What should you do with your skis after summer ski camp?
After summer ski camp, properly cleaning your skis, prepping them and applying summer ski wax for summer storage is going to increase the lifespan of your skis and get you back on snow quicker and easier in the fall.
Follow these steps to properly clean your skis and apply summer ski wax:
- Clean your skis. Hose your skis off to remove chemicals, dirt and organic particles and allow your skis to dry overnight. Glacier snow is very dirty and full of chemicals that are used to make the snow firm.
- Remove the residual wax fluorocarbon from the skis. Once your skis are clean and dry, if you want to further clean the fluoros out of bases we suggest using Swix Glide Wax Cleaner. We do not recommend using a citrus based cleaner it removes wax and lubrication from the ski bases and dries them out.
- Assess whether your skis need to be ground. If they need any base work have them welded, the edges set and fully tuned. We recommend our Elite Race Ski Prep (T3-STAGE-2).
- Hand sharpen the skis. If bases are in good condition and there is no need to grind/machine tune the skis, hand sharpen the skis with diamond stones (sometimes called moon stones) or files to remove any dings, burrs, or rust from the ski edges. Use a Swix 2nd Cut Race File or 100 grit MoonFlex Diamond File and a 200 grit MoonFlex Diamond File to sharpen the edges, then follow with a 400 grit MoonFlex Diamond File and a 600 grit MoonFlex Diamond File to finish sharpening the edges and polish the edges.
- Condition the bases. To truly pull all the fluoros out of the skis and properly condition the bases you can take the skis through several hot waxing and scraping cycles. To hot scrape; iron in a coat of Swix CH8 or CH10, and before the ski wax is fully cooled – scrape it off. It is ideal to do this to a point where you no longer see any dirt coming out of the ski base. Generally, one to three cycles of ski wax and scraping does the trick.
- Wax the skis. Finish with a coat of summer ski wax or storage wax. Iron in a coat of Swix CH7 or CH8 all-purpose wax. Leave this wax on the ski until you ski again in fall/winter.
- Strap and store the skis. Use ski straps to secure the skis base to base, and store them in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight. Store them in a closet in the main part of your house or under your bed. Do not store skis in the basement or garage – the concrete floors will cause the edges to rust.
Proper cleaning and ski wax is essential to prolong the life of your skis. Taking care of your skis in the summer will make getting back on snow in winter quicker and easier. When you return to snow in the fall/winter, just scrape off the summer ski wax and you are ready to ski!