First, as the ski moves against the snow, the friction produces enough heat to melt a film of water about a millionth of a meter thick. That film allows the skier to float along rather than scrape or shuffle. In a sense, all skiing is water skiing. Within that simple process, however, there are endless variations. But there are different strategies for conquering the intricacies of snow and weather.
Most skis now have a bottom surface of hard, slippery polyethylene.
For an even better glide, devoted skiers learn about wax. In traditional cross-country skiing, you put on one kind of wax to make a ski glide and a different, stickier wax under the part of the ski that you press on to push off. On a microscopic level the stickier waxes look like many tiny fingers extending into the snow, like those of your niece or nephew as they clawed their way up that snowy hill long ago. Inc. All rights reserved.