Backcountry.com Newsletter Articles

It’s time to quit driving around with your skis on the top of the car. Before you head for your first camping trip or bike ride, spend a few minutes putting your gear away so your expensive skis or snowboard are still rideable next year.

Dry off your skis or snowboard.

Take a towel and wipe off the bases. Use your friend’s bath towel or a rag that’s not soaked with grease. Give the bindings enough time to let any trapped water evaporate. Remove the liners from your ski or snowboard boots and let them sit until they’re dry.

Lay it on thick.

Get some warm weather wax and go to town. You’re going to really overdo it with the wax, laying it so thickly on the base that it spills over the sides and coats the vertical metal edges. Do this over some newspaper and keep away from your mom’s antique rug. If you don’t have a waxing iron, find a cheap thrift shop iron and set the heat very low—if it smokes it’s too hot.

Remove spring tension from alpine bindings.

If this step is at all confusing, just skip it—it’s not crucial. If you know your way around an alpine ski binding, and you ski a high DIN, take the time to back out the screws on the toe and heel pieces of the bindings. Put some tape on your ski’s topsheet and write down your DIN setting before you use a big screwdriver to lower the DIN. It’s critical that you remember to return them to their original setting before you ski, otherwise you could end up injured on the first run next year.

Buckle your ski boots.

Put your liners back in and make sure there aren’t any weird folds or creases inside. Push the tongue back in the boot and then loosely and evenly buckle it. The polyurethane used in ski boot construction has a bit of memory, so if you leave them open all summer they won’t want to wrap around your calf next winter.

Put them someplace dry.

Put them in your closet, basement, or garage. If you have a ski bag, put them in there first. Keep them away from any moisture. If they go in your basement, make sure you don’t put them by your water softener—your edges will be completely gone in a few months.

When next fall rolls around make sure to tighten your bindings and scrape the wax off before you get to the resort parking lot.