

A couple of tricks:

• A structure tool will typically cut at least two different structures (coarse and fine), meant for different snow conditions. As most non-profesional skiers I have only one pair of skis per kind, and so I have to choose which structure to adopt. I normally cut into the surface a dominant fine structure, which tends to be slower in the wrong snow conditions, but never becomes totally uncontrollable.
• The surfacing tool will run more smoothly and cut a better structure in a waxed surface. If I have time, I apply a soft (e.g. white) glide wax (see step 3), then cut the structrure, then step 3 again with the real glide wax I need. Some care must be taken in properly removing and polishing the wax before cutting the structrure, otherwise the tool will cut into the wax instead of the ski surface.

Tuning step 3: glide wax (paraffin)

Glide waxes are applied on the tip and heel of classic skis, and on the whole base surface of skating skis. When the skis are loaded, they will press on the snow and partially melt it. The least the skis sticks to water, the faster they will glide. To this purpose, the softer and 'greasier' the glide wax, the better. If the wax is too soft, however, the snow will cut into the wax layer, slowing them down and eventually wearing the wax away.

As snow hardness changes with temperature (the colder, the harder), the glide wax should be adapted to the snow temperature. Moreover, if the snow is very damp, a fluorinated wax may be used to help things go better. It must however be noted that fluorinated waxes, if exposed to a flame, will give off poisonous gases. Never use fluorinated waxes with an open flame or a gas torch. Do not smoke while applying fluorinated waxes. Moreover, fluorinated waxes are by far more expensive than plain ones, and may represent a pollution problem in skiing resorts. For these reasons, I use only plain waxes. I avoid fluorinated waxes, and I do not keep them in my standard equipment.

The different waxes for different snow temperatures are marked by their colour. Every maker has its own colour scale; as a rule of thumb, many makers loosely follow a basic scheme:

The temperatures are not referred to any specific maker, and are purely indicative. The better the glide wax is thinned down and polished after application, the least sensitive the skis will be to temperature and the longer the wax will last. So, spending some time in proper glide waxing is well worth the trouble. In general, for excursion use a well polished wax will more or less glide on any snow, with the exception of yellow or red wax on very cold snows (the wax will wear out quickly) and of green wax on warm snow (the skis will 'drag').

To the standard scale, most makers will add a general purpose 'white' wax, which may often be the cheapest of the series. It is normally a rather soft wax, meant to be mixed to the other ones in some snow conditions. I find it much more useful to prepare the surface of skis which have 'dried out' too much, to store skis for the summer (see further on in this page), and to clean the ski surface. In emergencies, it may well be used (well polished!) for actual glide waxing, even though, if I wax at home and I don't know anything about the snow conditions, I would rather apply red wax in early winter and blue wax when I expect colder and older snow.

My choice is a set of white (large pack), yellow, red, blue, green, and ultra-low-temperature green non-fluor waxes. An even more basic set could be white (large pack), red, and blue or green. I buy the cheapest, and rely on accurate waxing to get the most out of them. They have always been satisfactory to all practical puropses.

Now to the actual waxing procedure. For each ski:

• Mount the ski on the vise.
• Clean the ski surface with solvent or other techniques, to remove dirt. If not removed, dirt will mix with the wax, slow the skis, spoil the surface, and get into the other tools. No traces of kick wax must be present on the ski when glide waxing.
• Remove any old wax. A few light passes of a bronze brush from tip to heel may help. Do not press hard, however, as it will spoil the structure. Use a plastic scraper if needed, but make a mental note that, if a scraper is needed, the previous waxing was left too thick on the ski and not properly polished.
• Clean again the surface with a rag. At this stage, dirt is your first enemy.
• Warm the iron. If you are using a plain clothes iron like I do, set it to the 'silk' setting, or just a wee bit warmer than that.
• Choose the wax you want, and melting it on the tip of the iron, let it drip on the surface. You want the surface dotted with wax drops. If you want to mix waxes (which will yield a wax with intermediate characteristics), drip the first one, the the second. If you are using a gas torch, eventually the wax on the torch will catch fire. Do not be overalarmed; just remove the wax stick from the torch, and wait a few seconds. The wax on the torch will burn out. If this happens more often than it is reasonable, the torch is too warm.
• Using the iron on the ski surface, melt the wax drops on the full ski surface. 'work in' the wax, but do not stop moving the iron, as it will overheat the surface. The iron should always touch the wax, and not the ski surface. If the wax boils, the iron is by far too hot. Stop immediately (fire danger and possible ski damage), cool down the iron, and set it to a lower temperature. If you are using a gas torch, follow the manufacturer's instructions to cool it down, or switch it off for some time if it has no temperature regulation. Moving the iron faster and with longer strokes on the ski will help to cool it, and with some practice this will give you a sort of fine temperature control.
• Wait for the ski to cool down slowly and completely (even a few hours if needed). Do not be tempted to accelerate the process by putting the ski outside or on the snow.
• Mount again the ski on the vise.
• Using the plastic scrapers, scrape off as much wax from the surface as you can. On the snow, the skis should glide on the wax that has been absorbed by the surface porosity only. Take your time, and put some care not to mark the surface with the scrapers.
• Using the nylon brush with short and firm strokes in the direction from tip to heel (but I would not be too fussy about the direction), remove all the wax that has been left behind by the scrapers. Go back to the scraper if needed.
• Clean with a rag the wax powder left by the brush. The structure should now be clearly visible on the full ski surface.
• Polish the wax to a mirror shine using the old nylon stocking wound on a scrap of soft wood. You will feel at first the stocking 'dragging' on the ski surface. If this is the case, you still need to remove wax by polishing. When the surface is ready, the stocking suddendly glides on it with almost no resistance at all. Stop, as proceeding further will 'dry' the surface, and you will have to start all over again. Always work with a clean stocking surface. The polishing action warms up the surface, and if you feel the stocking 'working in' the wax, you may have to stop for a few minutes to let it cool down, especially working in warm rooms with 'warm' (yellow or red) waxes. During this time, just work on the other ski.

For a fast wax touch-up, I rub the wax stick as a crayon on the surface, rather than dripping it on. I then heat the wax on the base surface with the iron and proceed with polishing in the ordinary way. With 'cold' (blue or green) waxes, the rubbing may have to be repeated twice, heating the base surface between the two passes. Some care must be taken in fully covering the surface and in avoiding too much pressure, that will spoil the structure. Rubbing quickly heats up the stick and helps the wax transfer.

When you are skiing, it may be useful to carry around an odd lump of any old glide wax or, better, a bit of glide wax tin-canned like the kick-waxes (see next tuning step). It can be applied 'cold' by rubbing it on the tip and heel, if you desperately need to wax on-site.

Tuning step 4: kick wax

Kick waxes are applied on the centre of classic skis. During the push stride, the skis are pressed onto the snow. In that moment, and in that moment only, the snow cuts into the wax, locking the skis onto the ground and allowing the skier to push themselves forward. Since the snow does not adhere to the wax, as soon as the pressure is released, the skis unlock from the ground and slide.

Again, as snow hardness changes with the snow conditions, the kick wax should be adapted to the snow. Too hard a wax ends up in skis which do not anchor to the ground, and too soft or too sticky in skis which anchor to the ground as permamently as a good pair of walking boots.

The first decision to take when kick waxing, depends on what kind of snow you are going to ski on. On new snow (that falls off from your hands if you try to scoop it up, and that is difficult to form into a snowball) you need to apply the kind of kick waxes that come as solid sticks, often packaged in tiny tin cans. On transformed snow (snow that has been heated by the sun and re-frozen a few times, that is scooped up as a lump, and that forms easily into snowballs) you are likely to need the kind of wax that looks like glue packaged into toothpaste-like tubes, and that is absolutely the stickiest and messiest stuff on the face of our planet.

You will then need to measure the snow temperature, choose the wax, and apply it accordingly. Again, kick waxes are colour-coded, with a coding that depends on the manufacturer. For solid wax sticks (new snow), some colours may come in a plain, a super and/or a special variants, for slightly warmer and/or colder snows than the respective plain versions.'Universal' solid kick waxes (touring waxes), that with a couple of waxes are supposed to cover the whole temperature range, are still sold in some places. They simply do not work, and the ones meant for warmer conditions look like tarmac and smell like hell.

For toothpaste-tubed 'glues' (transformed snow), the situation is somewhat simpler. On our Alps, most skiing can be done with just a wax for cold snows (bright blue in colour, also referred to as skare) and one for warm snows (bright red, klister). Intermediate properties can be obtained by mixing the two, as explained later. If you are crazy enough to go skiing when it's raining you will also need a yellowish toothpastish muck, that I will not even mention any more. It is also possible to find an 'universal' glue that seems to work somehow in most reasonable transformed-snow conditions, but is never totally satisfactory.

In all, a very basic kick waxing set could be composed by solid red, white, blue and green, and tubed skare and klister. I have seen that, as solid kick waxes are not expensive at all and last very long, it is well worth expanding the set to the full range. A very useful addition to the set is a bit of hand-washing compound, such as the gritty soap used in mechanics workshops, stored in a small plastic container.

The application of the kick wax must be done on-site, as it critically depends on snow conditions. So, on-site, before skiing:

• The wax must be adapted to the snow temperature. Place the thermometer in the snow. If, however, you can also estimate or measure the air temperature, it will tell you if the snow tends to get warmer or colder as the day goes on. If you have a dual-probe thermometer, it speeds up the whole measurement process by giving snow and air temperature at the same time.
• Observe the kind of snow, and decide between solid wax sticks and skare/klister (and more on this comes at the end of the section)

If you decide for a solid wax:

• If the wax comes in a can, peel off the edge of the can, to expose the wax (and, please, carry the waste metal away with you).
• Grab hold of a ski as shown in the photograph.

Holding a ski for kick waxing

• Rub the wax stick as a crayon on the surface, starting ten or fifteen centimetres (four to six inches) above and ending a couple of centimetres (an inch) below the binding, avoiding the central groove. Try to obtain an even layer, with no lumps of wax.
• With the cork pad, polish the wax rubbing it in the direction from tip to heel, until the wax becomes transparent.
• Place the ski with the surface away from the sun. Do not, however, wet it yet by placing it in the snow.
• Proceed with the other ski.
• Repeat the process two or three times, until you feel that the wax layer is evenly and fully spread out.
• You can now place the skis on the snow, and start skiing.

If you decide for a skare or klister

• If possible, go inside, as warmer air helps the skare/klister to flow.
• Open the tube, warming it in your hands to help it flow if the air temperature is low.
• Sparingly deposit a row of skare/klister spots some three centimetres (an inch) apart on both sides of the central groove, starting a couple of centimetres (an inch) below and ending ten or fifteen centimetres (four to six inches) above the binding. If you need to mix skare and klister, alternate skare and klister spots. Keep the quantity small. Too much skare/klister, and you will be glued down to the ground, with no hope of getting out of it.
• Using the 'meaty' part of the palm of your hands, vigorously rub the goo on the centre of the ski base to warm it up and to spread it out, as shown in the photograph. This is, in my opinion, the most efficient (and the messiest) way of spreading skare/klister. Please note, however, that another recognized way of doing it is by using a klister scraper (a t-shaped plastic scraper). In doing this, however, you will not get such a thin layer, and you loose the advantage of warming up the wax as you spread it.

Spreading klister

• Wash your hands as soon as possible. The muck is sticky. This is where the hand-washing compound comes handy.
• If you are inside, now take the skis outside.
• If you place the skis face-down on the snow, start skiing, as otherwise snow starts sticking on the ski surface. To avoid this, you can let the skare/klister cool down after all the rubbing, and coat it with a thin layer of solid wax. This layer will protect the skare/klister from sticking to the snow while you wait, and will wear away in a few seconds as soon as you start going.

Of course, the main trick is in choosing the wax. A bit of trial-and-error is the best tutor. In a week, you will be able to get your skis going in most reasonable conditions. As a guide, a wax that is too soft (too 'warm') sticks too much, and too 'cold' a wax sticks too little. The possible scenarios are:

A few tips:

• As you may notice in the table, errors with applying solid kick wax can somehow be recovered, while errors that involve using skare/klister in the wrong conditions tend to be disastrous. In doubt, try with a solid wax. If it wears away too quickly and you are reasonably sure that it is not due to poor waxing technique, use skare or klister.
• In doubt, use colder (harder) wax. In case of an afterthought, it is easier to coat warm on cold wax than cold on warm wax.
• 'Cold' solid kick waxes (blues and greens) tend to anchor badly to the ski surface, and to wear away quickly in any case. To avoid this you can either:
  • Apply on the ski surface a well-thinned layer of 'base' wax (black, or grundvalla). Cover it with the correct wax as normal. Please note that, even if called 'black', it is often of a light red colour. Touring (useless...) waxes are often black, but have nothing to do with it.
  • Apply the first layer of wax, then heat it with the waxing iron (this is where a gas torch has some advanage on electric irons, as you can use it in the field). Let it cool down and apply the other layers as normal.
  • Use a thin (maybe heated with a torch) skare layer as a base.
• If you kick-wax a longer central portion of the ski, it will stick more. However, if you wax really too long, it will slow down the ski, and it will not help in the stride. In general, try finding the optimal waxing length for your weight, and keep to it.
• If you can foretell the evolution of the snow temperature during the trip, you can layer diffrent waxes on top of each other. As one is worn away, the next one is exposed.

After skiing: cleaning up the muck

After skiing, kick wax tends to harden and, after a few days, it may become difficult to remove. To carry them around, never squeeze the skis with the two centre portions touching each other. Not only this may this damage the ski elasticity. If the skis are properly kick-waxed, they may very effectively stick together, giving you a tough job in separating them again. If this happens, take them inside to warm them up and to soften the kick wax, and slowly detach them, grabbing them by the tails and rotating one ski against the other. Do not grab them by the tips, as this twists them badly. Gentle heating with a hair drier may help. Almost certainly, after such rough treatment, you will have to glide wax.

So, after skiing, clean the skis. Place them in the vise, and use solvent and paper to remove the kick wax. Do not let the solvent and wax go onto the tip and heel, as this spoils the glide waxing. With solid wax, this is a straightforward job. With skare and klister, proceed a little at a time. Mentally divide the centre part of the skis in short portions, and clean a portion completely before proceeding with the next. This will help in actually getting the wax on the paper, rather than everywhere else but the intended destination. Always proceed towards the centre of the waxed section, as it helps in keeping the kick wax away from the tip and heel.

If you need to store the skis tied together, do not flex them. Rather, place them sole-to-sole, touching at the tip and heel only, interposing a bit of greaseproof paper where they touch, and bind them together just there. Rubber rings cut from an old bicycle tyre work just fine.

Storing the skis for the summer

If you need to store the skis for a long period of time (as in the summer), clean and wax them thoroughly on the full length with soft (e.g. white or yellow) glide wax. Do not however thin it down or polish it, as a thick wax layer effectively protects the base surface from oxidation, dust and scratches.

This wax will be removed and renewed at the beginning of the next skiing season. When the new season begins, on classic skis, after removing and polishing this protective wax, you will need to rub the centre of the skis vigorously with solvent, in order to help the first kick-waxing processes. A 'mock' kick waxing with a soft kick wax or klister and subsequent wax removal helps in restoring the centre of the ski to working conditions.

Again, if you need to store the skis tied together, do not flex them. Rather, place them sole-to-sole, touching at the tip and heel only, interposing a bit of greaseproof paper where they touch, and bind them together just there. Try not to store the skis sole-up, as this ends up in a thick layer of dust that will have to be removed when the skis will be used again.

A bit of silicone lubricant sprayed in the binding helps in preventing jamming. To protect the bindings from dust, wrap the centre of the skis in an old newspaper. Do not use plastic, as it traps moisture.

A few final notes

In general, ski tuning is an integral part of cross-country skiing, as much as pitch tuning is part of violin playing. Eventually, the tuning becomes a personal feeling as much as the skiing itself, to the point of feeling robbed of part of the fun when it has to be done by a ski repair shop. Just try it!