Ski hill spring Problems

A

AndrewOze

New member
So, this happens every year at my local hill Around the same time every year, the problem is speed while going down the hill, somehow grease gets stuck on the bottom of peoples skis and it is literally almost impossible to go down the hill, Basically you have to put up a giant work out to let alone, get down the hill, we have a degreaser spray in the shop, but that works for only 3-4 runs, does anyone else go through this? Or have any tricks to stop the grease for a decent amount of time?
 
If you find a solution to this please share. We have the same problem at my mountain. The best thing I've found I can do is just carry a scotch bright pad in my pocket and scrub the grease off when it gets too bad after every half a dozen runs or so.
 
I've heard that its from pollen getting on the snow and then on your skis, slowing them down. I used a shitload of rub on wax today and that seemed to help, but it rained last night so that may have just washed away the pollen and I didn't notice.
 
I'm out west and we get this here. Only in late spring, hasn't started too bad at my mountain yet but it's only a matter of time.

I'm not sure that it's actually "grease" but it's black sticky shit that adheres to your skis. You ever look at the snow piled up on the side of the road after it hasn't snowed in a week? Notice how its gray or even a nasty looking black? Well in the late spring you're just skiing on old snow pack and the snow gets dirty as fuck. The groomers kind of scrape some clean spots for you, but they cut back on grooming in the spring and at some point you are going to be skiing not on the narrow groomer strip, and then other people are dragging that black stuff onto the groomers, your skis end up getting these huge black tar looking spots all over the bases. I'm guessing it's just fine dirt and dust, tree pollen, lift grease etc anything that can be carried on the wind and it mixes with the oils and old wax already in the snow.
 
Think about a season with of cats driving around. All the diesel mixed with dirt, hydro, and other shit concentrates. As the snow melts that all stays on top. The later is get the more slow and dirty the snow gets.
 
I think the problem is not that theres "sap" or "grease" but there is a high water percentage in the snowpack. when your skis run over wet snow, the water has a tendency to create a suction to your bases which explains why it happens consistently during spring time. This suction causes you to slow down do to high friction. Solution, warm weather wax
 
yeah that would be sand, salt and actual dirt.

I'm not disputing there is shit on the snow on the hill but it is not the same type of dirty as the side of the road.
 
Guys it's your flat base on wet snow. The way your skis glide is melting a thin layer of snow and you slide on the water. But your base can't be flat. If it's flat it will instead cause suction and slow you down. It's for this reason you get a structure put on the base. This give the base channels to allow the water to flow and it is this that allows you to glide.

It gets worse the warmer the weather is as the snow melts and there is a higher water content. For these conditions a deep linear structure works really well.

So overall it's your base, you need a stone grind to add a structure back onto the base.
 
its the fucking government man.

but really my weapon against going slow in the springtime is waxing my base, then not scraping the wax off. the lift line and the first half of your first run are going to be seriously fucking slow, but after that the wax gets all smeared off and worked in and you end up looking like that little fucker dash from the incredibles. dartin around on all these other slow ass ninjas and shit.
 
Even better then that get a base structure. Combine that with the right wax you will be as fast in spring as you are mid winter
 
Never had this problem in europe, but I'd say that you should try to wax your skis every day or two, and use warm weather wax as this will help shit from sticking to the base. Sounds like some pretty nasty stuff!
 
I understand slush makes you slow. I don't think OP is talking about slush. He's talking about the black tar spots you get on your skis in really late spring. I got a couple of those spots last time I went out, but in late spring it can get so bad that your whole bases will turn black with this sticky black stuff. The black stuff makes you even slower in the snow than ordinary clean slush, and no amount of base structuring helps.
 
Its just burned wax, because of more friction from the wet snow. You need to scrape and wax your skis more often, and with a proper temperature wax. Sometimes when its really warm, but its still snowing on top of the slush, its really really sticky. No idea what would help on that.
 
Since words aren't getting us anywhere I took some pictures. The snow starts to look like this only much much worse. And then your ski bases start to get these dark spots on them where the misc dirt/grease sticks, something like this only again, much worse once we get into late spring.

Pictures were taken today, and we actually had a dusting of fresh snow a day ago so not nearly representative of how bad it gets the closer we get to season end.
 
That's called dirt.

It is corrosive to your bases and you should clean it off with base cleaner then wax with warm weather wax. Repeat often. Racers at hood have to do this all summer long.

But that's not slowing you down nearly as much as your bases that are flatter than the hills in the midwest. Get a stone grind with a deeper structure.
 
Yes dirt is definitely a component, but it sort of congeals onto the ski and looks like dark grease patches.

The question is not "what is it" although apparently it became that way since no one seemed to know WTF the OP was talking about. The question is what can be done?

Base cleaner/ re-wax is not an option when your skis turn black after only 6 runs, and you're only 30minutes into your ski day...
 
Well you may not like it but honestly a structure will help. That base is completely flat you can see in the pic. So any dirt is just getting pasted into the base. If you had more of a structure the dirt would find channels to full instead and not get stuck on the surface. Then at the end of the day a good brush of the base should remove the dirt from the structure.

Flat bases like that will never run flat and when the snow gets dirty you will run into even more problems like you are finding.
 
Don't use base cleaner. Do a hot wax to remove dirt. You actually want to build up wax in the base and use a base cleaner just removes it all. Base cleaner was for xc skis with kick wax.
 
A base structure, while a great idea in general, doesn't seem to help. My husband had his snowboard pro tuned and base structured a little over a month ago and it's still collecting dirt at the same rate as my flat based punx.

Scotch brite pads will have to do, until someone has a better idea.
 
That's because he got a structure for mid February. stone grinders can do different patterns for different conditions.

You really need to do yourself a favor and listen to what tomPietrowski has to say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top