How to Reglue or Repair Your Backcountry Skiing Skins

Sarah Carpenter, co-owner of the AAI and lead instructor, spends a good deal of her time on her backcountry skins. So when one begins to flap around on a tour and no longer sticks, it's ready to be repaired or reglued.
This video walks you through, step-by-step, how to do both.

[@timhoenig]

this helped me rejuvenate some old skins that had been sitting for years; now ready for some backcountry touring; thank you, Sarah.

[@meredithmcconvill296]

Thanks for sharing...I need to get on this before summer!

[@220ski220]

Hair dryer and plastic scraper to get most of the glue off. Then use the brown paper bag & iron method for the residual glue.

[@donjezza]

great advice thankyou

[@blues-indianer8667]

Sarah, thanx for this vid, well done!! KR Henry

[@macdukart645]

Excellent tutorial! Sarah's technique is great. (you can also use a heat gun and metal scraper to get old glue off). It's not that hard and well worth keeping perfectly good skins alive rather than abandoning and buying new.

[@dougwhiting7631]

or after first pass with iron and paper bag use a metal scraper to get more glue off then go back to iron and paper. Takes off a lot of glue and saves two iron paper steps.

[@sargeorm]

also can use a heat gun and a steel scraper to remove glue

[@andrewjohntomko]

Great vid. I prefer a heat gun and scraper as I’ve found the paper bag route to be not that great at removing the goop first pass. If you choose to go heat gun/scraper route then scrape evenly and don’t press hard. Either way works to keep your skins healthy so see what works best for you. Good job on stressing ventilation - glue is super toxic so the sheets are definitely the least nasty.

[@blues-indianer8667]

@CHIP (see below) @Sarah: Hi Chip+Sarah, I'm Henry from Germany. For taking off the old glue I took an old duvet cover, which had an absorbent surface. I went several times by middle heat with my iron over it, and it took about 80% of the old glue. I repeated that, until it was gone. Some glue knobs I removed with a scraper and let all cool down. Then I did like Sarah showed. Now THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: What to do with the skin WHEN NOT IN USE?? I read this and practiced it and went very well: I cut the arms of a really old goretex/raincover jacket (hard shell surface). When putting off the skin from the ski, I pull the skin through the cutten arm (lenght appr. 25 inches). Then I wrap the skin on the outer side of this arm (one side) and wrap it a second time on the free side. So this is well for a skin about 70 in. This material doesn.t leave any fibres on the glue, and in this manner I save the skin in a plastic bag over the rest of the year. This works great! Kind regards, Henry

[@Themethodmix]

Excellent tutorial! Skins are my least favorite piece of equipment...sometimes I just rather climb without them-extra “cardio” for sure.

[@chipscialfa9119]

Ummm..I tried this, just as you said, with old grocery bags instead of parchment paper. Problem! The paper is now hard fast to the glue...on the skin. Any ideas on how I can take this off?

[@chipscialfa9119]

To follow up on this, I've been told to never use paper bags for riviving or removing glue. The composition is such that they will disintegrate and/or bond to the glue and can't be easily removed. Getting off this mess is near impossible without removing the glue completely, which I've now done, using parchment paper. FYI, I made sure to buy 100% natural parchment paper, made of vegetable material. Some parchment paper has silicone and I don't know how it would work or react chemically with the glue. Second FYI: Sarah said once a scraper is used to remove glue, it can't be used for anything else. I used a putty knife to remove the glue and then cleaned it with Goo Gone. It's like new!

[@allanlucier4651]

I have always found using a wide (rather staff) metal scraper with a heat gun (usually on a the lower setting) is an effective and quick way to remove the wax before rewaxing skins.

[@mattmorrissey9567]

cool. just spent 2 hours getting parchment paper off my skins and huffing glue

[@markthomasson5077]

Tube glue, wrap in plastic bag, then keep in freezer. So it should not dry out.