Disclaimer- the following is all based on my personal experiences, resources and abilities.
1- If the temp is below 0f and I'm touring or training, I leave the skate skis at home and kick and glide in the track. It is easier to keep the heartrate down with minimal glide when classic skiing, and when it is cold outside it is also important to keep the sweat down to prevent hypothermia.
2- If I'm coaching or racing, I have one pair of skate skis that are kept waxed and prepared for cold temps. They have a soft shovel (tip), as the worst natural snow for glide is cold fresh snow. Cold artificial snow is another BEAST altogether.
3- If you want a competitive wax job on your skis, you will either need to take it in to one of our good sponsors and supporters. FinnSisu, Gear West and Hoiggard's all have wax services and can get you on fast skis for a cold race. The alternative is to take wax lessons, buy the basic equipment and learn to do it yourself.
The equipment I use- wax bench, Toko wax iron, scraper and sharpener, groove scraper, razor scraper, 3 hand brushes (bronze for cleaning only, nylon and horsehair for finish), microplane/cheese grater (to apply cold wax to ski safely) roto brush with cordless drill.
I start with 3-5 passes with the razor scraper to remove any p-tex hairs.
Next a few passes with the bronze brush to dry clean the base.
A hot scrape with a hard wax- I generally use either Fastwax Teal or Rex Blue.
First coat of primary wax. I check manufacturers recommendations (always posted for races and linked from skinnyski.com). I use one of Toko moly (for dry snow), Fastwax Teal or Green. This layer cools 20-30 minutes and is scraped and brushed. For training down to about 0f I can stop here and have acceptable glide. Also, if I am traveling to a race like the Birkie and want as much of my ski prep done, but also have the ability to finish up the night before the race, I will stop here.
First coat wax of the day. This will be based on the wax mfrs. recommendation, although I adjust based on my expectations (a 5 hour Birkie has much different requirements that an sub-3 hour Birkie.) For me this is Fastwax, Green, Teal or White. This layer cools 20-30 minutes and CAN BE scraped and brushed. To save wax and/or time you can skip the scraping and brushing and reheat this coat of wax again.
Second coat wax of the day. Either reheated as above, or re-applied. With the second coat if you have time, reheat this one a couple of times especially if it is a long race and expected to be really cold. When reheating, I always apply some of this wax to the iron before I start because, when the ski absorbs wax it can leave dry spots which can burn.
Removing wax-- get it all off. Anything left that isn't well absorbed into the ski will grab and slow you down. Scrape what you can, then scrape a couple more times. If you have a roto brush, 4-5 passes of the nylon brush, followed by polishing with the horsehair hand brush. Done.
Cold powders- all wax companies have them. Essentially you apply a super smooth plastic base to your skis. I don't use them because I've never had good results with them, but if you learn to apply them they are reputed to be very good.
Start Green. Used to be the go to wax below 0f, and many still use it. I've switched to Faxt wax extreme white because it is much easier to work with and my skis seem faster than the ever have with Start Green.
Regarding wax manufacturers- I use Fastwax a lot because it is manufactured locally by good skiers who ski on local snow. It also tends to be a bit less expensive on the high end than some other brands. Finally, I always have better glide than most of the skiers around me in a race, so results are acceptable, and I'm a back of the pack skier, so I don't need to chase milliseconds.
Best recommendation, unless you expect to be in the front row, is to buy one wax system and get comfortable with it. You can add on from there.
The big gorillas internationally are Toko and Swix. In the old days I used Swix exclusively, but when fluoros hit the market the Swix system confused me and Toko had a much simpler system that required less investment on my part. Both of these brands win races for good reason, and are well supported at race venues.
When high fluoros became everyday wax, Fast Wax came on the market. The system is pretty simple and it tends to be less expensive than other brands, although high fluoro wax from anyone is expensive. Fastwax Teal and White are not high fluoro however and have a better price point.
Rex makes very high quality wax and is well supported locally. Price tends to be better than some other brands. Rex Blue is one of those "magic" waxes that seems to work in almost any conditions.
Two other brands are available locally- Vauhti and Holmenkollen. I have not used them as I already had a "complete" wax box when they became available. Both brands are reputed to have good cold weather waxes.
Finally- for the kick and glide skiers. The good news is that everything kicks at -5f, sometimes you can even get kick from skate skis (but not if you have followed the instructions above.) Many of my more competitive buddies are using Rode kick waxes. I use mostly Toko kick wax but still have a tube of Swix Polar in the box. Also, Rex makes a cold snow grip tape which I have used successfully.
For glide wax on my classic skis- I only have one good pair- I keep Rex Blue on them all winter except for races. The glide is acceptable even when it's really cold, and doesn't require much time. For classic races I will apply the same wax I would apply on skate skis.
I love to ski at -10f, but not in the same way as when it is +10f. I like to feel the frost in my nose, hear the squeek of my skis against the snow, and especially hear the quiet of the woods. There are few skiers out which is nice, but also less safe, so I stick to trails that I know and don't go too far from the car/ chalet.
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