Ski touring is about being able to travel under your own steam, without having to rely on mechanical lifts. The act of ‘walking’ on skis is referred to as skinning, due to the ‘skin’ attached to the base of each ski.
The main difference between ski touring and regular skiing is the use of skins and touring bindings.
Yes, the skis, boots, poles, accessories and clothing you use can all be tailored for touring, rather than piste or resort skiing, but in the most basic form it’s the bindings and skins that’ll allow you to tour.
There are various adaptors you can get to transform your regular downhill skis into a touring capable ski. One of the world’s best freeskiers, Alex Hall, uses such a set-up when touring. This means you don’t have to change the bindings. You would still need to get skins, so that’s what we’re focussing on here.
In this article we cover the importance of skin selection, manufacturers, skin material, tip & tail attachments, adhesives, sizing & fitting and skin maintenance.
If you want to find out more about boot, binding and ski considerations for touring, we’ve got those covered too. SkiKitInfo.com was very fortunate to get chat with one of Europe’s leading mountain guides, Andy Townsend. Andy’s an IFMGA mountain guide, BASI ski instructor and Head of Skiing at Glenmore Lodge. He’s got advice on skis, boot and bindings, whether you’re yet to dip your toe into the touring pool or a seasoned pro.
Watch the video to learn from Andy’s years of experience, teaching and guiding people in mountain ranges around the world.
Now, let’s chat skins.
SKI TOURING SKINS
Touring skins are an essential item for touring and without them you cannot ‘walk’ with any efficiency on skis. Bindings, skis and boots can all be ‘worked around’ if you already own ski kit. However, you must get skins so we’ll start with them.
The world of touring skins can be confusing. We’re here to help with all the info you need when thinking about purchasing touring skins.
Touring skins, originally made from seal skin, are material strips that you attach to the base of your skis. The material has a nap, or pile, that allows the skis to slide forward. The skis do not then slide backwards because the fibres dig into the surface of the snow, giving grip.
Importance of skin selection
Often, touring skins are a last-minute thought when buying your touring set-up. Don’t fall into this trap, as the skins you select can have a significant impact on how much you enjoy your time skinning.
After all, it’s hard work going up-hill, so make sure you’ve got the most suitable skins for your needs. Unfortunately there’s no such thing as ‘the best skin’, just as there’s no ‘best ski’; it depends on each individual’s requirements.
The best skins for you will depend on various considerations such as budget, terrain you’re planning to tour in, type of snow, time of year/temperature, brand preference, adhesive choice, weight, attachment systems and the skis or splitboard you’re using with the skins.
It’s also hugely beneficial to discuss your needs with your local snowsports retailer, who can take you through the various skin configurations they offer and narrow down a selection for you.
Skin manufacturers
Touring skins are offered by many ski brands, and get referred to by a variety of names such as climbing skins, seal skins, randonée skins, rando skins and others. They’re all designed for the same purpose; to allow you to make progress over snow covered terrain, up hill and along varying angles, on skis.
The majority of touring skins, worldwide, are made by only a few companies including Black Diamond, Colltex, Contour, G3, Kohla, Montana and Pamoca. These companies also make skins that get sold under other brand names, including main ski brands.
Types of skin material
Although touring skins were originally made from seal skin, their now mainly made from mohair, derived from the hair of Angora goats. The mohair is often combined with other materials, mainly nylon.
Mohair or nylon
Mohair offers superb glide for efficient touring and is therefore a lot less tiring than using pure nylon skins. A downside is that pure mohair skins do not tend to be as durable as a pure nylon skins. For experts, pure mohair skins can be used on pretty steep terrain, but for most skiers nylon gips better on the steep stuff.
Nylon skins tend to be heavier than mohair skins too, and weight is an important consideration when fighting against gravity.
To provide the best of both materials, many skins have a combination of mohair and nylon. You get efficient glide, good grip on steep terrain, a suitably durable construction and acceptably low weight. Mohair is normally the dominant material used, with typical mixes of 60-70% mohair and 40-30% nylon. You can get pure mohair skins and pure nylon skins, but if you’re new to touring a mix skin, with mohair and nylon, is typically best.
Some skins are made from other materials, but the vast majority fall into those mentioned above.
Tip & tail attachment
Skins need to be fixed securely to your skis for safe travel in the mountains.
Tip loop
They’re attached to the skis using a tip attachment, typically a wire or metal bail that hooks over the front of the ski.
Tail strap
Most skins also have a tail attachment. This hooks over the tail of the ski with an adjustable rubber-style strap to maintain tension.
Ski-mo style tip notch
If the skis have a notch on the tip, then a bungee or rubber arm can be nestled into the notch, providing adjustable tip tension and reducing weight over a metal tip loop. This is classically used in ski-mountaineering races, referred to as ski-mo, were the skins can quickly be removed without having to take the skis off.
This may be used in conjunction with a tail attachment, or no tail attachment.
Custom skin attachment
Some ski brands use a specialist system, with a specific hook or pin system that locks into a locator in the ski. This may only be used at the front of the ski, or only at the rear, or both. It may be used in combination with a classic tip or tail attachment. The standard tip bail and tail hook system can also be used on these skis if you don’t want to go with the design that brand uses.
To prevent the skin from moving around on the ski they also have an adhesive layer, on the opposing side to the nap, allowing them to stick to the base of the skis, leaving the ski edge exposed for grip when edging.
Skin adhesive
The adhesive used in skins to stick to your skis is generally one of two types. Whichever type is utilised, they’re designed to stick to the base of your skis for touring while being easy to remove for skiing, without leaving glue on the ski.
Hot melt glue
Skin glue has traditionally been a hot-melt adhesive, applied to the skins by the manufacturer. This type of glue can be removed and reapplied by the consumer at home, although this can be a messy business.
Despite the mess when replacing the glue, this attribute is a benefit as skin adhesive can become contaminated by dirt and debris over time, losing it’s tackiness.
Some may never replace the glue on the their skins, while others may replace the glue each season; it depends on many factors. Even if you can replace the glue on your skins, a prime consideration when using skins should be reducing any contamination of the adhesive layer.
When new and/or in good condition, this type of glue is very tacky, providing excellent adhesion to the base of the skis.
The downside can be that if the skin’s glued side sticks to itself, such as when removing or packing the skins, they can be hard to separate. The fact that the glue can become contaminated by dirt and lose it’s effectiveness is also a drawback, as you cannot readily wash the contaminant from the glue.
To help prevent the skin’s glue from sticking to itself, you can use a special sheet, referred to as a skin saver or cheat sheet. This covers the glue base when not attached to your skis. The skin gets folded over this sheet, and then the pair of skins can be placed in their storage bag.
Hybrid skin adhesive
In recent years we’ve seen the development and subsequent improvement of ‘hybrid’ glues, also known as vacuum or glue-less skins. They offer a tackiness close to that of a traditional skin adhesive, with some other benefits. Again, this adhesive is applied to the skins during the manufacturing process.
With this type of adhesive, if the sticky layer gets dirt on it, such as touring skin fibres, organic material, debris from backpacks/pockets etc, then you can rinse the skins under running water to clean them.
They’re normally far easier to separate if they stick to themselves too, and many using these types of skins don’t feel a need to carry cheat sheets when touring.
You do need to be more careful in drying the base of your skis before attaching hybrid glue type skins. Some storage bags for these come with a section designed to dry the base of the skis. If not, then carrying a small piece of travel towel can do the job.
Dry skis & dry skins
Irrespective of the adhesive used, it’s always worth ensuring the bases of your skis are as dry as practical prior to attaching skins. Keep the skins as dry as possible when touring, then fully dry them when your back at your accommodation, before your next skinning session.
Fitting skins to skis
Many ski brands offer pre-cut skins to go with their touring style skis. If you buy skins this way they will perfectly fit your skis and you don’t have to worry about trimming them.
Trim-to-fit skins
You can also buy generically sized skins that you trim to fit your skis. This means you can buy skins for pretty much any skis, even if they’re offered with pre-cut skins. It also gives you a much wider choice of the skins you can choose for your set-up.
Select the trim-to-fit skins which are at least as wide as the widest part of your skis, which is normally the tip width. Ensure the skins are long enough for your skis too.
Trimming skins is now far easier with excellent trim tools, meaning you don’t need to worry about off-setting the skins to account for ski edge width. Each skin brand has videos to show you how to trim their skins.
If you’re not confident about trimming tour skins, ask your retailer as they may offer this service.
Skins on a roll
It’s also possible to buy touring skin material in a roll, which can be a really economical way of making many pairs and you can use whichever tip/tail attachment hardware you want.
Tip & tail hardware
Most brands sell the tip and tail hardware on their own, allowing you to customise your skins. The tip and tail attachment system you get will depend on personal preference, along with the shape of your skis or splitboard.
Skin maintenance
Touring skins are really easy to maintain, if you follow some basic guidelines.
Clean & dry
Keep your skins clean – contamination of the adhesive layer will never benefit the skins and can ruin your day.
Storing them in the bag, when inside your backpack, will limit the dirt the skin glue attracts.
We mentioned it earlier, but dry skins work far better than wet skins. Keep them as dry as you can in use, and dry them fully as soon as you can once you’re back safely from your tour. When storing tour skins during the off-season, use cheat sheets to preserve the adhesive layer. Avoid folding the skins at sharp angles; you may find it easier and better to roll them up.
Cold glue doesn’t stick so well
Skin adhesive works much better when the skins and ski bases are warm. If you’re skinning before skiing, it’s worth attaching your skins to the skis while in the warm of where you’re staying. If you’ve skied before skinning, then ensure you brush off any loose snow from the skis to prevent glue contamination. You can stand your skis in the snow, with the bases facing the sun, to allow them to warm a little. Black bases warm pretty quickly.
You can warm the skins up by stashing them inside your jacket for a little time before you want to use them. If you’re lapping a section, you may find it quicker to just stash the skins in this way, rather than taking time to pack them away in your backpack, and it keeps them warm.
Sticky snow
Depending on the snow and climatic conditions, you may find snow builds up on the pile of your skins. Keeping the skins dry will help prevent this, but it’s worth carrying a skin wax with you, especially in the spring or warm conditions. Most ski brands offer this type of wax, as well as others such as Nikwax.
Cleaning snow from the glue
If you find snow gets stuck to the adhesive layer of your skin, you can readily remove this by rubbing the glue side of the skin against the edge of your skis. Stand the ski in the snow, brace it by gripping it with your legs, then wrap the skin around an edge, adhesive side against the ski, and pull back and forwards. Again, many skin manufacturers have good videos showing you how to do this.
Gimme More
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Want to see more of what the brands mentioned here have to offer, here are the links:
Always ensure you do adequate research when buying ski equipment to ensure you’re getting the best service and advice from the retailer, combined with a price that works for your budget. Don’t always assume that cheaper means better value.
Happy touring and we hope you enjoy making your way up hill under your own steam; it’s ace.
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