It’s easy to get lost in wax this and glide that, but the ultimate goal is to find out how we can get more of this feeling. Photo: Hugh Carey
I’d like to engage in a thought experiment together. Sit back in your chair and reminisce over a memory of skiing. Grab every recountable experience from this event. Are you gliding down a planar powder slope? Maybe hop-turning through a sun-ripened couloir? Or possibly railing G-force-inducing turns down a fresh sea of corduroy? What emotions and feelings and sensations come forth?
For me, skiing elicits feelings of flight. Skiing at its best feels weightless, effortless, and seamless. I’ll throw out a blanket-statement claim that us humans seek skiing to briefly satisfy our urge to fly. It fulfills our natural curiosity of flight in a snowy and ephemeral way. With that in mind, I began to question how can we make skiing feel most like flying? How can we minimize our drag, maximize our glide, and most closely imitate that airy sensation with wooden and plastic planks.
In search for better ski glide, I looked to what kind of products are available for our ski industry disposal. People have been putting wax on plastic ski bases for a while – that’s nothing new. However, a modern[ish] development in this field of ski glide is the DPS Phantom Waxless Glide Treatment. I wanted to learn how ski glide technology works with ski bases and ski waxes, and then what’s different about DPS Phantom. I looked into the following questions to better decide where to toss my dollars in exchange for nirvana-reaching snow-soaring:
What are ski bases and how can they help me glide?
What is ski wax and how can it FURTHER help me glide?
What is DPS Phantom Waxless Glide Treatment and how does it work differently (especially for backcountry skiing)?
Ultimately, this is a DPS Phantom Waxless Glide Treatment (DPSPWGT – how about that acronym??) review. But before getting there, I want to build an understanding of ski bases and traditional ski waxing as a foundational base of knowledge. If you don’t like belabored education on bases and wax, jump to What is DPS Phantom Waxless Glide Treatment? below.
First: A primer on ski bases
The base of ski glide is… the ski’s base. Some time long ago, we upgraded traditional wooden ski bases to plastic (polyethylene) because of the improvement in glide. The first name brand for the polyethylene ski base came from European manufacturer: International Mountain Sport. They named their product P-Tex, and the name stuck. Think of P-Tex as the Kleenex of the ski base world. P-Tex [generic polyethylene] has a high impact resistance and a low kinetic friction (<0.05 compared to 0.10 of wood when interacting with wet snow). The advent of polyethylene ski bases dramatically improved a skier’s ability to glide with a 100%+ reduction in friction compared to wooden bases. Most modern ski bases are now made from a more dense, more durable version of polyethylene called ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE).
Glide on the new fancy UHMWPE bases is exquisite. However, this very hard material can still be damaged through prolonged abrasion from sliding on snow. The harsher the snow (frozen spring precorn, cold groomed snow), the more abrasion occurs. Bare P-Tex bases wear down and eventually fibers of base material develop. These fibers grow and increase the surface area of the base. Abrasion causes a surface area increase which causes a glide loss which causes a significant drop in bliss and glee and giggles.
To sum up ski bases: they are hard and slick, but can still get damaged by sliding on snow. So how can you stop your bases from getting beat up? Add a layer of wax to buffer the blow of abrasion.
What is ski wax?
The backcountry community isn’t very familiar with ski wax, how it works, or its correct application process. Ask most ski touring aficionados, ‘How many times do you wax your skis?’. They’ll respond with either:
Huh?
Once or twice. (no exact time frame specified)
I wax every other session, because I’m a nordic skier and not an alpine touring skier.
If we’re seeking max glide, waxing ski bases dramatically aids our efforts. So what is it? Traditional ski wax is essentially a big block of long chain hydrocarbons (along with other chemicals). By melting wax onto your skis, you add energy to the wax/base interface and help bond the hydrocarbons to the P-Tex. Unfortunately, P-Tex is so dense that there is little room for wax-base bonds to be made. This makes the glide gained from wax temporal, albeit a big improvement. What’s important to consider for ski wax performance is the temperature of the snow. Different waxes are designed for different snow types. Hot wax designed for warmer temps helps avoid base suction with the snow meltwater. Cold wax promotes the melting of snow to avoid abrasion from sharp snow crystals. Tailoring wax to specific snow conditions is where most of the glide improvements come from. It’s important to choose the right wax for the temps to reap the benefits of waxy glide.
[I don’t want to argue the nuances of ski waxing methods. But here are the most comprehensive backcountry-specific methods for ski waxing and tuning that I found to be very informative: Waxing here and tuning here. They should help you understand the correct application process for traditional ski waxing.]
To conclude: wax makes skis glide better (duh!). But eventually wax wears off. So you’ll eventually be left with a desire for more wax and more glide like a tragically addicted snow slider. What if you are searching for that fresh-waxed feel without all the wax huffing, ski scraping and base brushing of a fresh tune?
This is where DPS Phantom Waxless Glide Treatment comes into play. It promises answers. No Wax: easy. Glide: that’s what we are looking for!? Permanent: ski wax isn’t permanent! After asking and answering many questions about this treatment, I hope to dispel a comprehensive take on DPSPWGT (there’s that acronym again), how it works, and if it’s worth the cost for us backcountry travelers.
What is DPS Phantom Waxless Glide Treatment?
This is what the Phantom treatment bottle looks like. Informative? Not too much, but look at that lighting. Photo: Hugh Carey
The application process for DPSPWGT is most effective when applied to a freshly ground base. Dirt, wax and surface irregularities like scratches negatively affect the DPS Phantom application process. Photo: Hugh Carey
DPS developed Phantom through some fancy chemical engineering. They took the long chain hydrocarbons of wax and made them short enough to fit into the pores of UHMWPE (excuse my laymen’s chemistry). Next, they used UV light to bond the Phantom treatment to the polyethylene base (instead of a hot waxing iron like with traditional ski wax). I visualize this process as the base of the ski being a sponge that absorbs the Phantom Treatment. It soaks into the entire base rather than just bonding to the surface like ski wax. The intent of the application is to have a permanent waxless glide treatment (hence the product title). No waxing ever, but all of the glide-fiending benefits of a wax job. Give your ski a base grind, wax over the Phantom for particular snow conditions, or leave them dry all summer long. The Phantom will still be soaked into the base and provide an improved glide compared to a raw UHMWPE.
So what about for us backcountry skiers? I’ve decided that DPSPWGT is worth it. Backcountry skiing is complex. Route planning, terrain management, risk assessment, group dynamics, gear malfunctions, nutrition, hydration and weather forecasting are all multivariable variables of the backcountry travel equation. The less we can add to that equation, the more room there is left to focus on what matters. You don’t want to be thinking about if you put on the right temp wax when traveling through consequential avalanche terrain. That’s the large value that I deduce from the DPS Phantom Treatment. More measurable backcountry benefits from Phantom’ing my touring skis are:
Skin glue doesn’t stick to bases as readily
Globbing doesn’t happen as much when traveling through hot and cold snow (like when touring through the trees on a bluebird day)
Clear improvement in glide for long flat egresses and skate-skiing approaches
What are the downsides to the DPS Phantom Treatment? It costs about $200 for the materials and shop application (I highly recommend getting a shop tech to do the nuanced application process). That is pricey, but it’s comparable to ski waxing after ~10 wax jobs (without including time value). Another downside is that the Phantom Treatment doesn’t perfectly accommodate for ALL snow conditions, but works most effectively for the ‘middle of the bell curve’. There’s a performance drop as the snow gets extra warm or extra cold. Common snow conditions (which is 90% of the time) bring Phantom Treatment to a very comparable level with a traditional wax job.
Another thing important to address is that DPS Phantom Treatment does not tune your skis. It doesn’t magically sharpen your edges or fill in core shots. The treatment gives your bases a universal glide, but that’s just half the story to a well-tuned ski. Sharp edges and a planar base are crucial considerations when in search of ethereal ski glide.
This point brings up an interesting consideration with the DPS Phantom Treatment. The treatment leaves your bases waxless and exposes them to the harsh abrasive environment of snow. Without the wax buffer between your bases and the snow, base damage develops faster. DPS provides a buff pad to polish out these micro-hairs that develop from snow abrasion, and suggests using a tuning brush or roto brush if available. I don’t have a good handle on the long term effects of base abrasion like this, but it’s something to consider that without ski wax on bases, you are damaging the P-Tex rather than stripping wax away. My impression is that the P-Tex damage from abrasion is minimal and gets worked out easily with periodic buffing, because that’s my experience thus far.
Here’s a DPS Phantom oven at an undisclosed super secret ski shop. These ovens are what zap Phantom treatment into the bases of skis Photo: Hugh Carey
Did I perform any ‘science’ to deduce these results on DPS Phantom? No. Just a comparison between me and my backcountry partners. The experiment has lasted about a year and a half and is ongoing. The sample size is my close knit group of touring partners, all of which don’t have Phantom Treatment (unless there’s a doubleblind in the study??). This is anecdotal evidence that the stuff (one more time – DPSPWGT) works.
What’s Next?
So here we are at the end of the glide-seeking study on skis, wax, and a waxing alternative. My takeaways:
P-tex bases are very hard and don’t accept wax that well. So it’s important to wax diligently and wax often.
Ski wax is designed for particular snow, so choose the right wax for the day
DPS Phantom Treatment is a glide alternative that saves you from waxing skis. But it might promote faster abrasion of your ski bases.
Let us know if you have a sacred ski tuning ritual that you would like to share. What are peoples’ experiences with DPS Phantom Treatment? Is ski waxing a thing of that past with this new[ish] treatment? Curious to build a WS community discussion on how to promote better ski glide
See Lou’s previous Phantom coverage
Shop for Phantom or stop by your local shop to see if they’ve got the UV cooker.
25 comments
It would be great to see some objective laboratory measurements to compare the effectiveness of std. wax, fluoro wax and Phantom under a range of temperatures. For the $$ involved it would be great to know exactly what that money buys, outside of the convenience of not having to wax your skis.
Another question would be, If my bases are Phantomed and I get a core shot, do I need to do anything special to repair the P-Tex? In other words does the Phantom impede effective base repair?
David
I fully agree: it would be great to see some third-party testing done with Phantom / traditional wax / fluorinated wax / natural wax (ex. Mountain Flow Eco Wax). The ROI on a chemical engineering PhD dissertation isn’t quite there yet for this kind of research.
Concerning the base repair question: No, the Ptex that you repair your base with doesn’t have Phantom treatment, but the other 99% of your ski still will. Phantom doesn’t impede the effectiveness of a base repair. From our experience, the base repair holds just the same.
Thanks! Good to know that its not a phantom menace regarding ski base repair.
I was an early adopter of thee DPS Phantom treatment and have it on 3 pairs of skis. My take is it works great for backcountry skiing, but not as well for resort skiing days. Resort skiing tends to have more opportunities to traverse and in those instances, ski buddies with wax on their boards will leave me in the dust. If it’s a resort skiing day, I’ll wax. If it’s a backcountry day, I won’t.
I used to wax with the all purpose red ski was until my shop buddies moved on and could no longer get a kilo for a 12 pack and the retail price for a bar was insulting. Have been hot waxing and rub waxing with grocery store parrafin for over 15 years and it produces the exceptional glide abilities any skier would notice. Hot wax once to start the season then rub was for each new ski day and then hot was again after about 10 ski days. After scraping hot wax I use a plastic dish washing pad you get at the market to rub out the left over wax and buff it with the same pad after cleaning off the wax residue on it with a steel brush then buff again with a small bristle brush. This probably sounds ancient which it is. Ancient, inexpensive, and tried and true. Something a struggling ski bum could afford and benefit from.
I am on my 3rd pair of skis with the DPS treatment and I agree with your assessment. Good all around compromise. I really only notice its shortcomings when skiing at a resort. Have you used wax on top of the DPS treatment much? And, if so, do you think it harms the DPS treatment? I would guess it just returns to the DPS level of performance once the wax is gone.
Joel, waxing doesn’t damage/harm the Phantom treatment. A fresh layer of wax on top for the specific snow conditions provides the zenith of ski glide bliss IMO
I’m the DPS distributor in Australia / NZ and have been using Phantom since inception. The progression quality and ease of application has come a long way in a few short years.
I love the stuff because it strengthens the base making it more durable, it allows me to tour with no wax / skin issues and if conditions dictate that I should wax, it actually holds on to the wax longer than a non Phantomed base.
Is it the panacea to all your problems, no but as Slator mentioned it covers 90% of all requirements.
I love the ritual of waxing but must admit, sometimes the world conspires against you and the day you just want to hit the slopes and gun it, is the day you haven’t had time to wax and that never happens with Phantom. So from a convenience perspective it’s a winner.
Oh! and on demo days I don’t need to wax 20 pairs of skis. I tell the punters that their skis haven’t been waxed and they can compare to the freshly waxed competitors and most come back and say they didn’t notice any difference. Good DPS bases helps but it is what it is.
I was a Kickstarter contributor to Phantom. I got my skis base ground and had the shop apply and cook the skis. Performance was horrible. Snow stuck to my bases. After 6 months of calls and emails with DPS, they sent me a new version to try. Same application process, same horrible results.
I patrol 5 days a week in the PNW. I wanted Phantom to be the fix for not having time to wax regularly. It is not. It’s snake oil. It actually made my skis slower. I put wax over the Phantom, got back to gliding and have never looked back.
The “middle bell curve” benefits have been my experience with Phantom also. Basically if you don’t wax over phantom your skis feel like you waxed them a few outings ago. Good glide but not great. Wax over the phantom and they feel like newly waxed skis (surprise). I still get a little icing when it’s close to freezing and I have had glue stick to one or two spots on the ski, specifically near the tail end.
I fit the “once or twice” category you mentioned above.
I got DPS phantom treatment on my daily backcountry driver skis 2 years ago. I also ski with friends who never ever wax. There is a noticeable difference for me anyway with long flat stretches of skating and in spring when the snow gets slushy. The description is correct that it is in between the glide from a proper wax and an unwaxed ski. I have had no problems with skin glue sticking to my base and much less glopping on very sunny days going in and out of the trees in soft snow. From my perspective it is a win, and I will do the same treatment for my new daily driver if I ever find time to leave the skis at the shop for a couple of days…
I was also an early adopter, I did it myself under supervision of a dealer, i seem to remember there were changes in the application process at that time also some of the earliest adopters may not have had the UV box which I would hesitate to call an “oven”
Its probably better than if you never wax your skis “good glide but not great ” is a good way to put it
I wonder how it work with skis like Voile’s BC skis that a pattern base in the center.
I was a Kickstarter early adopter, and did the application myself, applying the “UV treatment” by setting the skis in direct New Mexico sunlight for several hours (and I wondered at the time, how the hell are they gonna sell any of this stuff in the PNW?). Does DPS no longer promote that DIY solution?
Rob
DPS recommends against the DIY solution because of the inconsistency tied to the application process (NM vs. PNW). The UV oven and a trained shop tech can ensure that the treatment will actually work.
Has anyone tried Meguiar’s Hybrid Ceramic Wax?
DV
Sounds/looks/feels infomercially to me…please tie back with results if you try it out!
SA
I have to respectfully disagree with those of you who feel like Phantom has improved your glide. My experience is different. I have nothing against DPS. In fact, I own four pairs of their skis. I’ve spent several hundreds of dollars on Phantom in the process of having multiple different pairs of skis get the application. I’ve always found that the best comparison of gliding characteristics of skis is on long low angle descents. Several of the regular tours I take with different ski partners involve a several miles long low angle approach to the steep stuff. My skis are invariably the slowest on the trip back out to the trailhead. If I’m in front, my partners generally always ride up on my tail and ask me to take the last position. After a few years of getting fed up with that, I’ve gone back to waxing my skis and am no longer relegated to last position. Needless to say, none of my partners have bought Phantom. Granted, I bought the first iteration that DPS released and applied it myself because that was the only option back then. Maybe it’s improved since than – I don’t know but I don’t intend to waste any more money finding out.
I agree with Nick above. Had my skis phantomed by professional in-store. Skinned to 2500m in pristine bc pow. -15c at 2500 m. Glide was brutal all the way down. Skinned back up applied some hand rubbed wax and they skied perfect.
I generally wax using Swix hot iron and broad temp range waxes, once every 4 or 5 days of skiing (or in prep for a special trip, or if I know I have the wrong temp range on my skis.) For really warm temps I will often just hand rub a soft wax over a harder hot-waxed base. I do use brass and horsehair brushes to set the structure of the wax, but its more ritual than practical.
Off topic, I have a skin question. I have a set of G3 Alpinist skins that have been at room temperature, stuck together. They have separated pretty easily and are clean with a pattern of little peaks after being pulled apart. Are these likely to be a problem on trail? I’ve read in wildsnow that the plastic grid storage layers are considered not effective. Any hints on skin storage?
Oh, those skins were stuck together for ~ 1 year.
Ok, I’ll withdraw my question. Just applied the skins and they seem fine. The internet collective opinion seems to be that skins don’t like dirt and high temps (80’s F). Some people have experienced failures of the grid-like plastic skin savers. Dry them, but don’t cook them over a hut stove. Storing in the freezer over the Summer makes sense if your home gets warm. They’re not as fragile as I worried about. Don’t expose to vacuum or high-intensity cosmic rays, I guess.
Self-application of Phantom using the original apply, leave ’em out in the sun, then do it again approach. Did my main two pairs of skis this way. I was living under the great southern ozone hole at the time, so that might have helped. No complaints, in fact noticed superior glide vs others on the ski area traverse cat tracks. Love the convenience. Great with skins. However I am now skiing in considerably colder conditions in Alaska and the other day seemed to be gliding slower than others on a traverse. Overall, wouldn’t change a thing, but I am no pro.
Have recently started using “Dynamic Wax” (dynamicwax.com) on our nordic skis. Spray-on product that is more like Phantom than a traditional wax. Getting good glide results with that now, but only once I discovered a more elaborate multi-stage application process than what it says on the can. Interesting times for innovative wax substitutes.
Off topic but.. I wax in my garage but it can be pretty cold out there. I keep the skis warm until it’s time to wax them. Does room temperature affect waxing? Thanks!
As a teleskier DPS Phantom has worked and I feel/experience the difference on those warm spring days in the afternoon or a sun exposed powder day.
The Phantom treatment has eliminated being launched over the front of the skis or the agonizing (quad burning) resistance while skiing through a flat access trail back to a lift. Prior to Phantom I would wax every day in the spring and by the afternoon I would start to experience a significant reduction in glide, always searching for the shadow cast by a tree. I still continue to wax as it has superior glide. Phantom by itself is great all round, but it’s not as fast on flat slopes as wax. Wax is gone by the late afternoon and this is when Phantom treatment is most effective/beneficial.
My first experience with Phantom was a failure. I did the self application. The kit came with a stiff nylon brush to rub off the residue. I rubbed too hard creating some very fine micro hairs which on a backcountry powder day the snow globbed to my bases. It was like skiing downhill with my skins on, but only worse.
Phantom treatment is wonderful for the skiers who are not concerned about ultimate performance and want to eliminate the hassle of waxing. As a teleskier all my skis have the Phantom treatment and when I’m on a trip for a week I know I can go a week without having to wax.