Anti-Glomming Tutorial Video

| March 17, 2014

I had my first serious springtime glomming session over the weekend, which prompted this 3:36 minute video on how I remedy this wretched malady while on a tour.

I wrote a post about glomming almost a year ago to the week and it is one of those things where doing a half-assed repair job usually just creates more anger and frustration because you’ll end up stopping to fix it multiple times instead of just once.  Sometimes the glopping goes away by itself, but when it doesn’t, I stop and make a meal (or at least a snack) out of fixing it.

IMG_2530
Anti glop tools of the trade – a chunk of Globstopper wax and a safety kit composed of an old bank card wrapped in duct tape and then accessory cord.

An important step to stopping glomming is to scrape or squeegee as much water as possible out of the skins before rubbing the wax on.  This is best accomplished with a flat, flexible edge, like an old bank card.  I carry one wrapped in tape and cord, which doubles as my first-aid and repair kit.

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Polly glomming.  If she couldn’t laugh, she’d be crying.

After scraping as hard as possible, I let the skins dry out, or at least warm up for a few minutes (donut break) so the wax sticks better.  After that, don’t be bashful with the wax – rub it in as hard as possible.

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Help support StraightChuter.com and put an end to the glopping madness with a bar of Black Diamond Glop Stopper Wax ON SALE NOW from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below.

glopstopper

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Category: 05 Uphill, Tips & Technique

About the Author ()

Andrew McLean lives in Park City, Utah and is a gear designer, writer, photographer, ski mountaineer, climber and Mountain Unicycle rider. He and Polly Samuels McLean are the parents of two very loud little girls.

Comments (11)

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  1. Patrick Fink says:

    Andrew, do you ever put on a Euro-style iron in wax on your skins?

  2. James says:

    Try the new Swix Skin Wax. A bit of treatment pre-tour adds miles to the smiles without having to bust out the old purple block mid tour.

  3. Patrick – I’ve hot waxed my racing skins a few times, but not my regular skins.

  4. charlie ziskin says:

    [antijinx]Ever since I learned from Steve Romeo to hotwax my skins, I have not had a single instance of glopping. And I find that the glopstopper lasts longer — 5 to 10 days — that way so the whole bar truly is a lifetime supply. I always carry it with me but it’s now more for the sake of other skiers than for my hotwaxed skins. [/antijinx]

  5. I love watching you ram it on in there. You’re a pro.

  6. Mitch R. says:

    Thank you for posting this!

  7. Andrew, have you ever tried the spray product that BD makes for this?

  8. Matt Kinney. says:

    When you’re scraping off the globs with the “card” (I carry a regular scraper), you might trying dragging the card against the lay of the skin plush numerous times to help expose the deeper fiber.

    That is so AT, that is…. trimming a glob stopper bar to save weight. You guys and gals rock!

  9. I have been rubbing warm weather wax into my skins. What is the major difference between normal wax and the globbing wax?

  10. Bill Balz says:

    Andrew, I was skinning up some rained-on icy semi firm snow this weekend on-piste. Temps were mid upper 30sF. Up to 25-28 slope degrees no problem on STS nylon skins. Transition on next pitch to 32 degree+ or so going straight up and I had a ski blow out from under me…tried to get perp to fall line and too much skin not enough edge and I slid on hip fall towards a terrain trap. Stopped in time with only a face digger. Any advice? Next day I did it again with tons of zig zag traversing and kick turns and it worked. Is spring corn/ice really less grippy? I thought that the corn would hold better, but seemed tougher to gain purchase. Is there a better technique? I was standing straight, taking small steps and weighting the heels when I had the blow out. Thanks!

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