mountainFLOW Eco-Wax wins “Gear of The Show” at Outdoor Retailer show. Wax is a ubiquitous but largely invisible part of your snow-sports kit. Whether you tune your skis at home or bring them to a shop, you rely on the friction-reducing properties of hydrocarbon to make your skis glide. The only problem: the petroleum-based hydrocarbons used in traditional wax rub off when you ski, leaving toxic residue in the snow, which eventually ends up in our waterways.