Thumb It!

The best klister spreader is the human thumb.

Klisterphobes want to hold the beast at such a distance that they refuse to lay a finger on it. Consequently they deal with far more of a mess than those of us who pet the animal and gain its service gently.

The klister whisperer?

Fact: klister on your skin will be gone within the hour. Klister on a scraper will be there next year. Your skin's natural moisture repels the wax. Your tools do not have this natural remedy. You have to use lots of toxic solvent to achieve even partial cleaning.

Real klisterphobes just use waxless skis. But by doing that they rob themselves of some really excellent skiing. Klister works in certain mid-winter conditions in which a mechanical grip base performs poorly. And in clean slush, klister can give better grip and glide. As always with wax, you can adjust the length to balance grip and glide.

Remember to use the toilet paper method to remove klister after skiing. Simply pat a strip of common, household TP onto the klistered area. You may heat this with a hair dryer or heat gun if you like. Using an ordinary plastic scraper, scrape the toilet paper and klister off the base in one smooth pass. Use base cleaner and a toothbrush to clean off the last residue from base and sidewalls with minimal use of toxic, skin-drying solvent.