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The 4 Best Climbing Skins of 2025 for Backcountry Skiing
We have shuffled and ascended on the best skins from Pomoca, Contour, Montana, Dynafit, Black Diamond and more to offer you tailored advice to match your needs and budget
Our team of backcountry ski guides has continually tested the best climbing skins over the past decade. This review draws on their cumulative wisdom earned through skinning millions of vertical feet to directly compare 17 of the best skins side-by-side. We consider the needs of skiers across the spectrum of abilities, goals, backgrounds, and budgets to help you find the best option for your new setup.
We want you to understand up front that every single attribute of a climbing skin is balanced by a competing attribute. Optimization, at any price, is essentially impossible. However, certain models do stand out for their well-balanced, proven designs. The Contour Hybrid Mix offers an excellent balance of glide and grip, with an easily cleanable adhesive that requires less maintenance over time. The Pomoca Climb Pro S glides just as well and grips a bit better than the Contour skin, though it has a traditional glue that will eventually require refreshing.
Climbing skins are all priced very similarly, though the Pomoca Climb 2.0 stands out for its performance at a sub-$200 price point. This is essentially the same skin as the Climb Pro S, just with a different treatment that doesn't glide quite as well and is a bit more prone to icing up.
Editors' Note: We updated this review on December 7, 2024, after testing these products through the 2023-2024 season. We retested skins from Pomoca and Dynafit and added five new skins from Montana, Big Sky Mountain Products, Kohla, and G3. We also reassessed our award-winning lineup and now offer more specific awards based on the type of glue.
The best climbing skins are well-balanced across a suite of conflicting criteria. The award-winning Contour Hybrid Mix skins do exactly that, and we love them for it, but they do take some work to maintain that balanced performance. The “mix” of Mohair-nylon fabrics and the tip and tail attachments are pretty darn standard – in our books, “standard” is good because it's reliable. The “hybrid” glue, though, deserves some more discussion. This glue is considerably more reliable than most, if it is properly maintained. That maintenance regimen is not difficult, but it requires a bit more work than some backcountry skiers have come to expect from their skins. For the best performance, you should use dedicated Contour cleaning products to clean the glue after a couple dozen days' worth of use. If you stick to this relatively easy-going regimen – which only requires 10-15 minutes of work – the glue will last for dozens of such cycles.
With proper maintenance, we've learned that skins with this type of “cleanable” glue offer greater durability and performance than skins with more “traditional” glue. Traditional glue requires less maintenance in the short term but significantly more work in the long run – re-gluing traditional skins takes hours, not to mention a day or so of curing time. We're also monitoring the long-term performance of the directly comparable Montana Montamix Adrenaline, which features a unique adhesive similar to the cleanable glue on the Hybrid Mix. One season of testing these brand-new skins suggests they are on par with the Contour skins; we just don't have the same number of days on them to comment on long-term durability (yet). All the other top performers in our review are made with traditional glue. If you don't want to clean your skins every few weeks, go with our other Editors' Choice award winner, the Pomoca Climb Pro S Glide.
Skins with a more reliable adhesive, like the Hybrid Mix, stick better to the bottom of your skis and are less likely to peel off when skinning in deep snow.
Glue holds up better than other traditional formulations
REASONS TO AVOID
Tailhook is too narrow for many modern skis
Requires re-gluing after a season or two
SPECIFICATIONS
Material
70% Mohair, 30% Nylon
Measured Weight (lbs per pair)
1.03
Weight per Pair (Based on Ski Tested)
468 g for Atomic Backland 95 177 cm
Weight per Ski Width (grams/mm)
2.46
Glue
Traditional
Much like the other chart-topping options, we love the Pomoca Climb Pro S Glide skins because they strike the right balance. We certainly aren't alone – they've topped other award lists for many years, and a quick scan of gear at any popular trailhead reveals the distinctive green plush on the bottom of many skis. The fabric on the Climb Pro S Glide is durable, offers enough grip for any climb, and glides better than most. Compared to many other skins with “traditional” glues, the glue on the Pro S Glide adheres well yet is pulled easily from your skis (and from themselves) with a reasonable amount of force. Best of all, time has proven it to be reliable. The most dedicated backcountry skiers can wear out this type of traditional glue with just a few months of regular use. However, most backcountry skiers won't fall into this category – it's likely you'll want to refresh the glue on the Climb Pro S Glide every season or so. If re-gluing skins is unappealing, consider the Contour Hybrid Mix or Montana Montamix.
Pomoca recently “upgraded” its tip and tail clips. (This critique applies to all of the Pomoca skins in our lineup.) While the subtle changes to the tip loop don't meaningfully impact performance, the tail clip is now so narrow that it doesn't fit over the thickness of most modern skis. It can be “stretched” and works fine for the duration of a day tour, but it slowly “shrinks” back and needs to be restretched on subsequent days. This is more of a hassle for skiers looking to make speedy transitions, but we look forward to Pomoca improving this design in the future. If you want to save a few bucks, it's worth pointing out that the Pomoca Climb 2.0 features the same glue and fabric as the Climb Pro S Glide, just without the water-resistant (and fast gliding) treatment that helps this skin glide so well.
Pomoca has their skins dialed. Their full lineup offers subtle variations across a relatively broad price range (at least as far as other brands go), and they have something to offer any level of backcountry skier. The “yellow one,” the Pomoca Climb 2.0, is their budget offering, and by extension, we feel this is the best value on the market. When you consider the performance of this skin – especially its durability and reliability – against other top performers, and then look at its purchase price, it's easy to see why this skin is nearly as popular as “the green one.” This skin is particularly popular among newer or more casual backcountry skiers, as the plush offers a bit more grip than other options in our lineup.
Like all skins with “traditional” glue, the sticky side of the Climb 2.0 requires some laborious refreshing after a season or two (depending on how much you use them). The “cleanable” glue options – like the Contour Hybrid Mix – require less maintenance over time, but you will pay for that benefit. Upgrades within the Pomoca line vary based on the glide treatment applied to the plush. The Climb Pro S Glide features the same glue and fabric as the Climb 2.0 but achieves improved glide through this treatment. Of course, there are lots of variables that determine performance, but our experience suggests that this treatment lasts for the first 40,000 vertical feet or so of average skinning. Once it's gone, there is very little difference between the Climb 2.0 and other Pomocas skins.
The Free Pro 2.0 is Pomoca's lightweight, race-type skin for backcountry touring. This skin particularly excels on big skis skinning in soft, dry snow. The main difference between the Free Pro 2.0 and their more well-rounded offerings is the thinner backing fabric. Although the glide of this skin consumes less of your precious energy on the way up the mountain, it requires a bit more care than the other Pomoca skins in our lineup. Although our comparison of Portability isn't perfect – testing on different-size skis makes it trickier to compare size, weight, and packability directly – our test team agrees that the Free Pro 2.0 is lighter and smaller than any other similarly performing option.
The main downsides to the Free Pro 2.0 are the strength and durability of the lightweight fabric. If you regularly skin over rocks and dirt in the late season, you may want to opt for the much more durable Climb Pro S Glide. There are also certain ways that the more flexible fabric backing affects the glue integrity and how you handle and apply your skins. Thicker, more rigid skins (like the Pro S Glide) help keep the fabric from “rolling back” or separating from the bottom of your ski while skinning, and they're easier to fold up in the wind. However, more supple skins like the Free Pro 2.0 – or full mohair options like the Contour Hybrid Mohair or Kohla Performance Mohair – glide better and are more packable. As we'll say again and again throughout this review, there are always tradeoffs with climbing skins.
The Montana Montamix Adrenaline is a brand new skin made by the same brand known for its top-of-the-line ski tuning equipment. While we now have many months of testing with these skins, we simply haven't skinned as much on these as the other award winners in our lineup. Yet, testing is very promising so far. Essentially, they perform just like the Contour Hybrid Mix, but they are lighter weight and more compact. If their performance continues to hold up over time – and if we can clean them as readily as the Contour skins – they will be a contender for a top award in the future.
Our extensive experience with the Hybrid Mix suggests that cleanable glue is superior to traditional glue. But until the release of the Montamix Adrenaline, there have been no other cleanable skins against which to compare the Hybrid Mix. Although it is a more expensive alternative, the cleanable adhesive on the Montamix may be worth the investment. Even with limited time during the height of a busy season, five minutes of cleaning periodically helped our test team get through a season of heavy use. We will keep testing these Montana skins, but they are certainly an exciting option, especially if their adhesive continues to hold up over time.
The Montamix Adrenaline are a bit thinner than directly comparable options, which makes these easily cleanable skins just as easy to peel.
Credit: Jediah Porter
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Spring snow and steep terrain in all directions, we test skins by taking them out into the wild over the course of a season. Here are the Big Sky Nylon skins in action at Delta Lake, Grand Teton National Park.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Why Trust GearLab
We test these skins thoroughly, mainly in “real-life” backcountry skiing. Our first skin review was in 2015, and we have done it every year since. Our longest-serving testers have been logging full, varied backcountry ski seasons since the late '90s. We start each product test with setup and “bench test” comparisons for compatibility and integrity of new glue. Then, we dive into busy, varied winter and spring backcountry skiing. We can get every set of skins on huge powder days, technical ski mountaineering missions, and occasionally a multi-day expedition. We aim for multiple opinions on every product we test. We will directly compare products, often skiing with two different skins for an apples-to-apples comparison. That's the best way we have found to rank both grip and glide.
Our testing of climbing skins is based on six different metrics:
Glide (30% of overall score weighting)
Portability (20% weighting)
Glue Integrity (20% weighting)
Grip (15% weighting)
Icing and Glopping Resistance (10% weighting)
Compatibility (5% weighting)
Our test team's varied experience includes full-time human-powered ski guides, passionate users, beginner ski tourers, and a few points in between. Our lead test editor is an internationally certified mountain guide Jed Porter. Jed has been backcountry skiing since the mid-'90s and has logged significant ski accomplishments on three continents. Further, he is a pioneering ski mountaineering guide with notable human-powered accomplishments. For instance, in June of 2022, Jed made history by leading the first modern, ropeless guided ski descent of Alaska's Denali. Jed also taps into the expertise and experience of ski partners, colleagues, and clients to generate skin reviews.
Expedition skiing (and expedition skin testing) in British Columbia.
We compare weights by equalizing for the size of the ski, which allows us to draw conclusions that help define portability.
Skin testing involves a whole lot of backcountry skiing over the course of a season.
Analysis and Test Results
Read on for our overview and recommendations of textile products to stick to the bottom of backcountry skis for traction in uphill travel. We rate climbing skins for glide, portability, glue integrity, grip, icing and glopping resistance, and compatibility. If you want to dive a bit deeper, take a look at our buying advice article to better understand what to look for in buying climbing skins.
What's the Best Value?
Shopping for any technical equipment by price is difficult. With skins, it is an especially “sticky” situation. You will rely a great deal on your climbing skins, but they aren't cool and flashy like boots or skis. The “best” are only marginally better than the “worst.” Price is less correlated to performance than in many other technical products. Only very occasionally does a product come on the market that is truly ineffective. Those products, though, are truly heinous. Our first advice to the bargain hunter is that if it seems “too good to be true,” it probably is. Older products, especially used products, can work, but you are taking a huge gamble.
Next, let us point out that the price range of the products that actually work is smaller than in other categories. With skis, the top of the heap is two times the cost of the bottom. Not so with skins. Differences are in single-digit percentages. A small discount on expensive skins will yield a better price than the retail price of the least expensive options. Further, comparing prices is especially difficult as every size and configuration of a skin model is a different price. In granting our value award, we consider absolute price, durability, availability, and likelihood of a discount.
Testing? Yes, but mainly skiing and soaking in the view of British Columbia's Coast Mountains.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Again, make sure you compare the prices of similar items. Each make and model is sized differently, so you must shop by size – look at length and width, which can vary by company. When shopping by price, narrow your options first by size and then compare prices. Bigger skins of the same model are more expensive than smaller ones.
Discerning value can be tricky, especially when choosing skins, but there are good deals out there. You can't go wrong with the affordable, durable Pomoca Climb 2.0 or Black Diamond Glidelite Mix. Older versions, especially of the Black Diamond model, are likely exactly the same as the newest version (which has an updated print). Often, you can find these for exceptionally good deals.
Nothing says value and reliability like gear you take on significant trips. Here's a snapshot of the aforementioned 2022 Denali expedition, accomplished on the Pomoca Climb 2.0.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Glide
This is the most important single attribute of climbing skins, as it is the biggest determinant of their uphill efficiency. A good skinning technique slides the skis and skins rather than lifts them, so skins that slide easily climb easily. Two things that affect the glide characteristic are the type of fiber in the fabric (commonly referred to as "plush") and the length and geometry of those fibers.
Mohair, made from the shorn hair of the Angora goat, creates the smoothest and least friction in glide. Nylon is slower, and mixes of the two split the difference. It is important to note that differences in glide characteristics depend a little on the nature of the snow. While mohair skins always glide at least a little better, the difference is far more pronounced on dry, wintry snow than it is on wet or melt-freeze snow. On fresh and dry snow, mohair is considerably faster than nylon, while on corn-type snow, the difference is much less pronounced.
Long, flat approaches aren't anybody's favorite, but they do get us further from the masses. Easy-gliding skins mitigate the exhaustion of the slog.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The length and geometry of the fabric hairs also affect glide. Skins that glide better have hairs that are lower profile and more closely shorn. Logically, the angle at which the fibers protrude from the backing fabric would affect glide characteristics. Quantifying both length and geometry has proven to be beyond our testing capabilities. Differences in fiber geometry explain differences in performance between products that otherwise seem like they should be the same.
Glide isn't the first thing you think of with skins, but it should be. While all skins grip well enough, some glide much better than others.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The Pomoca Climb Pro Mohair skins glide better than any other skin we tested. The Contour Hybrid Mohair is right in the mix with these green gliders. Kohla Performance Mohair doesn't glide quite as well as the two other full mohair products, but they do glide better than any options that include nylon in the plush.
The glide of mohair skins really pays off on long approaches, especially when you're hauling lots of gear.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The next echelon holds the remainder of our favorite skins for glide. The blended skins, like the Pomoca Climb Pro S Glide and Free Pro 2.0, Contour Hybrid Mix, Monanta Montamix Adrenaline, Dynafit Speedskin, and Kohla Alpinist all have virtually indistinguishable glide characteristics. Even though it is a blended skin, the Big Sky Mountain Products (BSMP) Mohair Mix Endurance doesn't glide quite as well as these other blended options.
On efficient skins, the practiced backcountry skier can learn to appreciate the uphill almost as much as the downhill. It's a meditation, of sorts.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The blended construction of the G3 Alpinist+ Glide is closer to the performance of the all-nylon Black Diamond Ascension than to the other blended skins. We were also surprised by the high friction coefficient of the blended formulation in the Kohla Freeride skins. The budget G3 Escapist Universal and BSMP Nylon Rover both glide similarly to the BD Ascension skins, that is, slightly better than the Kohla Freeride. Choose these slower-gliding options with skepticism, however, as more modern designs offer a similar level of durability and grip with improved glide.
Even on particularly steep climbs, most honed backcountry skiers will want the efficiency of better gliding skins than the minimal advantage offered by ones with slightly better grip.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Portability
We test skis and, therefore, skins of different widths, so we cannot directly compare the mass of one skin to another. However, even without the convenience of making direct comparisons of like-sized products, we can make authoritative judgments of their portability. Nylon skins are heavier and bulkier, while mohair skins are lighter and less bulky. Predictably, blended skins split the difference (usually). Similar to the balance of grip and glide, packability and weight correlate to the material. By opting for a smaller, lighter, more packable skin, they will inevitably suffer in terms of durability.
Pomoca makes some of the most packable skins available. The pink Free Pro 2.0 is more compact than basically any other skin on the market, though the Climb Pro Mohair isn't far behind. The Kohla Performance Mohair, Freeride, and Alpinist are almost as compact and light as the pink Pomoca. The Kohla Alpinist and Performance Mohair strike a better balance than the Freeride – we love how small and light the Freeride is; we just wish that it glided better.
Supple and light, the Pomoca Free Pro 2.0 packs down smaller than most.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The Pomoca Climb Pro S Glide packs similarly to the BSMP Mohair Mix Endurance and the Hybrid Mix. The Montana Montamix Adrenaline packs similarly, though it is a touch lighter than the Contour Hybrid Mix. Although they're not as packable as full-mohair skins, the Dynafit Speedskins are even a bit lighter than these other blended skins, while the otherwise similar Black Diamond Glidelite Mix FL are a bit heavier.
The Contour Hybrid Mohair is not nearly as svelte as other mohair options, but their performance makes up for it. The bulky attachments of the G3 Alpinist+ Glide take up more room in a pocket or pack but are well worth it for how well they retain to your skis. The custom-cut nature of the Escapist Universal leaves even more bulk at the tip than other G3 skins. The good news, though, is that you can cut them to the exact length you require (and that exact length is likely shorter than you think).
Raw weight numbers of our tested skins are not as useful as our “weight per surface area” calculation. This number, for the most part, helps you compare skins while correcting for ski size.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The BSMP Nylon Rover is bulky, much like the perennial test entry Black Diamond Ascension. These full nylon products, though, will stand up better to hundreds of thousands of feet of abrasive corn snow than anything with mohair in the blend.
Packability is a function of your ski width and the skins' inherent bulk; fabric thickness defines the latter. The pink Free Pro 2.0 (top) are much more packable than the full-nylon Black Diamond Ascension skins (bottom).
Credit: Jediah Porter
Glue Integrity
The glue's main job is to keep your skins on your skis. Considering the demands placed on skin glue (wet environment, high shear forces, poor care, repeated use), all products work marvelously. With very few exceptions in recent years, none of the skins we tested suffered complete, unexplainable glue failure. If it is cold enough or wet enough, all skins will fail to some degree. But even in those extenuating circumstances, some stay put better than others.
We want to distinguish between the two primary “types” of glue. For lack of better terminology, we're going to designate these two types as “traditional” and “cleanable”. The difference is less in how they are designed but in how they are maintained. Traditional glue is used until it loses reliable stickiness, which normally results from the accumulation of detritus on the glue surface over time. At that point, one must either dispose of the skins or commit to re-gluing them. This rather extensive process involves the removal of the old, sullied glue with heat and labor and then reapplication of new glue. New glue is reapplied in liquid form and requires hours or days of drying and curing (or, more rarely, in sheets that must be ironed on). Even if manufacturers use different terminology to reference their proprietary adhesives, we're going to use the term “glue” to discuss cleanable adhesives. Cleanable glues lose adhesion through the same collection of detritus as traditional glues. The difference, however, is that one can clean the debris off and achieve a nearly new level of stickiness with just a few minutes' worth of work.
We want skin glue to be sticky enough to adhere to the bottom of our skis, but releasable enough to be able to rip skins with our skis on.
Credit: Jediah Porter
In our experience, factory-applied traditional glue lasts for about 100 days of ski touring before requiring replacement or re-gluing. Subsequent glue jobs last for about 75 days. Cleanable glue lasts 30-35 days before requiring cleaning, and then subsequent intervals shrink to 20-25 days. Traditional glues will require one or two full resets over their life cycle, with each re-gluing session requiring a couple of hours' worth of labor and a day or two of wait time. Within that same life cycle, cleanable skins will require six to eight cleanings, which only take about 10 minutes. Regardless of the glue type or maintenance regimen, skins will eventually become unusable simply because fabrics will wear away over time.
Beautiful, mellow glacier skinning deep in the Alaska wilderness. It's helpful to have skins with cleanable glues if you plan on travelling to far off locations.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Traditionally, glued skins are familiar, offer proven performance, and are initially low-maintenance, even if they require more labor throughout their life cycle. Skins with cleanable glues are newer and not as well-proven (just by the nature of the fact that this is a newer technology) but require easy, periodic maintenance. We understand that many backcountry skiers will opt for traditionally glued skins, but our test team is leaning more and more toward cleanable options.
"Glue integrity" takes into account how well they stick to your skis as well as how easily and reliably they remove when you need them to.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Within the two families of glue types, there are variations in quality, with more variation among traditional glues. The glue itself is the primary determinant of adhesion between skin and ski, but tip and tail attachments and fabric stiffness also affect glue integrity. Secure, low-profile tips and tails keep the skins stuck to your skis better than ones that are loose or create gaps. Stiff fabric is less likely to peel and roll than more supple fabrics.
Glue alone can't do the job, so glue integrity is also a function of tip and tail attachments.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Only a few products currently feature cleanable glue. Contour's Hybrid Mohair and Hybrid Mix feature the same cleanable glue on two different fabric blends. We have tested Contour's Hybrid glue formulation for years now and have had a positive experience with the cleaning procedure (after a slight learning curve). Montana Montamix Adrenaline, on the other hand, is a much newer skin for us. The tip attachment is essentially the same as on the Contours – that is to say, perfectly adequate – though the fabric is slightly less stiff. The cleaning procedure on the Montana skins seems just as effective as on the Contours, but we have not employed nearly as many repetitions yet as this is a relatively new product. The remainder of the skins in our test use traditional glue, and we certainly have plenty of experience to comment on their relative performance.
The simple tip clip design of Pomoca skins keeps them close to the skis, which helps avoid them rolling back and having snow result in failure of adhesion.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The glue on all the Black Diamond options is remarkably robust. The Pomoca Climb Pro Mohair, Climb Pro S Glide, Free Pro 2.0, Climb 2.0, and Dynafit Speedskin all appear to have essentially the same glue. Although this glue may appear less sticky than other options, as long as the skins are correctly applied, we've never had much issue. Kohla glue, as featured on the tested Freeride, Performance Mohair, and Alpinist skins seems very similar to that on Pomoca skins. It pulls easily from itself and your skis when it's time to transition, but it sticks adequately the rest of the time. The stretchy tip attachment of the Kohla Performance Mohair is more vulnerable to snow incursion than more secure rigid wire tip loops. The stretchy tip, though, allows for tip-first skin removal. Dynafit Speedskins also feature a stretchy tip for tip-first skin removal, but their “stretchy” tip is much stiffer than that on the Kohla Performance.
Over the course of your day snow slowly creeps in between glue and ski base, starting at the tip. This is a common sort of glue “failure,” often caused by cold conditions, deep snow, and multiple laps. They won't fully recover in the field, but these skins will work just fine after thawing and drying indoors.
Credit: Jediah Porter
A few years ago, G3 adjusted its glue formulation. The skin glue on the Alpinist+ Glide and Escapist Universal is robust, if not a little too strong. G3 glue requires more strength than the others to pull from itself and from your skis. Big Sky Mountain Products, with their Mohair Mix and Nylon Rover skins, uses glue that is on par with the stickiness of G3 skins. The softer fabric of the BSMP Mohair Mix allows for skin rolling and snow incursion more than on the Nylon Rover model.
Skin Glue Isn't Foolproof
All skin glue will fail in certain conditions. Snow, water, regular skinning forces, and gravity will disrupt the glue-ski base bond. Don't dispose of your skins simply because the skins came off when you didn't want them to. Clean them off, dry them out as best you can, and stick them back on. In the field, this might mean water, snow, and ice continue to negatively affect their adhesion. At home, hanging skins overnight will dry them entirely. If they fail when they are dry and clean and being pressed onto clean and dry skis, consider regluing them. (Or, in the case of the Contour Hybrid Mix and Montana Montamix Adrenaline, clean them!)
The most secure tip attachment we've come across is the rubbery dongle on the Dynafit Speedskin. This arrangement, combined with a long, gentle taper of the skin width and fairly rigid construction, made for an overall more secure skin fit than the otherwise less tacky glue would suggest. Among the universally compatible skins, the G3 models have a better tip attachment than the Black Diamond, Pomoca, Kohla, Montana, and Big Sky Mountain Products. The stiffened plastic tip of the G3 Alpinist is brilliant and serves to virtually eliminate skin roll at the tip.
This sort of failure is not normal or acceptable: The glue side came detached from the plush side, and these skins are now unusable.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Finally, most skins are equipped with a tail clip, ostensibly to help the skins stay glued on. In certain (relatively warm and dry) conditions, we found little to no difference in glue integrity with or without the tail kit. However, cold and wet skins work better with a tail kit. Most skiing is done in cold or wet conditions. In wetter, stormier, and colder climates, especially on huge, multi-transition days, tail clips and careful glue care are advised.
Classically designed skins didn't include tail clips. However, most backcountry skiers now agree that they are a useful addition to help keep your skins free of snow for longer.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Grip
Skins are made to grip. That is their only purpose: to make your skis grippier than they would be otherwise. One would assume, then, that the grippiest skins are the best. This isn't true. Further, skins differ less dramatically in this regard than they do with respect to glide. Additionally, physiological efficiency limits your angle of ascent more than skin grip. Finally, technique – not skin material or construction – is the biggest determinant of one's skinning security when it gets steeper than your body prefers.
A good skinner can climb more steeply on the most slippery skins than a new skinner can on the grippiest. Nobody, regardless of skinning skill, wants to skin as steep as their skins will grip. Good skinning is a magic art of balance, trust, and reading terrain, with just a little bit of the overall grip equation tied to the actual skin construction. All that said, skins do differ in their ability to grip. We found noticeable differences in the grip characteristics, generally inversely proportional to the product's glide. Better gliding skins grip less, while the slower gliders grip better. We keep saying it, but every single performance attribute is balanced by a competing performance attribute.
This is the steepest sort of terrain one might expect to skin. Even here, on a slope pushing 40 degrees, grip wasn't an issue for anyone in our party, regardless of the type of skin they were using.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The Pomoca Climb Pro Mohair grips well enough that expert skinners might use these exclusively, even for the gnarliest of missions in the gnarliest of conditions. The Kohla Performance Mohair performs on par with the full mohair Pomoca model, as does the Contour Hybrid Mohair. These 100% mohair skins are optimized for glide and grip as well as you should ever need.
Steep, alpine terrain is what you envision when you envision backcountry skiing. But proper track setting and skinning technique is much more important than the grip of your skins.
Credit: Jediah Porter
All of the blended skins, including the Contour Hybrid Mix, Pomoca S Glide, and Free Pro 2.0, grip well enough for intermediate to expert skinners to follow even the steepest, iciest skin tracks. The G3 Alpinist+ Glide grabs slightly better than the other blends, often enough to make up for a less developed technique. The Kohla Freeride skins grip much like the Alpinist+ Glide, which is to say a little better than average. Montana Montamix Adrenaline and BSMP Mohair Mix Endurance grip similar to one another and are indistinguishable from the other middle-of-the-road grippers.
Epic skiing requires epic skinning. Epic skinning requires just the right skins with just the right sort of performance. Choosing climbing skins involves compromise, but if we had to make a choice, we will always opt for glide over grip.
Credit: Jediah Porter
The full-nylon Black Diamond Ascension, BSMP Nylon, and G3 Escapist grip the best of all of the skins we have tested. But, after reading above, do you really feel you need the most grip possible, given the tradeoffs therein?
Skinning in and out of sun-warmed snow is the “best” way to have ice build up on your skins. Prevention is a combination of technique and waxing (to improve glide), with only a slight input from skin material.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Icing and Glopping Resistance
When the fabric gets wet from the liquid water present in warmer snow (or, rarely, from immersion in water, like a creek) and is then subject to cold, dry snow, ice forms within the fabric. This, depending on exact snow conditions, can result in anything from mere annoyance to a full-on shutdown. But it is an inevitability – all skins ice up.
The worst “glopping” conditions lead to tens of pounds of snow stuck to each ski and require extensive scraping and waxing before progress can be made. Further and painfully, it could just happen again within a few steps. All the skins we tested were treated by the factory with water-resistant coatings that worked well but eventually wore off. None seemed to last noticeably longer than the others. Nylon fiber initially absorbs marginally less water than mohair. Once wet, however, all fibers ice up. Again, differences were marginal, and all skins require waxing so they won't ice up in warmer, fresh snow conditions. Good technique (waxing and sliding your skins forward with each step) is a greater equalizer than any difference in materials. All materials will ice up in the worst conditions, and a little prevention and technique will prevent icing on all materials in all but those worst conditions.
All skins ice up in the wrong conditions. Newer skins, waxed skins, and skins with more synthetic material in them resist icing better.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Compatibility
Not all the skins we tested are compatible with all skis on the market. Specific to our lineup, the Dynafit Speedskins are compatible only with Dynafit skis. The remainder of the skis we tested are ostensibly universal in compatibility.
Black Diamond was a notable hanger-on of flexible cable tip loops, which are tougher to use on fat and rounded ski tips. They have finally abandoned their cable tip loops, and with that move, none of the skins we tested have wire tip loops. You will still find used and overstock skins out there with flexible wire loops, but they aren't really worth your consideration. Not every “universal” skin comes in sizes large or small enough for outlier ski sizes (think fat powder skis and super skinny skimo setups). Generally, though, most of the skins we tested universally fit most skis on the market.
Dynafit Speedskins are designed with special tip and tail clips, and are pre-cut to match specific Dynafit skis.
Credit: Jediah Porter
It's important to note that tip attachments vary among skins with a universal fit. The best and most versatile are the pivoting metal hooks of the G3 skins. Next, the offset and rigid wire slots of the Pomoca, Contour, Kohla, and the newest Black Diamond options are quite secure and adaptable to different tip profiles.
The newest Pomoca tail clips are too narrow for most skis on the market now. You can bend them for easier use each tour, but they shrink back down between uses.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Tail attachments are often more similar, though differences still exist. G3 tail clips are notably well-designed, while the current iteration of Pomoca tail clips appear to be too narrow for the thickness of most modern skis. They “stretch” and flex into place, but you have to battle against them each and every time.
Some skins are pre-cut to specific skis, some can be cut for width only, while some can be cut for length and width. The G3 Escapist is one of the more customizable skins we tested: they come without tip and tail clips attached and can be cut in length and width to fit practically any ski.
Credit: Jediah Porter
Conclusion
We really wish we could offer more confident, authoritative skin recommendations – something along the lines of, “These are the best in these ways, and you need not look any further.” However, the reality is that your selection process will be fraught with compromise. If you're just learning to skin, you want maximum traction, but only for a few days while you dial in your technique; then you want maximum glide. We suggest shopping very carefully, as differences are subtle, prices are relatively similar, and there are no obvious, outstanding value options. Fortunately, we've spent a ton of time – perhaps more than most thought possible – dissecting these nuances to ensure we deliver our recommendations with confidence. If you choose an award winner, you won't be disappointed.
