Climbing Skins

Skiers often get confused when choosing the appropriate width for their skis. A few tips:

• Skins grip only where you can guild pressure underfoot. In all but very rare deep trail breaking, the cambered portion of your skis is where you get traction from your skins.

• Ski edges are 2 to 3 mm wide and they have to be kept exposed. As a result a 120 mm wide skin will offer perfect coverage until your ski reaches 124 to 126 mm wide. Even on fat powder skis, this means full coverage from the end of the rocker all the way to the tails.

• On fat reverse camber skis, you are pressuring your ski on the skin track over a small area that extends a bit in front and out back. A super-wide skin won’t help you with grip if what you are covering is a soft rocker that doesn’t touch the snow.

• Something as big as a 110-112 mm waisted ski can be fitted with 120 mm skins without any compromise on performance or grip. That will definitely reduce the bulk in your backpack.