cleaning pollen off with...vegetable oil!!??

Someone posted a trip report on Silver Peak last week and mentioned meeting a 70-something gent who told them to try vegetable oil instead of white gas to clean off the pollen from their ski bases. I picked up quite a bit of crap on my bases on the bottom part of Shuksan, despite a fresh hot wax (hot wax does seem to help somewhat but clearly has its limits), and just tried wiping the bases with canola oil, and darned if it didn't get that crap off pretty quickly. I'm thinking it left more of the wax on my skis than swix citrus cleaner (or white gas!!) would.<br><br>Any other tips or experiences with cleaning pollen off? Or better yet, how to keep it from sticking in the first place (yeah, right...)?

Just about any oil will remove the pollen / tree sap / black gunk. I use WD-40 regularly as a base cleaner -- it removes patches of skin glue as well. Clean motor oil will work as well. Vegetable oil should work fine and perhaps be more pleasant smelling to work with than petroleum based oils.<br><br>A fresh hot wax job right after cleaning will keep the bases in top condition and ready for the next trip.