Maintaining your climbing skins is good for both your wallet and the environment. I’m still using skins that are eight years old, likely have over 2,000 miles on them, have been re-glued multiple times, and have stitched cuts. They still work fine. If anything, the glide has improved and the grip is still sufficient.

There are only a few necessary tasks involved in maintaining your climbing skins for hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of use:

• replacing tip and tail attachment hardware
• periodic glue renewal
• stitching cuts
• hot waxing for spring

Because I do a lot of deep wilderness skiing, and don’t want to do more maintenance than necessary, I like skins with both tip and tail attachments. No tail attachment means more glue maintenance to prevent skin failure in the backcountry. Having the tail attachment is more forgiving in terms of glue maintenance.

Of course, you always want to have a means of securing skins that have failed. I carry half dozen Voile straps in my field repair kit for this and many other purposes. While I’ve personally only had to use my Voile straps once in the backcountry for a boot ski lock mechanism that failed, I’ve lent them to partners on many occasions (most often for skin glue failure).

I use Black Diamond skins primarily, for several reasons. Replacement parts (tip and tail attachment hardware) are widely available. I’ve found them to be very durable and long-lasting. And, I like the line of tape that runs down the center. That line of tape helps prevent a tear from spreading across the entire skin and splitting in two. It can also be removed in a skin glue failure situation to expose potentially still functional glue.

Black Diamond also makes Gold Label skin glue, which is widely available, and is what I’ve mostly used for periodic glue renewal (a simple process for which I will add instructions and a video later). They also make glue renewal sheets (which I’ve never tried as the above process works fine for me and is much cheaper).

Stitching cuts in skins, most likely the result of inadvertently skinning over rock, is another simple process that can breathe new life and many miles of continued use into damaged skins. I will post instructions and a video of that process soon as well.

Hot waxing climbing skins is crucial for maximizing pleasure and minimizing misery on warm spring days like those pictured. When you start at lower to mid elevations with moist to wet snow, skins will absorb moisture if not properly waxed. When you reach higher elevations that still have dry snow, that dry snow will stick to moistened skins and glopping, or balling (as with crampons), will occur. The glop can add an enormous amount of weight and completely eliminate glide, making skinning unbearable.

Rub on skin wax, while important and something I carry in my pack year round (along with a scraper), just doesn’t cut it. Hot waxing climbing skins is your ticket to maximum spring skinning pleasure. Even if you’ve hot waxed, you should still carry rub on wax and a scraper with you in the field, especially for longer spring days of adventuring skiing, for periodic skin wax renewal. An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.

Hot waxing your climbing skins is a simple process that only takes a few minutes per skin. Check out the 2.5 minute video below that demonstrates the full process. For another take, check out “Randoman” Brian Harder’s page on hot waxing.