1) Begin by making sure your skis are clean. Scraped then brush gently with a steel or brass brush.

2) Clean your entire base with a liquid base cleaner or wax remover. Wipe as much dirt and dust off with Fiberlene or a shop towel.

3) Using a piece of Fibertex, energetically rub down the entire glide zone to remove any microscopic hairs or burrs in the base. Pink paper is also great for this. Then, repeat step 2 with a liquid base cleaner or wax remover and wipe away the dirt & dust. Let the solvents dry before continuing. Your ski is now clean and prepped for the hot wax.

4) Preheat your iron to the temperature recommended by the wax manufacturer for the particular powder you will be using. Temperatures for powders waxes are usually between 120C and 160C.

5) Tap a line of powder up and down the ski on both sides of the groove.

6) Using the iron, stamp down the powder to quickly melt it into the base. Be careful not to let it rest in one place for too long.

7) Give the powder one more quick pass with the iron to make sure the wax melts evenly over the ski base.

8) Use a groove scraper to remove wax from the sidewalls and the ski's groove(s). Let the ski cool. 5 minutes.

9) Using a sharp scraper, scrape off the excess paraffin. Scrape like you mean it, but don't press too hard. Angle the scraper forward and place your thumbs behind and at the bottom of the scaper. Scrape from tip to tail.

10) After scraping, pass a steel or brass brush 5-6 times using light pressure. Start at the tip and move to the tail.

11) If you like, you can polish the base using a horsehair and/or nylon hand brush or nylon roto brush.

12) Consider finishing your ski by adding structure with a rill tool if there is a lot of moisture in the snow, or if it is very cold or dry, finish the ski with pink paper or a structure tool for cold snow.