Cold Weather Waxing - With Roger Knight

Roger says...

Cold weather waxing is one of the most complex parts of this thing we call skiing. The waxes are rock hard and brittle, the snow is generally harsh and slow, and the waxes are hard to use and frustrating to work with.  Here are some secrets of the trade that should help you get consistently fast results.

• Every wax company should make their coldest waxes in powder form. They are easier to use, go onto the ski better, and generally yield better overall results. 
• Get a cheese grater and grind up any waxes that are not in powder form. Doing so applies to every green wax on the market. Either take the grater to the wax right over the ski or grate an entire bar of wax in an old parmesan cheese container. Just make sure to clean the cheese container well—Parmesan does not make a ski faster!!!
• Start with a layer of Rode Graphite. You can sub your favorite graphite for the
  Rode, but Rode Graphite is probably better. If you know, you know. 
• The critical thing is that you get A LOT of the cold wax on the ski. Iron temps need to be very hot to melt cold waxes, and you risk damaging your bases if you don't have enough coverage. The ski should be completely covered by wax; no base should be visible. Doing so actually does not use as much wax as you would think.
• After the ski is covered, take a tip-to-tail pass with the iron, just like usual. It may take a bit longer than normal on the first pass, but this is ok. Try to stick to approximately an eight-second pass for the subsequent five or six passes.
• Although it is better to let the ski cool, it is a Catch-22 with extremely brittle and hard cold weather waxes. When you do let them cool, it is challenging to scrape the ski, and it can take a long time. This will mean 
  added work on your part, but if you can bear it, then by all means, do. It will make for faster and healthier skis. 
• Leading up to important races in cold weather, we highly recommend putting in layers of Rode Graphite as it is very hard. Graphite hardens the base and provides incredible durability. Hard graphite is best for this, as Molys tend not to be hard enough. 
• When in doubt, do two layers of cold weather wax. It will never hurt you, and it can only help the durability of the wax.
• It is 100% necessary to ski on the ski and re-brush. Completely brushing out these very hard waxes is nearly impossible; thus, when the skis are sliding on the snow, the excess wax heats up and drops out to the surface of the ski. This excess leads to drag as the wax drags on the snow. This step is often overlooked and will lead to very slow skis!
• 
  Over-brushing is not a word ever used in cold weather waxing as long as you use
  the proper brushes and techniques. Start with a fine steel brush with gentle pressure, proceed to a Holmenkol horsehair brush,
  and then work up to aggressive brushing with a stiff white nylon brush. After skiing, rebrush (termed "scrubbing") with a stiff white nylon.
• With all of the new Fluor-Free products, most companies are not making a traditional "green" wax. Many cold powders on the market are great, including Rode Arctic Powder and Toko X-Cold Powder, to name our favorites.
• The liquid fluor-free stuff tends to be more in the blue range as well, so please test below 10F as it may not be very good in the colder, more traditional green temperature ranges.