Time for a Skin Reglue?
Is your climbing skin glue a gooey mess? Do your skins leave sticky residue on your ski bases? Does your skin glue lose its effectiveness as the day goes on? Failing skin glue will put an early end to an otherwise great ski day.
Whether your skins have seen too many uptracks, you’ve abused them or maybe botched a home reglue attempt, there’s hope to bring your skins back to life. Big Sky Mountain Products (BSMP), a Montana-based climbing skin company, offers a professional climbing skin reglue service to keep you earning your turns.
Who is BSMP?
Big Sky Mountain Products (skiskinsonline.com) got their start in the climbing skin biz when they connected with Ascension skin founder Rick Lui and took over his climbing skin business (Climbing Skins Direct) in 2019. They bring decades of experience to climbing skin manufacturing and now a professional climbing skin reglue service — all based in Montana.
Full Climbing Skin Reglue Service
If you’ve ever tried to reglue your skins at home, you know that it takes time, makes a mess and rarely works as well as you hope. BSMP has created a fully-mechanized process for stripping and regluing climbing skins. The process essentially installs a factory-grade glue surface on old skins. In fact, it’s the same system that they use to create their brand new skins.
Freshly reglued skins from Big Sky Mountain Products
BSMP uses a hot melt glue based on the glue science and tech that Ascension skins pioneered. The result is a durable glue that’s solvent-free and very sticky. The factory reglue service applies glue to the full length and width of the skin. It includes a center fabric strip to help reduce overall adhesion when folding your skins glue-to-glue.
The skins at the right were a gooey mess and left glue on the ski base with each use. Big Sky Mountain Products gave them a fresh coat and a new life for $70, a fraction of the cost of new skins.
While most climbing skin brands suggest using cheat sheets — mesh sheets to cover the glue side of the skins — for long term storage, BSMP does not recommend this for their glue formula. Their glue is best served by storing climbing skis folded glue to glue without the sheets. However, they do recommend using cheat sheets while out touring if you have trouble pulling your skins apart.
BSMP can reglue most types of climbing skins. There are couple generations of G3 skins that used a rubberized backing to the skin plush that cannot be reglued. Get the full details and submit your order at skiskinsonline. Reglue runs $70, and you can add tip / tail replacements if needed. Turnaround time is typically about two weeks, but the schedule varies based on current demand. At the time of publishing (11/26/21), turn around time was only a few days — Get on it now!
Read more about climbing skin care and best practices
