Climbing Skins: A Guide & Comparisons

43 comments on “Climbing Skins: A Guide & Comparisons”

1. Just buy Pomoca skins. I’ve tried G3 and BD and it’s worth spending the extra bucks for skins that just work and don’t gunk up.

   • I think one aspect was missed in this review: the choice to fit skins to the widest or narrowest part of the ski. Put differently: to choose a skin width matching the ski waist and not trim it, or to choose a skin width matching the ski tip width and trim the whole profile. Thoughts on pros/cons? Especially on wide skis I go for the narrow option without trimming. Why would I want all that extra skin near the tip and tail where it’s not usually contacting snow anyways? I’ve heard from other folks that this allows more snow to creep under, but I haven’t noticed that being any worse than normal personally.

2. That’s a really really good article. I’ll read it again when it feels more like it’s snowing.

3. Thanks for the review, skins are indeed often overlooked. After many years on G3 nylon skins I switched to Colltex mohair and have never looked back. I’ve tested the Pomoca skins out with 4Frnt skis and they are really excellent. I love the efficiency of smoothly gliding skins.

   One thing that I’ve observed is that people new to ski touring often have difficulty with proper form, keeping the weight on the heel and end up sliding backwards on steep uptracks. While I’m personally fully bought in to the mohair skin, higher grip skin might be more suitable to newby tourers who are less confident. The chaos and terror of sliding backwards can ruin a fine day for someone new to the sport. Once they get their form dialed I’ll push them towards mohair.

   Poor tip and tail hardware can certainly ruin a nice skin. I had to replace my Coltex tail attachment with the G3 aftermarket tails. The original tail clip kept sliding off my twin tip skis. Thankfully the modification has been bombproof since.

4. From someone who’s a relative newcomer to backcountry skiing , thanks again for these reviews and comparisons. I do have one question though. I’m getting close to pulling the trigger on a new pair of skis and have narrowed it down to a few different specific models , one of which is the 4FRNT Raven. Then I found out that there will be a separate version of that ski that comes with Pomoca Free Pro 2.0 skins, so my question is how do those skins compare with the ones in this guide? My apologies for being so long winded and thanks in advance. Cheers!

   • Good question — that’s one of the skins that we will add in the future, since we only just started spending time on it late this spring. But in our initial experience, it seems like it falls between the Pomoca Race Pro 2.0 and Climb 2.0 in most regards. I.e., it glides quite well, is very packable, and doesn’t quite match very fast-gliding mohair skins like the Race Pro 2.0 but offers slightly better grip. Overall though, it feels like a very good pairing with the new Raven, particularly if you’re not skinning on super icy skin tracks very often.

5. Great info. I’ve been on pomoca climb pro for a few years on 5 pairs of skis. Hundreds of thousands of feet skinned in all conditions. So reliable. I barely use skin wax on them in spring. Skin failure can ruin your day, or much worse.

6. This is a very nice guide, although not really relevant to what I ski. Almost all of my touring is spring west coast after the lifts close. Therefore it’s icy on the way up, and all I ever want is more grip. Ski crampon or booting in spikes are options but I’d rather stay on the skins as both of those are slower. So my question is what is the best grippy skin on the market for steep and icy?

   • Most of our reviewers have preferred the Black Diamond Ascension or Big Sky Mountain Products Nylon skin for that scenario. We’ve got a little bit of time on G3’s Alpinist+ Grip skins, and those seem promising and could arguably be the best choice, but we don’t yet have enough time on them to confirm. But in our experience, most nylon skins are pretty similar overall in terms of grip, and the BD Ascension and BSMP Nylon also glide a tiny bit better than some other nylon skins. At least in my experience, if conditions are both icy and bumpy / inconsistent, I find that ski crampons make way more of a difference than switching to any different type of skins, but nylon’s the best choice for getting maximum grip out of your skins.

   • Question seems a bit dubious. Ski crampons are not used without skins, nor are they slower (well I guess if you rip skins when you put on your ski crampons, that certainly will be slower). My point is that grippier skins are not substitutes for ski or boot crampons in any scenario, nor vice versa.

     In my honest opinion, based on my own learning curve and that of many touring partners over the years in all seasons, is that needing more grip on your skins than is provided by mohair/nylon mix skins is very nearly always an issue of technique, balance, planning, etc — eg: inexperience. You can buy skins with more grip, yes, but they don’t actually exist because anyone _needs_ that level of grip. They exist because its cheap to make them that way and you can sell them as a budget alternative. Inferior product (no glide) but lower price. It makes complete market sense and explains why the worst backers and worst glues all tend to be combined. Or you can put some better glue on it (or not) and market it as extreme grip for extreme skin tracks…

     Don’t fall for the marketing, that full nylon skins are for extreme grip scenarios. No pro athletes are reaching for inferior skins because their touring routes require more grip. They are for tight budgets, and will work pretty well for complete beginners. Beyond that go for a mix, and for advanced users who understand the target conditions and use cases, full mohair.

7. Nice review!

   I’m also a Pomoca convert after many years of BD. However, I did manage to blow up a Pomoca tip clip during a kick turn on my 3rd day using a new Pomoca Climb Pro S-Glide. Never had that happen with any other skin. I’ll continue to use Pomoca because I really do like them better than BD in all other regards, but I had a different experience than was mentioned in this review so I wanted to comment.

   Otherwise, excellent review and I really like the overall emphasis on glide with the minimal required grip as opposed to moar grip.

8. Detailed review!
   Like my Pomoca Climb Skins that I got late last year much more than my previous BD. I did break the plastic tail clip on a very cold day that I tried to force over the tail. Presumably mostly or all user error.

   Whats the best way to clip the tail that people have found? Cheers.

9. Sorry if I missed it in the article but how does the Blister Crew approach choosing skin widths? If you had a new pair of 4FRNT Raven’s would you go straight cut 100mm or wall to wall carpet 120mm… Or split the difference and go 110mm? Or is it all dependent on expected conditions? I would ideally like one set of skins to cover the whole season in the Canadian Rockies.

10. As a fairly new backcountry skier I have been anxiously waiting for this article. I feel I have quickly zero’d in on some of the critical aspects of what makes a skin work well. Listening to a recent podcast of Hoji (I think) talking about skins for the Raven ski also helped. As good as this article is (it covers a wide array of detail), I am hoping you will add more detail on how much of the ski bottom to cover and what the trade offs are. It seems Paul does wall to wall mostly. On wide skis, that may not be the way to go with grippy skins. You touch on this, but there seems to be 3 approaches (wall to wall, match waist width and no cutting, match tail width and cut middle). Another request I have is more detail on glide and grip on each skin. The charts are good, but a description of each skin would be nice. Lastly, waxing your skin is important and can really improve the glide on snow.

    My personal experience is I use Blizzard Zero G 108mm skis, 185cm on the East Coast. I have wall to wall BD Glidelight Mix skins based on Blisters recommendation. To me they feel like snow shoes. There is basically no glide and I can walk up an icy wall (not really), they don’t lack for grip. I have to lift the ski almost off the snow for it to slide, the the effort it takes to slide them is noticeable. I am going to get another “glidier” skin, not sure
    after reading the article which one and what size. I assumed I would get the Pomoca Race Pro 2.0 after reading the article, but they only come max width 65mm,. I can’t expect you guys to be miracle workers, but if you can add some guidance on balancing width, grip, and glide I would appreciate it. To me, I want the best glide I can get and if I give up some grip I can deal with it by technique. I don’t think putting a 65mm wide skin on my 108mm skis is the way I should go.

    You guys are still the best source of info on the web.

    • Re: the Race Pro 2.0 width, it seems that the available widths are a bit inconsistent across retailers. We’ve been using 100mm-wide Race Pro 2.0 skins, but I’m having a hard time finding that width on the web right now. I’ll reach out to Pomoca to see if we can confirm the officially available widths for that skin. If you need to get one soon, I’d personally recommend the Contour Hybrid Pure — it doesn’t glide quite as well as the Race Pro 2.0, but I think it glides better than Black Diamond’s mix plush and I really like its glue.

      As for skin width vs. particular types of skis, it sounds like we could do a whole other article on this, so I’ll work with Paul to do that. For me personally, I usually go with skins that cover edge-to-edge on any of my skis that will rarely see powder / soft snow. I hate slipping because part of my ski bases in contact with firm snow aren’t covered by my skin, so especially on skis that I’ll mostly use on harder-packed snow, I prefer edge-to-edge skin coverage along most of the ski. For my pow skis, I usually still want edge-to-edge coverage for most of the middle section for the inevitable wind-packed sidehill, but I’m much less worried about edge coverage for the last ~25% of the ski at each end. Overall though, this seems to mostly come down to personal preference and what conditions you typically ski, along with many other factors that we can go into more detail on in another article.

      As for the detailed comparisons on glide and grip, the reason we don’t go into much more detail here is because, at least in our experience, the differences between skins — especially those in the same category (e.g., nylon vs. nylon, mix vs mix, mohair vs mohair) — tend to be extremely subtle. Both me and Paul have found that most skins with a similar plush composition (e.g., full nylon, 70% mohair / 30% nylon, or full mohair) share extremely similar grip and glide characteristics, to the point that we don’t feel confident making very conclusive statements on one gliding / gripping notably better than the other, in most cases. There are a few minor exceptions that we noted in this article, and I wish there were some major outliers, but many of the similarly constructed skins do feel very similar on snow.

11. Thanks Luke, great response and very helpful. I guess if I want best glide I should go with 100% mohair and probably get a tail width, or midpoint width skin. Thinking about width, I can always cut it narrower if I want more glide / less grip, so don’t go too narrow to start with.

    It would be nice to add what category or construction the different skins are in the charts, the names can be a bit misleading and hard to sort out without looking them all up. Based on what you said above, any skin in the same category will have very similar glide/grip. I have only been on one other skin, which I don’t even know what it was, but it had noticeable more glide (or less resistance than mine) and a bit less grip too. I was probably on a 100% mohair vs my 70/30 mix skin.

    • Yep, I think going a bit wider to start is a safer bet for that reason.

      And good call — just added a note about the plush type next to each skin in the list. If that previous skin was faster gliding / less grippy, I think it’d be pretty safe to assume it was full mohair based on your notes about the Glidelite.

12. If you run a pair of Pomocas long enough the plastic bits (both the tail clip and the tip loop connector) will break. I promise. The plastic becomes brittle eventually and on a cold enough day it will crack.

    That said, they are superior skins and worth it. Easy to replace with BD tip hardware or G3 tail strap.

    Also I have seen a few pairs of the pink Pomocas and BD ultralight skins rip. It is rare, but it happens. It’s also repairable with needle and thread. If you’re going to clomp over a bunch of rocks and stick in the spring, you might want to look at skins with a thicker backing.

    I currently run 2 pairs of Pro S-Glide, and 1 pair each of Pomoca Race Pro 2.0, BD ultralight mix, BD glidelite mix, and some older G3 Alpinists and BD Ascensions, and I’d rank them in that order with the Pro S-GLide a strong favorite. The glide on Ascensions is unacceptable. The rest I can use without complaint.

13. The Pomoca tail clip/hook slides easily in one direction (tightening the strap) and not at all in the other direction (loosening the strap) because the clip bites into the strap grooves. It appears that the clip might be levered in some manner to allow a loosening adjustment, but I haven’t figured it out.

    What is the trick?

14. I’ve had the g3 Minimist glide skins since last year, haven’t used them more than about 10 days. Last year I was on a hut trip and 2 other people had the same skins, brand new as well. we quickly discovered that unlike out other g3 skins which we had been skiing on for the last 10 years these skins will peel the glue from the skin if stuck glue to glue. the only way to avoid this is to roll the skin, skin side to glue side. All of the three sets preformed the same.

    trying to get g3 to address this problem has also been an adventure. Their responses are slow (3weeks) and nobody can move my claim forward. The warranty claims dept. was able to help my buddy but for some reason after chasing them down for a month I need to start over with the retailer.

    I’ve never had to think much about skins, I was really excited to lose some bulk and try these out.

15. My new pomoca pro s glide skins are not gliding very well. The seller told me I need 5 days on them for them to work efficiently. Is this true ? are they factory waxed? should I run a hot iron over them to get them activated? Disappointed.

16. I use Pomoca Free Pro 2.0 skins on my Zero G 95 skis, mostly used for spring and summer volcano skiing and Free Pro 2.0 CF for my wide winter skis. After about 30+ days on my Free Pro 2.0 skins (last spring and summer), with skiing over short stretches of talus and plants, the skins are super efficient on glide, certainly good enough on grip, and hold up fine. The adhesive is perfect and easy to pull apart, the skins are light-weight, and do not take on much water, given the warm summer condition and water content of the slushy corn snow.

    Occasionally, I refresh the glue using parchment paper and an iron. Periodic glue maintenance really helps keep the glue coverage, in particular near the ski edge where ice can get packed under the skin. The one minor downside is that the tail clip usually falls of the ski – not a big worry. Perhaps I might swap out the tail clip for a G3 or BD clip. The Free Pro 2.0 CF provides a bit more grip – skiing with friends that set too step skin tracks, a bit more grip is nice. My personal preference, the Free Pro 2.0 skins provide the best of all worlds and is my all-time favorite.

17. There was a question in this thread about length of skin, but it was not clearly answered. I acquired G3 Alpinist Universal skins (Fall 2020) this season. Sadly, I am having big issues with sliding backwards. I will accept 50% of the problem might be technique, but I have been touring for about 10 years, and have never had a sliding problem on older G3 skins (likely Universal, but not sure) or on BD skins. The big change for this year is shorter skis (163 cm) with perhaps more rocker (The G3 Seeker 100cm waist). The past skis I have used are Rossi S3 168cm and DPS Whailer 168cm. In reading all of the information I can find online, the G3 Universal should be providing sufficient grip. I am now starting to wonder if length of the skin is the issue. G3 recommended the XS length, which provides approx 30 cm/12″ extension beyond my heel (I need to verify this length – going on memory). Lots of explanation behind my questions: is there a length of skin that should extend past the heel point of the boot to provide sufficient grip? Should the skin extend almost to the back of the ski? My old skins on my Rossi S3’s definitely had longer coverage, as did the BD’s on the DPS skis). I run my skins edge to edge (trim cut).
    On a positive note, after about 15 days on the G3 Alpinist 2020 model I have had 0 issues with glue, 0 issues with snow building up between ski and skin, and 0 issue with snow build-up on the bottom of the skin. Others I skied with on those days had some of these issues. I really like the plastic extension on the tip of the skin for attachment and removal of the skins – very efficient. I always store my skins in my pack and I find with the plastic extension the skins fold really easy and stuff really easy.

18. Since Colltex makes skins for Volkl, Stockli, Salomon, Atomic, Ski Trab, Movement, and Scott, I would love to see Blister review the actual Colltex Skins like the Palu & Todi, rather than the ones with brand specific clips. I don’t think that the brand specific versions of the Colltex skins use the higher end hotmelt adhesion either.

19. Great review on which I limit my first skins to be Pomocas.
    So I have a new set of 191cm Head Kore 117 (119) with Makrer Duke PT16 here. I am 225lbs, former GS youth ski racer and a beginner in the touring/powder world. Will do mostly lift accessed powdering but also some moderate tours to get me to some nice spots in the Austrian alps. Nothing major… Almost exclusively touring on powder days.
    So which skkn should I go with? Free Pro 2.0 or Pro s-glide? I intend to go wall to wall with the XL 140mm versions of either one. Will I struggle to find enough grip with the free pro 2.0 given my weight (225lbs) and beginner touring skills? Or will it be just fine since the width of the ski (119mm waist) is wide enough anyway? Or should I better grab the pro s-glide? cheers for your help!

20. I want to confirm that when your contour hybrids start losing glue tackiness, the cleaning process does a great job restoring them to like-new. And, it takes about 5 minutes and is super easy. They’re my favorite skins by far, and I’ve put hundreds of days on them. Where they don’t work as well is in Spring when your skins become fully saturated, I think traditional glues work better in those conditions. They require a bit more management in the field (wiping the glue side with a microfiber cloth if it’s wet), but it’s well worth it since every transition is so much more effortless.

21. Question above on how to get the Pomoca tail clip to slide back, I use a knife blade slide it up between the rubber strap and the bar on plastic clip and the strap will slide back, a blunt knife with a rounded end is safest. To get the tail clip over the rear of the ski without breaking something, try sliding the clip onto the side of the ski at the tail then slide it around onto the back of the ski into the correct position, this works for me.
    I have found the Pomoca skins to be the most reliable all round. I like the Contour hybrid skins for ease of use but I have had the glue break away from one skin when separating the skins for use this leaves bald patches that I have to patch with standard glue. Drying the skins stuck together in a warm/hot place makes this worse. I have taken to using skin savers on all my skins, I went to a fabric store and bought mosquito netting and cut this into strips I use two pieces the width of the ski and half the length for storage apply both to one skin and put the other skin against it then roll/fold whatever. When packing for use apply one piece to each skin and fold them in half. While skinning they scrunch up into your pocket, then at the top just poke them on doesn’t matter if they have creases or don’t fully cover they will work just fine, stow the skins in your jacket etc and carry on….this makes the skins much easier to separate and preserves the glue. Cheers Stan

22. Update on my Jan 2021 post. I use Pomoca Free Pro 2 on all my skis, from 95mm volcano skis to 112 powder skis. These skins pack up nicely, dry quickly, and easily fit under my jacket. Tip – during warm spring and summer skiing, at transitions, I use a plastic ski scraper that removes water from my skins. This mitigates water retention and helps dry out the skins.

23. BCA now re-badges and distributes the Contour Hybrid (65% Mo, 35% nylon) skins in the USA. I’ve used a couple pairs for a year now and love them. I agree with the review’s comparisons b/w and the Pomoca FreePro 2.0. The Contour’s glide is a tiny notch below FP2.0, but grip is definitely better and the plush holds up better to inadvertent rock strikes (the FP2.0 plush rips quite easily if you uncover a rock). The Contour tail clip is sturdier / less prone to breaking than the white Pomoca clip (Just Skinnin’ Along, I’ve broken 3 of the Pomoca white tail clips on Renegades and Ravens). The Contour plush is visibly longer than the FP2.0 which is why they seem to grip better in dry powder. I’ve washed the Hybrid glue in the sink with soap and water (as directed) and it really does re-invigorate the adhesive. Pretty amazing, really, especially when you accidentally drop them on the garage floor, or dirty spring snow contaminates them.

24. I read the glue portion of this article and didn’t see any comments on glue coming off the plush and sticking to p-tex. Pomoca glue is notorious for doing this; I’ve had four pair that have all done this, and almost everyone I know in UT and WY who uses pomocas and skis a lot has dealt with it, including people who get Pomocas for free. It seems most problematic when the snow is cold and dry. It can ruin a ski day. One can kind of work around the problem by keeping skis thoroughly waxed and by ironing the skin glue.

25. Great review! Love the breakdown of attributes provided here.
    How do Völkl skins compare to this group? I thought I heard in a Gear 30 podcast that y’all got along well with them on the Blaze 106, especially as opposed to their older vacuum skins.
    Any input on whether those skins sit in the middle of the pack here, or whether they are especially good/bad in a specific category? Thank you!

    • …Just realized the Kohla skins are the “Völkl skins” I was thinking about.
      Disregard!

26. Does DPS Phantom make a difference with skin adhesion vs more traditional ski waxes?

    • I’ve never had issues with Phantom affect skin adhesion performance. If anything, they might stick better if you work on your own skis and decide to never wax your phantom-ed skis since you have the extra security of not needing to worry about a super thorough scrape and having left over wax gunk up your glue.

    • Phantom is a plus inasmuch as it may (depending on your level of glide-snobbishness) allow you not to wax at all.

      Even if you do a perfect job of scraping and brushing there is always some residual wax on the surface of the ski that will transfer to the skin, and it will slowly degrade your skin adhesive (though slowly enough that you might not care if you’re religious about scraping/brushing).

      The only exception that I know of is Contour Hybrid, which can be cleaned with a mild solvent wax remover (“Climbing Skin Cleaning Wipes/Spray”) that Contour sells. While I’ve partly moved to Pomoca, I try to use skis with Contours in wet conditions because they’re more forgiving of the waxes that I use in those situations.

27. I recently bought a pair of BD Glidelite Mohair Mix skins. BD was all out of the STS adjustable length, so I bought a Fixed Length skin. All my skins have always gone right to the tail, but these will have about 7″ of base exposed at the tails. My new skis are BD Helio Carbon, 104 in width and 160 in length (I’m 5′ 1″). I wish the skins had full coverage for the sometimes steep skin tracks in the Wasatch. I’d love to hear if anyone has had experience, good or bad, with skins that don’t go right to the tail. Thanks :-)

28. I think that Pomoca is really good for more experienced users, and maybe Contour for newbies and/or people who aren’t the best at caring for their equipment.

    The fact that the Contour Hybrid adhesive is very easy to clean and “renew” (I’ve done it several times to good effect on various pairs of mine) is a significant aspect that wasn’t really discussed here. If you’re perfect at managing your skins and don’t ever get pollen or other crud on the sticky side then that isn’t a big deal, but otherwise it gives some nice “margin of sloppiness”.

    I use Pomoca Race/Free Pro and Contour Hybrid Pure on various skis. I can’t complain about any of them, though I’m glad I started out with Contour.

    • Another remark – I’m a compulsive waxer, and while I always do a thorough job of scraping and [roto-]brushing, the fact that you can remove wax from Contour Hybrid adhesive was/is also a big deal for me. I looked up the MDS for the “glue cleaner” that Contour sells, and it’s basically a somewhat mild solvent wax remover. In my experience it’s very effective against current (read: non-fluoro) waxes, and also against old fluoro-modified hydro waxes (equivalent of Swix LF/HF). Just don’t expect it to work on any 100% fluoro powders/blocks/sprays that you might have squirreled away (cough).

      Don’t try solvents like that on other brands, though – Contour’s solvent resistance is unique AFAIK.

      • For anybody as obsessive as me: https://www.hybridskins.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/hybrid-cleaning-spray-4250-Deutsch.pdf

        Translation: Naptha. https://echa.europa.eu/registration-dossier/-/registered-dossier/14975

      • Thanks for that info! Have you found a solvent wax remover similar to Contour’s formula you can buy on the open market? Contours price for their cleaner is rather steep. How bad are the fumes from the solvent?

29. Hi Patrick

    I have a bit of a different question do you know any of the plush material manufacturers who the
    Different skin manufacturers buy from. No I’m not looking to steal any of their business.
    My company actually uses this material to make part feeding systems mainly for robotic picking applications. I have bought rolls from Colten and Montana in the past, but I am always looking for a new fabric. Montana had a good long hair skin material but it was discontinued. I bought their last 400 yard x 60” roll. While I’m not a skin manufacturer I can keep the supply chain a little healthier
    By purchasing materials outside of their normal seasonal outlet

    Thanks

    • Hi Dan,
      You can still buy long hair skins material plush from MONTANA skins. It is all a matter of how much you need. I am a little biased since I work for Montana skins… ;-)
      https://www.climbing-skins.com/information/specialities
      Talk to you soon.

    • Hi Dan, just saw your comment here. Being the manufacturer of contour skins, I am truly interested in offering skin material for your application. We offer both mix and mohair, also long hair plush with and without backing, with and without glue, different glue variations available including permanent hot melt. Let’s get in touch! Werner.koch@kochalpin.at