There’s already snow on the peaks here in Seattle, but I’ve been biding my time getting to know the area so far, aka watching ski flicks.  From all accounts it seems there’s a least a month or more until ski areas open, though I’m sure there are backcountry turns to be found.

My first order of business is to take some preventive measures.  During my last day touring this year, my Blizzard Bonafides caught some air, resulting in a ski-to-rock collision. It skied fine the rest of the day, but I’m concerned the damage could lead to a delam or damage the core.

Damaged tip, with a tiny bit of core showing.

The plan is to clean up and seal the tip with epoxy-but what type to use?  Luckily the TGR forums had some handy previous discussion, if you read around the flaming.  I chose JB Weld, a slow 24-hr setting steel based epoxy.  Apparently it used to boast claims of holding together 10-ton tractor axles, and has been used for radiator crack welds.

Mixing it up. I added slightly more resin after this, and perhaps had a little less hardener than resin. Overall it was easy to work with.  If you’re going to mess up, I hear it’s better to have a bit more resin, than not enough, which can cause a more brittle bond.

Sealing up the ski was easy enough, though I almost wish the epoxy cured faster so it held a better form.

I wanted to apply as little as possible to properly seal off the core, without adding too much weight to the tip. Once applied, I set the ski aside for a day.

Once dry, I did a pass each of rough and smooth grit sanding, to clean it up and remove some excess.

Lastly, I colored the work, so it’d look like base material.