For the kick zone of a classic ski, and nothing else

Grip wax and klister, compared

Grip wax is the opposite of glide wax and it belongs to one product: the kick zone under the foot of a classic cross-country ski. Its job is to hold the snow for the instant the skier pushes, then release. A skating ski has no kick zone and needs none of this; a waxless classic ski with a patterned base needs none either, which is worth knowing before buying any of it. The shelf divides on form. A hard wax comes in a tin, is crayoned on and corked smooth, and works in dry cold snow — the shelf here has a 25 g stick in red and a three-pack of 45 g tins in red, violet and blue. Klister is a sticky paste in a tube for transformed, wet or icy snow, it is applied warm, and it is as effective as it is unpleasant to handle — the one klister here publishes no weight at all. Between the two sits the temperature where neither works well and every skier has an opinion. The temperature band is again the deciding figure, and in this family it is narrower and less forgiving than for glide wax: a hard wax a few degrees out either ices up or slips. A base wax or binder goes under both to make them last, and the sets in the corpus include one. The last practical point: grip wax is applied to the kick zone only, and getting it on the glide zones is the most common way to make a classic ski slower than walking. We compare temperature band, form, snow type, pack weight, applied over and discipline.

Every accessory here, figure by figure

1. 

   TOKO Nordic GripWax Red, 25 g

   The only grip wax here with a temperature band — and the only one you can apply without touching it.

   Temperature band

   −2 °C to −10 °C

   Form

   Twist-up stick, applied without touching the wax

   Snow type

   New, old and artificial snow

   Pack weight

   25 g

   Applied over

   Not published

   Discipline

   Classic cross-country, kick zone only

   Amazon reference

   DE B005HJP9XW · US B005HJP9XW · GB B005HJP9XW · FR B005HJP9XW · IT B005HJP9XW · ES B006MTGRNW

   EAN

   7613186770327

   • The only listing on this shelf with a temperature band — −2 °C to −10 °C
   • A twist-up stick, so the wax goes on the ski and not on the hands
   • The smallest pack here at 25 g, and the highest price per gram

   Best for: A classic ski with a smooth kick zone, in an ordinary European winter

   ≈ $20 / £16 / €15

   Check price on Amazon
2. 

   Holmenkol 3X Loipe Grip Wax, 3 × 45 g

   Three colours of grip wax in one box, each with its own part number — and not one temperature band between them.

   Temperature band

   Not published for any of the three

   Form

   Hard wax in tins

   Snow type

   Not published

   Pack weight

   3 × 45 g

   Applied over

   Not published

   Discipline

   Cross-country, from the product name

   Amazon reference

   B0014HWD94 (one reference across 6 Amazon marketplaces)

   EAN

   4250081610995

   • 135 g of wax in three colours — the most on this shelf, and the only set that covers more than one condition
   • Each tin’s reference is published — 24211, 24212, 24216 — so a used-up colour can be replaced alone
   • Not one temperature band, on three waxes whose colours exist precisely to encode bands

   Best for: A classic skier who already knows what red, violet and blue mean

   ≈ £33 / €28

   Check price on Amazon
3. 

   Swix K22 Universal Klister

   The klister on this shelf: for the transformed snow a hard wax cannot hold, with nothing measured.

   Temperature band

   Not published

   Form

   Klister — a sticky paste, described as flexible

   Snow type

   Coarse, granular snow

   Pack weight

   Not published

   Applied over

   Not published

   Discipline

   Classic cross-country; stated for recreational and race skiers

   Amazon reference

   B00AENO82O (one reference across 6 Amazon marketplaces)

   EAN

   7045951676518

   • The only klister on this shelf, and klister is what works when a hard wax will not hold
   • Names the snow it is for — coarse and granular — which is the condition that defines klister
   • No pack weight at all, so no price per gram can be worked out

   Best for: Spring snow, refrozen tracks, and anything the hard waxes on this shelf slip on

   ≈ $48 / £35 / €28

   Check price on Amazon