Tune Up Your Skis

Waxable Cross-Country Skis
Traditional kick-and-glide cross-country skis (classical) get the same wax treatment as skating skis, with minor differences. Use a warm iron to apply a glide wax to the tips and tails of diagonal skis just as with skating skis. Each time you go out — and often more than once while skiing — crayon a kick wax (aka grip wax) onto the middle of the ski, and use a synthetic cork to smooth it out. (Always smooth from tip to tail.) Kick waxes are color-coded for specific temperatures. Old wax should be diligently scraped off and new wax applied when needed. A wax-removing solvent helps remove sticky waxes.

Waxless Cross-Country Skis
Some 85 percent of all nordic touring skis sold in this country are waxless, for one very good reason: They require virtually no maintenance. But a little TLC will make even these no-brainer boards perform better. Wax the tips and tails above and below the fish scales before skiing, for better gliding and turning.

Michael Lanza is a regular contributor to several outdoor magazines and author of The Ultimate Guide to Backcountry Travel (AMC Books) and New England Hiking (Foghorn Press).