A Buyers Guide To Choosing Skiing Goggles

Skiing and Snowboarding goggles come with so many different features and lens tints these days, that it is very difficult to know what features to look for when choosing your goggles for the first time.  As well as looking great, your skiing goggles are an essential skiing accessory and serve several important functions, we'll look at the main functions of goggles.

 
Protection

UV
The goggle lens protects your eyes from the sun’s UV radiation which is  increased at higher altitudes,  and reflections from the snow further increase the UV levels.   The Goggle lens must provide 100% UV protection.

SUN GLARE 

The glare of bright sunlight is reflected by the snow, a good pair of skiing goggles will minimise glare.  A mirrored coating (known in different brands as gun, flash or iridium) will further increase comfort and reduce glare.




WIND AND CHILL
Goggles also protect face and eyes against wind and chill


PROTECT EYES AND FACE IN CASE YOU FALL
Choosing an good quality impact resistant lens and frame will minimise any potential damage to your eyes and face, if you fall at high speeds when skiing. 

Enhanced Vision

The lens tint you choose may be one of the most important decisions you make when choosing goggles.  Certain lens tints can enhance contrast of your surroundings allowing changes in the slope to be seen more easily and therefore enhancing your vision.  Your lens also needs to provide a wide field of vision with good clarity - some goggles are designed with this in mind.  It’s also essential that your goggles don’t fog up all the time. 

LENS TINT

Goggles come in just about every lens tint imaginable, so it is quite difficult to know what tint will be best for everyday skiing.

In general a  pink, rose, amber or orange tint will be suitable for a variety of conditions, and will boost contrast to enhance your vision so that contours in the snow can be seen more easily. 

Good tints to look for include, Bolle's Vermillon or Vermillon Gun and Oakley’s Persimmon or Fire Iridium.  In general most recreational skiers should avoid polarised lenses or very dark lenses as they are designed for very bright conditions such as use for glacier skiing, more experience skiers often have an additional polarised lens.  Another good lens from Bolle is the Modulator Vermillon which is a photochromic lens and actually adapts to conditions by getting lighter/darker – great if you planning to spend all day on the slopes!


Neutral colours like grey, provide no colour distortion in your surroundings which some people prefer.  However most lens tints are coloured, which helps enhance contrast allowing the contours of the snow ahead to stand out. 

LIGHT TRANSMISSION
Most retailers will provide a transmission rate for visible light, this is the amount of visible light that the lens lets through.  In general, the lower the percentage the Darker the lens and a higher percentage equals a lighter lens.  Look for lenses with transmission rates between 25-65% to suit most conditions.  10-20% is a dark lens for very bright conditions. Whilst 70-90% will suit very dull conditions, with 85-90% being a clear lens which is great for for night time skiing / snowboarding but should not be used in the day time.

FIELD OF VISION
Good quality goggles, will have a wide curved lens designed to promote a large field of vision, so that your downward view is not obstructed, and you'll have a wide peripheral (sideways) vision. The lens will often be vented, and/or treated with a permenant anti-fog coating  to minimise the chance of impaired vision from the lens fogging up.  Good quality goggles will often feature a  double lens design, to further prevent fogging.