Skin track days put a different kind of wear on your gear, and the Swix Touring Kit is built around exactly that. It pairs two climbing skin treatments, one to keep snow from sticking and one to keep moisture out, with two liquid glide waxes for the base and a pocket diamond stone for the edges. Skins that shed snow and skis that run fast on the way down mean less energy burned on the climb and more left for the descent.

Why we like it:

Most tuning kits forget about skins entirely. This one treats them as half the setup, which is exactly how anyone who has dragged a clumped-up skin across a sunbaked slope thinks about it.

Features and Functions:

Start with the skins. Surmount Skin Wax is a 60g rub-on bar that you work into the plush to cut friction on each stride and keep wet snow from caking up underfoot, while Surmount Skin Impregnation is a spray-on treatment designed to keep moisture from soaking into the plush, so skins stay lighter as the day warms up. For the bases, F4 Glidewax Liquid Cold comes in a pocket-friendly 100ml bottle with a rub-on applicator and handles everything from fresh falling snow to icy, man-made surfaces, and F7L Violet in an 80ml bottle covers the mid-winter range from -2°C to -8°C. Neither one needs an iron, which matters when the wax bench is a tailgate at the trailhead. A TA3004 pocket diamond stone takes care of edge burrs from rocks and stumps, a Swix rubber strap keeps the skis together on a pack or in the car, and the whole kit packs into a Swix Artec kit bag.

Bottom Line:

The Touring Kit belongs in the gear closet of anyone who earns their turns, from dawn patrol laps before work to full days out in the backcountry. It handles skin care, base care, and edge care from one bag, so the whole setup stays ready between trips.