A couple of weeks ago yours truly was out in the tracks in typical zero conditions. Zero(!) degrees celcius, snow densely falling down and humid air. My own experience and all professional advice from zero experts dictated that this excercise would work out completely fine.
But no.
As the image to the left clearly shows, the zero skis has sucked up a lot of snow and made the skis impossible to use. Or train with.
The «evidence» was so overwhelming that I needed to secure an image and had to find out more. At home I contacted Fisher through their website in order to get to know if I was supposed to expect more of this in the future. I sent an e-mail explaining that I thought (from the salesman in the store who sold them to me) the skis were «bulletproof» under these conditions.
Fischer: -Remember to prepare the skis A short while later I got this response from Fischer (more accurately Finor AS; Fischer Norge, et family owned company who imports the brands skis, shoes and poles to Norway):
«Fischer Zero skis should work very well in fresh, wet new snow and around zero celcius degrees. And it should also, after proper treatment with Zero spray or powder also work well under changing conditions and also down to -1 to -2 degrees celcius, meaning drier snow. We do have some experience of snow attaching to the ski without treatment with Zero spray of the zero (grip-)sole. But just as once as we have treated the sole with spray the problem disappears. It´s important that the zero layer is treated regularly with adequate amount of spray, especially if it´s been sanded with sanding paper first. «.
…but don´t overdo it! So the answer was; -remember to prepare the skis. -But that´s what I´ve been doing all the time, I thought and wasn´t very pleased with the answer. I called Finor´s representative, Alf-Roger Holme (chief of marketing cross-country), who had written the answer and asked him to elaborate. I received several useful tips that might come in handy if you experience similar problems and want to prepare your Fischer zero skis as correctly as possible:
- Leave the skis a couple of minutes after you´ve sprayed them.
- The more you rub/sand them, the more agressive (stronger/better) the grip will be, but the same will happen with the tendency to suck up snow.
- You don´t have to rub/sand more often than when you feel you´re about to lose grip.
- Don´t clean the zero sole too often, it might dry up from it.
- The skis will suck up the snow easier as the temperature sinks to below zero (celcius).
- See video below for easy, step-by-step visual walk-through.
To sum up: Preapre the skis once with cleaning liquids, rub/sand (lightly) and spray. Then wait with all kinds of treatment of the ski until it starts losing the grip again.
Good luck!
