mountainFLOW takes grant for eco-friendly wax

By Will Buzzerd Sopris Sun Correspondent

Carbondale-based outdoor company mountainFLOW, best known for its award-winning plantbased ski wax and bike lube and for appearing on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2021, recently received a $250,000 state grant to fund research and development for a new line of ecofriendly liquid glide wax.

Founded in 2016 with the mission of providing plant-based outdoor maintenance products, just as good as the best on the market, and non-toxic to both the environment and the user, mountainFLOW is a certified B Corporation which requires adhering to a high standard of social and environmental responsibility. Its in-house products are USDA-certified biobased, meaning they are made with renewable, biologicallyderived materials. Since their inception, mountainFLOW has received awards from various organizations — Outside Magazine and Business Insider among them — for their flagship wax.

Ski wax generally functions as a water-repellant buffer layer between the abrasive particles of snow and the bases of skis and snowboards. According to the mountainFLOW website, “As you’re gliding along, the snow crystals are actually pulling wax particles out of your bases. If you visualize a deck of cards as the layers of wax on your bases, the snow is constantly pulling the bottom card off the deck.”

What this means is, though invisible to the naked eye, the day’s wax — along with petroleum makeup and other potentially harmful chemicals — slowly deposits onto the mountain. When the snow melts, the chemicals are carried into waterways. While a single person’s day on the slopes may only deposit a trace amount, one only has to consider weekend lift lines to realize how many people are leaving wax on the mountain.

Most ski waxes are petroleumbased — a byproduct of the oil refining process which in enough quantities can result in skin and respiratory irritation. Being slow to break down, this can become a problem for athletes who regularly maintain their gear and consistently expose themselves to hot wax.

Similarly, most high-speed waxes (like race wax and glide wax) used to contain water-repellent fluorocarbons in their formula. While fluorocarbons sound chemically similar to the infamous chlorofluorocarbons (phased out due to their runaway destruction of the ozone layer), they affect the environment in a more biological manner.

“It has proven to be carcinogenic and furthermore it is a ‘forever chemical,’ meaning that once it is in the environment it will be there forever,” said mountainFLOW marketing director Dax Myers.

“Essentially this is the complete opposite of biodegradability.

It's estimated that 99% of the people in the world have some level of fluorocarbons in their bloodstream.” Myers clarified that fluorocarbons are no longer found in most modern ski waxes.

“However,” he warned, “it is unclear what chemicals are being used in the new waxes, which makes me a little nervous.”

The $250,000 grant was given by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade as part of its Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) program. Founded in 2013, AIA specifically targets Colorado manufacturers in order to increase the state’s competitiveness on the global market.

According to Peter Arlein, CEO and founder of mountainFLOW, “This grant will allow us to work with the nation’s top scientists at the Illinois Tech Center For Sports Innovation (IT) to design a revolutionary liquid glide wax.” Notably, research and development is a costly and difficult process; mountainFLow’s website reported that their flagship wax took two years and 200 different formulas to perfect.

While mountainFLOW has not partnered with IT previously, they will be cooperating with a team specializing in polymerization emulsions — a chemical process with origins in attempts by scientists to replicate natural latex production by rubber trees. This new grant will fund an interesting reversal of that history: plantderived chemicals mimicking artificial products.

Beyond ski waxes, mountainFLOW has developed other plant-based and environmentally friendly outdoor products. Their website sells many different varieties of bike chain lube and other mountain bike maintenance products — all in recycled/recyclable packaging — as well as the ski industry’s first sets of recycled aluminum ski poles, which reportedly emits 95% less carbon than production with virgin aluminum.

Overall, the grant will help maintain mountainFLOW’s place at the forefront of the ski industry. As Arlein stated in a press release, “We will maintain our commitment to plant-based and eco-friendly ingredients while leveraging [IT’s] technology to develop a wicked fast and easy-to-use product. We are super stoked to see what will come out of this partnership.”

Peter Arlein, founder and CEO of Carbondale-based mountainFLO eco-wax, applies biodegradable and non-toxic ski wax for a guiltless day of gliding across the snow. Courtesy photo

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