We Asked 2,000 Skiers How Often They Wax Their Skis

by admin in RSS Social News. Posted November 23, 2025

The brilliant scientists at POWDER’s Department of Polls and Skier Opinion have something new for you today. This time, members from our imaginary, entirely fictional department asked: How often do you wax your skis?

The responses flooded in—2,005, to be exact—and we now have a little slice of data that says something about how skiers treat their skis.

Keep reading for the results, highlights, observations, and what we could’ve done better with this poll.

The 2026 POWDER Photo Annual is here! Look for a print copy on a newsstand near you, or click here to have a copy shipped directly to your front door.

POWDER Weekly Poll Results

Poll Highlights

Total Votes: 2,005
Number of Votes on Instagram: 466
Number of Votes on Website: 1,539
Most Popular Waxing Frequency: A Couple Times Each Season (660 votes, 33% of voters)
Least Popular Waxing Frequency: Every Time I Go Skiing (242 votes, 12% of voters)
Other results:
Every Few Weeks: 615 votes, 31% of voters

Once Per Season Or Less: 488 votes, 24% of voters

Poll Observations

Most skiers who responded to this poll aren’t religious waxers. The “A Couple Times Each Season” group proved the largest, tallying just a few more votes than the second largest category, “Every Few Weeks.” Is that surprising? We don’t think so. While it is an enjoyable, mind-cleansing ritual, waxing involves taking time out of our already busy days. Doing it a few times each winter seems reasonable, even if ski tuning diehards might disagree.
There’s a strong contingent who can’t be bothered to wax their skis all that much. About a quarter of voters in this poll answered they did so “Once Per Season Or Less.” One POWDER staffer—who may or may not be writing this article right now—falls into this camp. He was glad to find out that he wasn’t alone.
There are a lot of complexities to ski waxing (a bit more on that in the next section) that this poll couldn’t capture. Geography, snow conditions, and personal preference all play a role. On that note, we’d be interested in a version of this poll that focused on snowboarders. Given that they’re prone to getting stuck on cat tracks, we expect they’d be more wax-happy. Another lingering hypothesis: skiers at resorts with lots of traverse tracks probably wax their skis more than others.

What We Could’ve Done Better

There was an inherently confusing aspect of this poll. We could’ve either structured it based on how many ski days it takes before you wax your skis, or just general frequency. We went with the latter, but the former may have been more precise. Someone could ski twice in three weeks and, reasonably, not bother waxing their skis. That same person could also ski 15 times in three weeks, which, by many estimations, would necessitate a wax or two. Waxing, ultimately, hinges on how often you ski, so this was a missed opportunity.
Products like Phantom Glide that eliminate the need for wax reapplication now exist. We could’ve included a category that acknowledges skiers who use them. It would be interesting to know how many of them there are versus those still relying on the traditional approach.

About the POWDER Weekly Poll

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. EST every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. EST the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. EST (schedule changes around holidays are possible). You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.

While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences. We want to know which ones might land on top of the heap, and are open to suggestions.

admin

https://carvingskills.com