Colltex Mohair Climbing Skins are, as the name suggests, a 100-percent mohair plush climbing skin which are treated to repel water and are innately flexible even at very cold temperatures due to their hollow fibers.

Colltex claims they invented the first self-adhesive climbing skin in 1968 and now the company offers a wide range of climbing skins from pure mohair to synthetic/mohair blends. The brand may be hard to find in North America and cost a little more since it’s a 100-percent mohair plush skin, but the glide will be superior to that of a synthetic skin.

Glide / Grip
The Colltex Mohair Climbing Skins use hollow mohair fibers that enable the fabric to remain soft and flexible at low temperatures thus providing good grip and excellent glide characteristics compared to synthetic nylon climbing skins. This skin provided the best glide / grip performance (along with the Dynafit Speedskins) but they’re also at the top end of the price range.

Durability
Mohair naturally wears faster than its synthetic nylon counterpart however you typically won’t notice this for many, many years and the glide performance is well worth it. The most visible wear is typically on the tip and tail clips and although nothing failed on the Colltex Mohair Climbing Skins during my testing period I would not expect them to last more than a few seasons given their plastic tail cam and sewn in tip connector.

Use
Colltex stipulates that the glue side of their mohair skins must not come in contact with itself when you fold them away in your pack. A protective storage sheet (provided) must be used each and every time in order to preserve the glue. This single requirement significantly reduces the ease of use of the Colltex Mohair Climbing Skins as this is simply not a viable process on the summit of a windy peak.