How does this waxing work?
We put the wax in small layers on the middle of the ski, this means that the wax is not in contact with the snow when we are not standing on it because of the camber on the ski’s. When we do put weight on the ski’s and really push it in the snow we get some grip which enables us to kick forward. The momentum created will result in a glide. We then use the sticks to maintain the glide for a longer time.

We use one base layer and then two or three layers of the preferred wax. After putting each layer of wax on we rub it into the ski base using a waxing cork until we can’t see any white traces of wax anymore. This is hard work!

Types of wax:
– Green: For really cold temperatures and good as base wax and can be used as gliding wax, so you can basically put it on your whole ski.
– Blue: This is the wax that I prefer when putting on wax and is for temperatures ranging -3 to -8
– Purple: between blue and red
– Red: temperatures just under zero
– Klister: For temperatures around zero. This is just like glue.. When you put this on yur ski’s you will have a hard time getting it of. Especially when your in the mountains because there it will be colder than inside which makes the wax more hard and harder to get on/off!

Snow types:
Fresh and cold snow has many spikes sticking out each snow crystal. This makes it easier for your wax to have a grip in the snow. Put on a wax that is to sticky and the snow will keep sticking in the wax leaving you witch piles of snow attached under your ski’s and loosing your ability to glide.
Take a wax that’s not sticky enough and you will not be able to kick.
Both can ruin your trip but if I had to choose I would rather have a wax on my ski’s with to little grip then a big pile of snow sticking under my ski’s. The reason is that we can always skate instead of kicking. Skating is used in normal cross country skiing and is a quick way of moving but also a very hard and physically punishing technique, especially with the long Nordic ski’s.
When the snow has been melting the spikes one the snow crystals will be shaved of leaving little balls of ice. This is very hard to get a grip on, even with klister!
When your not happy with your wax you can always put a small layer of the preferred wax on top and mix it with the wax that is already on there.

This waxing information only goes for Nordic cross country skiing! The techniques and ski’s used in alpine skiing or normal cross country skiing are different then the once’s used in Nordic cross country skiing and therefore do not need wax.

slalom → flat, short
Powder → flat, wide tips
Cross country → Camber for kick
Nordic cross country → Camber for kick, longer than cross country ski’s, metal edges