Pollen?

Wow, you guys are high tech!... I make sure to wax my skis every year or two, whether they need it or not.

There are downsides to waxing.  Ever since I have been uber-waxing, my spouse starts to complain about her skis being "dull" after about 2 days (nothing to do with pollen, even in mid winter).  So our skis get waxed as above about every 3-4 th day of skiing.  And for lift-served that means checking and touching up the edges.  Now since I've been recovering from pretty bad injuries last April, I've only gotten about 65 days of skiing in ... that means only 15-20 shop sessions LOL. 

I have a permanent tuning table set up with a hole at the end for scraped wax to be brushed into and a permanently plugged in shop vac for wax on the floor.  My Beast vises mean it takes just seconds to firmly set the ski and a very good waxing iron means good, constant heat (LED read out).  A collection of scrapers and a scraper sharpener ...  yup, a waxing nerd!

I use a citrus based cleaner bought by the gal. at a janitorial supply house. Scrape /clean and rewax but I'm starting to think it might be better to not wax during the pollen season??

Ive been plagued by pollen on the last 5 tours. So 5 cleanings and one pair skin reglue. And that s with scraping at transitions. I will move to carrying a small urine sample bottle of citrus cleaner.

... I'm starting to think it might be better to not wax during the pollen season...

IMHE, I've found just the opposite.  Initial new ski prep (or even old ski prep) with a deep penetrating cleaning wax, hot scraped off (and repeated till the wax being scraped is clean), followed by brushing with a steel brush to clean the base structure; then waxing with a good hydrocarbon wax, followed by scraping, brushing (again to clear the structure), and buffing (to remove an ptex fibers exposed by scraping and brushing) results, IMHO, in the best possible ski base surface to resist dirt, pollen, and moisture tension and one that can be enhanced by flourocarbon wax.  Graphite wax is also useful if there is a lot of ice to be skied, for example, before the snow surface has melted to produce cron.  I have never had the severity of dirty snow/pollen/wet snow suction that I had when I didn't wax, used MAaxiglide or Zardoz (which never lasted very long and which can repel wax in the future), or quickly waxed and scaped, but YMMV.

FWIW, Regine and I had a ball skiing the Couloir and Basin chairs at White Pass one spring on a warm day with sucky snow (4-6 inch penetration with 98 mm waist skis) and lots of pollen.  Almost all the other skiers were in the lodge by 10 a.m.  Still, skiing the groomed and hitting a patch of pollen in the shade beneath the guilty fir tree could still reduce mach speed to a crawl in seconds. LOL

Old Man, Spring Snow

In the video you can see the pollen & dirt mixture covering the snow.

Initial new ski prep (or even old ski prep) with a deep penetrating cleaning wax, hot scraped off (and repeated till the wax being scraped is clean), followed by brushing with a steel brush to clean the base structure; then waxing with a good hydrocarbon wax, followed by scraping, brushing (again to clear the structure), and buffing (to remove an ptex fibers exposed by scraping and brushing) results, IMHO, in the best possible ski base surface to resist dirt, pollen, and moisture tension and one that can be enhanced by flourocarbon wax.

On the other hand...

I will move to carrying a small urine sample bottle of citrus cleaner.

And I'm thinking, does urine cut through pollen? Wouldn't that be a trick. Might have to try that out ....

Just thinking outside the box here. 

Just asking the naive practical question for my reality. I'm never going to do what Andrew does - which says nothing about whether or not I should - I just know I won't dedicate the time/effort until maybe after retirement. Yesterday my superstar 14 year old stepdaughter and I skied our skis to a thick sticky goo on the bases and I One Ball Jay (citrus) base cleanered it off and the skis seem as good as their last waxing. My late spring/summer kit therefore consists of citra-solv and F4. My sense is once there's no more powder or warmed new snow surface, it's not worth redoing the whole shebang and I'll just buff 'em down and wax them before next season. I don't seem to be killing my bases this way having done this for eons. Slow death for our skis or good enough?

Just asking the naive practical question for my reality.   ...  I don't seem to be killing my bases this way having done this for eons.  Slow death for our skis or good enough?

If you are pleased with the results, why worry?  I skied for maybe 20 years bc before I got into waxing.  I've had only 1 pair deteriorate--after 11 years the ptex got really soft and the wood holding the screws got soft.

I decided to start waxing after I bought so higher end alpine skis (Volkl Mantras) and then upper end Kastles.  the experts I read said that if you want to get the purported performance potential of the skis then you had to tune and wax correctly.  That is where the trouble started; the performance was so spectacular.

Now, obviously you can't get the same performance bc as you can lift-served.  But, here again, I  bought some higher end skis (present Cho Oyus and Movement Shifts), so why not spend 15 minutes doing a good wax job and ½ hour a good scrape and brush.  But, most likely, if you never do it, you'll never miss it LOL

FWIW, I have numerous friends and acquaintances that never wax, use Zardoz or Rain-X, etc and have lots of fun.