Anyone have any good tips for drying climbing skins while winter camping? My BD Ascension skins usually work fine even when wet, but it'd be no fun if they froze after a day of touring and didn't want to work the next day when I was deep in the backcountry. I use a 2 person tent, so maybe rigging up a hanger for them would work? Any advice would be appreciated.

Buy skins that don't freeze.

I would except 1) I don't have extra $ to throw around and 2) I've never heard of skins that don't freeze. I need to work with what I have.

Wax them up before you head out and try and prevent it from happening in the first place. Just use some normal universal alpine wax from swix or anyone else. Rub it in up and down then smooth it with the plush before heading out of the house so things are somewhat warm. Take the wax with you and reapply if you notice things getting sticky or damp. If you really want to get the stuff in there check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrvB8pcrY7o

If they do freeze toss them in a stuff sack and bring into your sleeping bag for the night.

Thanks for the link. I put wax on my skins all the time during spring skiing to stop clumping, but for some reason I never thought of putting it on for the sole purpose of shedding water. Cheers!

don't get them wet in the first place. do everything you can to keep them dry. transition quickly and smoothly and cross streams carefully.

jselwyn wrote:Wax them up before you head out and try and prevent it from happening in the first place. Just use some normal universal alpine wax from swix or anyone else. Rub it in up and down then smooth it with the plush before heading out of the house so things are somewhat warm. Take the wax with you and reapply if you notice things getting sticky or damp. If you really want to get the stuff in there check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrvB8pcrY7o

If they do freeze toss them in a stuff sack and bring into your sleeping bag for the night.

+1 to all the above.

Try stuffing them in a jacket while decending. Also when they do get wet, press a scraper down them to get rid of some of the excess water. If you know that they are gaurenteed to get wet, try adding some skin glue and a rat tail before you go out touring. A rat tail is a piece of materail that attaches to the back end of the skin and usually has a metal clip that attaches to the back of the ski. Glue + Tension = no problems. Hope this helps.

Thanks again for the tips. Wax and in the sleeping bag at night is probably what I'll try. Happy spring touring

I alway rub them once or twice with the palm of my hand in the direction of the hairs to try to get excess water off. For the most part that seems to help. If there's sun or wind, keeping them on the ski's while you're pitching the tent helps too. If all that fails, I take them in the sleeping bag.