TreeFallin wrote:That is very inspiring. Thank you for that. I have always wanted to try it on my 10th mountains and now I'm motivated further. So when you ironed the wax into the scales it didn't gum up the scales?
Hey Treefallin!
It did not gum up the scales.
I dragged the wax on to the entire base and then ironed- let it cool- then buffed with a cork. I had to buff with the cork in one direction over the scales to reduce wear and tear on the cork.
Grip wax melts very differently than glide wax. I got a very even thin layer of grip wax over the scaled section that I did not even need to clean up.
My plan is to expect to be able to rely entirely on the scales- as per usual- when the snow is warm enough to require a soft kick wax that would definitely gum up the scales and be time-consuming to remove.
If I avoid soft kick wax I may be able to avoid having to strip the bases.
The performance of this ski in cold, deep, soft snow was VASTLY improved.
The Annum (and the Epoch) continue to be very well made reliable designs- and they are VERY reasonably priced. I have always been frustrated with the lack of grip during the heart of cold winter snow, and have always wished for a waxable Guide/Annum. I really don't know why I did not consider grip-waxing waxless-scaled skis before...(We have a couple of pairs of both the Annum and the Epoch. I don't find the Epoch any better on consolidated snow than the Annum- and the Annum offers considerably better flotation- so the Epoch is used by the light and growing members of my ski clan.)
On another note- the hard-grip-wax (Polar) base offer much better wax retention on the cheap extruded base of the Madshus XCD skis, than hard glide wax. Over the years I have wasted a lot of money glide waxing these cheap bases.
I have now stripped all of my waxless BC-XC skis and am planning on using Polar on all of them as my base wax.
The NEXT move is to strip my Koms of glide wax and do the same. My Koms have been almost useless this winter- due to lack of grip. The Kom is actually a better soft-snow downhill ski than my Storetind- well, not "better", just more playful and smeary. But- I can not get adequate climbing traction with the Kom on cold, deep, soft snow- and I certainly do not have enough vertical in my local hills to want to bother with climbing skins on the Kom...So- why not grip wax the Kom? Without resolving the lack of grip issue with Kom it will continue to sit on the rack most of the time...
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I am starting to strongly consider a wider powder downhill ski for my local backcountry hills and ravines...
The combination of very steep slopes and dense mature forest makes skiing this terrain an almost exclusively mid-winter, cold soft snow thing...It really is just too dangerous to try and ski these steep forested slopes when the snow is difficult...
My Storetind performs best downhill when the terrain and snow allow me to charge on them- effectively keeping them on moderately-steep slopes. This is fine- I have a lot of this terrain to ski on.
But- I also haved access to some really sweet very steep terrain- combined with forest stands with open understories- that set themselves up with both an ideal base and hero snow on top by mid-winter...I want a modern downhill powder ski for this terrain at some point, but I need enough grip to be able to efficiently ski laps on these slopes as the vertical tends to be in the 100-250m range and I wuold like to avoid constantly taking on and off climbing skins. And scales are just not enough grip in that cold soft snow...
Lately, I have managed to climb to climb some truly amazingly steep slopes with just grip wax on my Ingstad BC/Storetind. And, the Asnes kicker-skin attachment provides a very quick method of getting that extra grip when you need it.
Having better grip with the Kom will definitely increase its use in my local hills. I may end up discovering that the Kom is exactly what I want. Or- at least- it will help me make a decision if I come to the point of wanting a Voile V6 vs. V6 BC vs. Asnes Fjoro 92...
