Alder antifreeze for snowshoes/skis?

[Tsuga8]

I just finished Trap Lines North by Meader, recommended by folks on the What Are You Reading thread. Great read, highly enjoyable, esp this time of year.

On page 195, the book says "They had painted their snowshoes with a concoction brewed from alder bark, which prevented the slush from sticking to the frames and woven thongs".

And,

"the boy rubbed his snowshoes with alder bark "soup" to keep them from sticking in the wet snow." on pg 216.

Anyone ever heard of this? Anyone know how to make the stuff? I learned my nonstick cross-country ski 'wax' is in fact PFAS, and would love to find a less damaging alternative to tracing tracks of forever chemicals through the woods.

 

[snapper]

Never heard of this before so will be interested in what you find out. All I've ever done with my snowshoes or skis has been to put them outside for about 10 minutes before I want to use them so they'll freeze up and keep the snow from building up on them. Unless I step in some slush or water, this has always worked to keep them clear of snow building up on them.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Tsuga8]

All I've ever done with my snowshoes or skis has been to put them outside for about 10 minutes before I want to use them so they'll freeze up and keep the snow from building up on them.

Snapper, I usually leave my skis on the porch to keep them at temp. But there are a fair number of days where I live where temps are within a few degrees of freezing, and in full sun the snow really starts to clump often. So I have sticking snow clumps pretty often, relatively speaking. Guess I should move farther north....

 

[ppine]

Varnish and bees wax works pretty good on webs.
Alder is turning out to be useful Genus, after centuries of being scoffed at and used for firewood.
Red alder in the PNW grows to large size. It has the ability to fix nitrogen in the soil like a legume.
Plenty of rich people now prefer red alder cabinets. I have them in an RV.

Modern forestry in the Northwest tends to favor some alder for its N fixing ability.

 

[Robin]

I just finished Trap Lines North by Meader, recommended by folks on the What Are You Reading thread. Great read, highly enjoyable, esp this time of year.

For more information and pictures/discussion about the book you can visit this website https://traplinesnorth.proboards.com/

The site is very quiet, no activity lately and was actually burdened with spam so I contacted the owner and became a moderator, It’s all cleaned up now and I check regularly to keep the bad guys out. There’s lots of great information and tidbits about the book, well worth a visit if you enjoyed the book.

 

[scoutergriz]

I used to wipe down my traditionals with melted beeswax mixed with turps every fall, the turpentine helped the wax absorb into any uncoated lacing, I imagine the alder sap would do the same.