Intermediate xc skiier needs advice

[Elise Rauschenbach]

Hello, all.

I'm an intermediate skiier (i.e., I don't *fall* much anymore, but I don't
skate, either!). I have a pretty good pair of waxless skis.

We had a nice little snowfall last night (3" or so) here in central Mass.
and I went out today joyfully for the first run of the season. However,
snow kept getting stuck to the bottom of my skis, so that I'd get less
and less glide with each stride. I had to clean off the bottoms of the skis
every 10 strides or so...I have never seen it stick so badly. It got so that
I got *no* glide at all.

Did I do anything wrong? Is there some start-of-season procedure I
neglected to perform on my skis? Or is 3" of ungroomed snow just
not enough to ski on?

Any advice would be appreciated...feel free to email me privately so that
my dumb newbie question won't clog up the newsgroup any further!

Cheers,

Elise
Bolton, MA
el...@elysia.iii.net

[Bret Zvacek]

There's a commercial product known as Maxi-Glide that comes in a small
envelope. Rub it on the bottom of your skis according to package
instructions, and you won't have a problem with wet snow sticking to
your skis.