The Pollen Problem

Maybe we should try a change of attitude. Think of it as an opportunity instead of a problem. Call it "Cascade Klister."<br>

Great photo, Lowell! I guess for steeper descents a pollen coating doesn't interfere with the skiing too much, but if the angle is lower, or if there is a lot of XC skiing, I've found it to be an unpleasant drag, literally. As someone recently described, there's nothing like that feeling of sudden deceleration/impending faceplant that can result from a heavy pollen coating. As you point out, however, it does make it possible to climb without skins.<br><br>ski_photomatt, I'm not sure how to fit your observations in with what I've seen recently, since my experience has not been that the warm temperature alone triggers to pollen to build up on the skis. Maybe you are dealing with aged pollen (on your skins) but I've been dealing with newly released pollen. Perhaps there is a pollen expert at the UW who could explain this all (anyone have contacts?).<br><br>Phil, my guess is that although you didn't experience the pollen sticking to your skis, it was on the snow as you were skiing down through the trees (we didn't have any pollen build up on the ski out to the car either).<br><br>Larry, that's a new cleaning tip for me - thanks for posting it.<br><br>Does pollen ever build up on the furry side of skins, or just transfer from the skis to the sticky side?

Just an update of my continuing confusion re pollen sticking to ski bases: During the end of June I skied five days in rapid succession through pollen-caked snow (you know: the kind of snow that looks distinctly lime-green in the right light). On three of these days I had absolutely no problem at all. On two, my bases picked up enough pollen so that I had to resort to skating in order to keep moving on slopes of 10 or 15 degrees. <br><br>The obvious variables of slope aspect, time of day, elevation, temperature and sun exposure seemed irrelevant, as best I could tell. One likely contributing factor: on each of the sticky days I was skiing the same set of skis for a second day without re-waxing—I use a fluorinated, graphited Swix, and I've long noticed that religiously hotwaxing before every tour can make a big differrence. Another: my three carefree days were all in California, at Lassen and Shasta, while the other two were in Oregon, at Scott and Bachelor. The former are in a drier part of the Cascades, with lots of red firs and ponderosas, and the locals I asked about problems with pollen didn't seem to relate real well. <br><br>Not very illuminating, I know, but these are my last datapoints of the season. I'll have forgotten all about this by next spring.<br><br>Hope all your July tours are sun-filled and pollen-free.<br><br>Mark

I have been cleaning the guck off with Citric Hand Cleaner -- from an Auto parts store. Then I was washing the cleaner off with a wet rag, leaving the remnants of my last host wax.<br><br>The last few times out, I have just left the hand cleaner residue on the bases. To my amazement, the bases came home clean. Hmmm -- soap as klister?