Equipment · Ski touring
Skins: choosing them, trimming them, and keeping the glue alive
Nothing ends a touring day more reliably or more stupidly than a skin that will not stay on. It is not a dramatic failure — nobody writes about it — and it turns a planned ascent into a long walk in ski boots. The frustrating part is that almost every instance of it is preventable, and preventable at home rather than in a col in the wind. This covers what skins are and how to choose between them, trimming a new pair, the storage and drying that decides how long the glue lasts, and the field repairs that will get you up when it fails anyway.
A climbing skin is a strip of fabric with a directional pile, stuck to the base of the ski and clipped at tip and tail. The pile lies flat when the ski slides forward and stands up against the snow when it slides back, which is what lets you walk uphill on something designed to be slippery.
Two things hold it on: a tip attachment and a tail clip do the mechanical work, and a layer of adhesive on the fabric holds the middle of the skin flat against the base. When people say a skin failed, they nearly always mean the adhesive let go and the middle peeled away — and adhesive failure is a maintenance problem rather than an equipment one.
| Fabric | Glide | Grip | Durability | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nylon | Least | Most | Most | A first pair, steep skinning, hard use |
| Mohair | Most | Least | Least | Long days, rolling terrain, racing |
| Mixed | Good | Good | Good | Almost everybody, and the sensible default |
The other decisions:
- Width — Buy for the widest point of the ski and trim down. A skin narrower than the base leaves edge exposed, which is fine for glide and poor for grip on a hard traverse.
- Tail attachment or not — A tail clip holds tension and is worth having. Tip-only skins are lighter and faster to strip and rely entirely on the glue, which is a lot to ask of it late in a season.
- Glue or a non-glue adhesive system — Conventional hot-melt glue is the standard and is repairable and reglueable. Silicone-based systems shed water differently and are less affected by damp, and are also less forgiving of dirt. Both work; neither removes the need to dry them.
Do this indoors, unhurried, with the ski on a bench. It cannot be undone:
Step 1: Fit the tip attachment and lay the skin along the ski
Centre it at the tip, pull it taut along the base, and press it down progressively rather than all at once. Any twist you build in here is permanent.
You will know it worked when: A skin lying straight and centred.
Step 2: Set the tail tension before cutting anything
Fit the tail clip with the skin under moderate tension. Too slack and it peels; too tight and it stresses the tip attachment and distorts the skin.
You will know it worked when: The length settled.
Step 3: Trim with the supplied cutter, running along the edge
The cutter rides the ski edge and takes off a consistent sliver. Aim to leave the metal edge exposed by about a millimetre or two — enough for the edge to bite on a hard traverse, not so much that grip suffers.
You will know it worked when: A skin that grips without burying the edges.
Step 4: Do the second ski the same way, not by copying the first
Skis are not always identical and a traced outline will be wrong somewhere. Two minutes.
You will know it worked when: A matched pair rather than a mirrored guess.
- Dry them properly after every tour — The single most important habit. Glue side out, at room temperature, away from direct heat — a radiator or a hot air vent damages the adhesive faster than the snow does. Packing them damp is what kills a pair in one season.
- Keep them off dirt, needles and grit — Contamination is cumulative and largely irreversible. Put them on the cheat sheet or fold them glue-to-glue rather than laying them on the boot floor or on a car park.
- Store them cool, folded or on the sheet — A loft in August is a bad place. Folded glue-to-glue is fine; on the mesh sheet is better if you have it.
- Carry skin wax — A small bar for a few pounds. It stops snow balling under the skin in the specific conditions where snow near freezing meets a colder ski, which is exhausting rather than dangerous and is the reason parties arrive at the top slower than planned.
- Re-glue rather than replace — Glue has a life shorter than the fabric. Re-gluing is a straightforward home job with a supplied sheet or a tin, and it costs a fraction of a new pair. Do it at the end of a season rather than the night before a trip.
- A skin peels back mid-ascent — Dry the ski base with a glove or a sleeve, warm the glue inside your jacket for a couple of minutes, then press the skin on firmly from tip to tail. Warmth and a dry base are what it needs, and both are available on a hillside.
- It will not hold at all — Two or three ski straps around ski and skin will hold a failed skin for an ascent. This is why experienced tourers carry them and why they are worth the forty grams.
- Snow balling underneath — Tap the ski hard with a pole to clear it, then apply skin wax if you have it. It will recur in the same conditions; the wax is the only real answer.
- The tail clip has broken — A ski strap at the tail will do the job. A tip attachment failure is more serious because nothing substitutes for it, which is the argument for checking both at home.
Questions this guide answers
Listed so you can tell at a glance whether this is the page you wanted. HobbyHQ keeps one guide per question family rather than a page per phrasing.
- ski touring skins keep falling off
- mohair vs nylon ski skins
- how to trim ski touring skins
- how to store ski skins between tours
- ski skin glue not sticking
- skin wax what is it for
- re glue ski touring skins
Part of Ski touring. Last reviewed 2026-08-19.