Tip of the Day: Skins a Flappin'

Know that shameful feeling of being two-thirds the way up the mountain and - embarassment of embarassments! - you notice the back of your skins are flapping in the wind for all to see?  Oh geepers creepers!

Yup, I mean seriously not much screams hipster quite like having the back of your skins dragging through the snow as you're skinning up the side of Mount Awesome in the middle of the backcountry.  Might as well throw on a Starter jacket and some blue jeans (we're looking at you, Carrie). Don't worry though, there are solutions.  

Which brings us,...(drum role please)...to today's daily Tip of the Day for today:



How to Get Your Skins Back on Your Skis:

If your skins come loose and start tracking some glue-side snow:

1. Stop and take off your ski
2. Fling the ski down the mountain as far as you can
3. Curl up and cry
4. Wait for hypothermia to set in
5. Warm, relaxed calm feeling will eventually follow

An alternate, perhaps more effective approach (thanks to Dan Corn):

1. Stop and take off your ski
2. Peel off the skin enough to give yourself a little room to work with
3. Quickly and vigorously rub the glue-side of the skin against the thigh of your ski pants*
4. The warmth from the friction will heat up the skin, melt off the snow, and make the glue sticky again
5. Reattach your skin
6. Skin up the mountain 7x more times and float the pow-pow

*Note: if you are not wearing ski pants, this step is potentially weird and painful.  That is why the crew at Fresh Tracks 2011 highly recommends always wearing pants when skiing the backcountry.