Home Ski Care 101 – Part 1

There’s nothing like a freshly tuned and waxed pair of skis from the Start Haus award-winning ski tuners. But many of our customers like to take on some of the regular tasks of keeping there skis running smooth and fast, and we’ve got the tools to get you started.

First, let’s talk waxing- a great way to regularly keep your skis running smooth.

We’ll assume you aren’t a ski racer today – who have there own special waxing needs for training and race day. The rest of us can get a whole lot of benefit from a much simpler regime done regularly.

The Wax:

While racers deal in all sorts of high-tech additives, overlays and such, the rest of us can happily start off with simple hydrocarbon wax. Regardless of brand, colors typically correlate to temperature ratings.

Swix CH6 Blue

Blue Hydrocarbon: for the coldest conditions we see in the Tahoe-Truckee area. It’s harder wax to stand up to the sharp crystals of truly cold temperatures (below 21 degrees F).

Swix CH8 Red

Red Hydrocarbon: If you just want to buy one bar of wax, red is the way to go for the vast majority of Tahoe-area conditions. Rated to between 34 and 25 degrees F, it’s durable, versatile and keeps up with changing snow conditions from powder to groomers.

Swix CH10 Yellow

Yellow Hydrocarbon: When spring skiing is in full swing, yellow wax will help with that sticky, on the brakes sensation in wet patches of warm snow. Rated 32 to 50 degrees F).

There’s a few other specialty colors, but those three will cover your bases. Each one comes with a recommended iron temperature – you want to melt the wax, but smoke means things are too hot.

The Technique:

Once you have your wax, first you want to do a hot scrape. Either using a base care prep wax or something like red hydrocarbons, drip melted wax off the iron onto the ski base, then spread it evenly with the iron across the ski.

Unlike the finishing wax, you’ll take your scraper, and pull off as much wax as you can – the warm wax will clean out the bases, taking out dirt, oils and other contaminants with it.

Once scraped, apply your finishing wax the same way – dripping and spreading it with the iron. This time, let the ski bases cool to room temperature.

Then scrape the skis again, removing as much wax as possible, followed by brushing. We’ll cover brushing with different brush materials in the finishing part of this series down the road.

Wax your skis regularly and they’ll perform better, the bases won’t dry out and deform, and they’ll last longer too. Questions? Don’t hesitate to contact the experts at Start Haus for technique, tool and wax advice.