We have a week of snow left in the shadowier forrest roads above 300m so there is no talk of new skintec skis or flourinated klister.
Instead I decided to strip my skis down and do a good clister job. A few tips then on a good job which uses only a few minutes while you fdo other stuff in between.
First tape off the kick wax zone at each end and clean off to the sole with the solvent. Allow to dry in a warm room to release solvent residues and open the plastic surface up.
Use either base binder clister spray or like me a base green V90 spray, swix, which is spread with the spatula tool as soon as it is on, one side at a time. Once an even layer is on, scrape off the excess in the groove.
Leave inside for a few minutes to let the solvent evapourate leaving wax. Check for any dry patches and touch up if need be. Now leave outside to set.
Cork in the layer with some real effort and then spray on a thinner layer repeating as above with a lighter corking though.
If you like me dont have a wax iron or dont want to let clister near yours, then hear is a good cheat.
Get your oven on to 50-60'C and put a tube of clister on an old plate making sure the cap is screwed on very well. Heat for five minutes and then take out with a good few layers of kitchen folded into a makeshift oven glove. Open carefully over paper and then go right to the skis.
Take one side of the groove at a time. Lay diagonal stripes of klister from one inch in from each end along the kick zone on one side and smooth out immediately. You are aiming for a coating like a layer of oil based paint on wood for the first layer, not just a "film" but it should be thinner at the ends of the zone, hence you spread to there from stripes out to the ends. Put the tube back in the oven.
Do for all four flat sides and then leave the skis outside in the shade to harden. Repeat with a whole length thinner layer, a film allowing to cool again. Then take a third slightly thicker layer just in the middle of the foot sole under the binding.
I take my skis in the car to save on noise and petrol but ideally clistered skis should be on the roof to keep them cooler or at least out of the way. I tried baking paper secured with masking tape to mask clister off while in the skibag and it worked so well that the same paper could be wrapped round for the way home.
You can do this iron free way with hot water from a thermos or on the top of the car engine when you pull up at the car park and discover it will be klister conditions .
Result? Much better longevity than having clister ontop of old kicking wax because the harder green base holds the laminate better. Good kick on all but the iciest sections which really were concrete and no fun whatever you do. A bit grabby when coming off a fish bone ascent due to them holding snow crystals. At the end of the Drivheia Rundt i did a 5k warm down and the ends of the klistering had worn off enough for much better glide, confirming my usual practice.
I prefer usually to clister up only about 3/4 of the kick zone, leaving an inch and a half free on the heel and a good few inches on the front. This is becuase i am very heavy, and therefore i take a little thick extra layer in the "pocket". Yesterday i went to trad wisdom, full legnth as above, and the skis did jitter at the top of ascents or on hard stretches. I need a little more glide really, but had generally good kick which lasted all 17km mixed terrain and mixed hard-soft easter conditions.
Lighter skiers may avoid that grabbing by using thin full legnth application of clister in two layers of film, and indeed some racer skiers use a longer clister zone than kick wax zone, laying very thin clister layers, with expenive stuff of course.
If you have back country "fjellski" with a lock groove for a short skin then for an up- down tour like this mini mountain then i would recommend using them and maybe whipping them off for the downhill , poling and skating up the humps.
Next year it is definetly skintecs for me, probably just with the glued in skin.
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