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is there anything i can do to prevent this? it doesnt bother me much on short tours but on a 7 hour tour they were completely covered in snow on the glue side with huge bulges of snow under the skis. for reference i have the g3 high traction split skins

Are you 'skiing' (sliding down slopes) with the skins mounted? If you aren't, then there is no real reason why the snow should work its way between the skins and the base. If you start out with the skins stuck firmly and evenly to the p-tex, then snow entry should be minimal. Maybe a little bit along the edges near the tip and tail, but not much more.

If your skins don't lay flat against the base for some reason, you may need to trim them a little or stretch them tighter.

There's definitely some skiing going on but only short distances, didn't know that would help cause this but it makes sense. I was already thinking of trimming my skins a bit more just to help with laying them down straight every time so ill see if that works. Most of the time the buildup is minimal and completely manageable, maybe I'm just getting used to the fact that an icy skin track sucks no matter what.

where are you getting it at. i have the sparks (same thing) and i noticed that if i dont perfectly apply them to my board halfs that not only do i get a bit of a bulge toward the tips, the angle that they apply at actually takes the skins completely off the skis so they are more perpendicular than parallel. ive only been able to get out once this year but i had the same build up of snow on tips. hoping to get out more and ill see if this is more of an application issue or a defect.

Interesting. I never had this problem W/ Voile or standard alpinist skins, but I too am experiencing this with my new high traction G3's. Really pretty frustrating.

Is the snow coming in the sides and just slowly forming sort of an advancing wedge that contaminates the glue? I've had that happen when breaking trail on deep pow days with my Geckos. But the snow never made it farther than about an inch inboard from the front and rear corners of the skin.

Phillip, the advancing wedge is exactly what I'm experiencing (Spoken like a true scientist). It does seem to occur most often in deep and variable snow but does seem to happen on just about every tour.

Off topic but have you ever reglued or performed the parchment paper procedure on G3's. You seem to be well schooled when it comes to skins.

No, I've only done it with BD skins so far. I have to say that my G3 glue has stayed tackier for longer than my other skins and have not needed any freshening up. If I were to reglue any of my skins I might be tempted to use the G3 stuff rather than the BD black label, though this thread gives me pause. I wonder if G3 changed their formulation somehow?

Also never had this happen on my old BD Ascensions, but am getting this now with the high traction skins. G3 probably tweaked their glue formula.

Now I am fanatical about not letting any snow get in between the skin and board. When the skins are still warm in the morning I make sure to get a 110% seal all the way down when I apply the skins. It seems to be worse of a problem when the temp is below freezing.

And when doing laps, I keep my skins in my jacket to warm them up.

Yup, pretty frustrating.

Now that there seems to be a 'trend' someone should send a link to this thread to G3 and see if they can get a response. It would be a bummer if their reputation took a hit because they failed to recognize there is an issue.

Colder temps could have something to do with it as it's been nuclear cold here, but it did happen this weekend when it was well above freezing. Pretty much happens every tour from day one. Anyone EMail G3 about this?

glad to see im not alone on this. usually i do get the advancing wedge spoken about and it is very minor, however on some longer tours (where i need the skins to perform at their best) i have had snow creep in on both sides, nose and tail. with that said, when still attached i dont even really notice it as far as traction goes. im more concerned with having to put the skins on after a descent in to a valley or something and having them not perform. ive seen it worse in powder conditions but it also has happened on relatively hard snow.

I get it on long tours, usually in deep heavy snow (not that cold here, so it can't be that). At the tip of the ski. I stole the image here from G3 and put a circle on it. Due to geometry, there's no way to pull on this part of the skin when you apply them, it is only held on with the glue not any tension. On wider skins it is worse.



Maybe if this angled cut was eliminated and went straighter from the tip clip down - it would leave more ski exposed but I think this area isn't crucial anyways. I've been toying with the idea of cutting mine like this for a while.