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Gone are the days when it's either advisable or acceptable to ski or snowboard in just a bobble hat or beanie. The sudden and unexpected union of cranium and piste can have devastating effects. According to a John Hopkins Medicine-led study, 20 percent of all skiing- and snowboarding-related injuries in the US are classed as severe head trauma, and of those head injuries, 22 percent are bad enough to cause loss of consciousness or concussion.
Indeed, head injuries are the most frequent cause of death and severe disability among skiers and snowboarders, so there's no reason whatsoever to not protect your brain with a quality helmet. Here we have chose some excellent options for you.
Being able to see where you're going, of course, has a significant impact on whether your helmet gets tested to its full ability. This is why we've also taken a look at superior goggles and sunglasses to go with those lids—along with a device that can view in 360-degrees to record your snow skills.
An aggressively styled all-in-one design from Bolle that combines excellent skull protection with the highest performance photochromic lens on the market. AVID Progressive EPS foam, with its impact-absorbing qualities, and MIPS (Multi-Directional Impact Protection System) shield your skull from hits at any angle take care of the grey matter, while an adjustable six-vent system helps keep you cool and fog-free. The the visor is interchangeable allowing you to quickly swap out lenses depending on the conditions.
REVIEW: Using the latest in electrochromic technology, these solar-powered goggles automatically adjust the lens tint as conditions change. A small solar cell above the bridge powers a sensor that tweaks the opacity of an ultra-thin LCD film on the lens.
It takes just a few hundredths of a second for the lens to adapt to the changing weather, and in our tests on a partially sunny Austrian glacier we were impressed by how even this shift was as we moved from sunshine to shade. The Electra's vision remained consistently good.
It wasn’t as magical an experience as we had hoped for, mind you—but that was because the lenses transitioned subtly, meaning we never had the photochromic issue of being stuck in the dark as we waited for the light to adjust. The googles are also impressively well made—they need to be for the cost—with a vast, wide 215-degree horizontal field of view.
Score: 7/10
Price: €351 | Blue Tomato | Out-of | Skate Pro
REVIEW: Masked by POCs deceptively simple styling, this all-mountain unisex race helmet has masses of protection thanks to MIPS, a two-part ABS shell, EPS foam liner with hard EPP foam around it, all finished with a super-soft and eco-friendly Alcantara fabric liner. But be warned, this feels closer to a motorcycle helmet than a classic lightweight ‘lid’, and while that certainly gave us confidence on the slopes, the 650g weight means you’ll never forget you’re wearing it.
We also found the way the helmet adjusted to fit our head became slightly irritating after a few hours. The mechanism is smooth and grips the head with even pressure, but we were very aware of the exposed plastic cradle, especially around the back of our ears. We didn’t have a problem when wearing a thin hat underneath, so it could have been the shape of our skull or a sizing issue, so we strongly recommend measuring twice before ordering.
But aside from that niggle, the helmet was impressive; the magnetic chin clasp essentially does itself up—great when wearing gloves—and the fact it also comes with an embedded Recco reflector and NFC Medical ID chip means you’re as safe as you can be.
It also offers a seamless fit with POC's Zonula Clarity goggles, which were a joy, even in white-out conditions. The field of vision from the toric lens is wide, and the inner anti-fog treatment kept things clear, even when we were huffing and puffing. It didn’t snow during our test, but the RiPel coating did come in handy (beading and rolling a pile of snow away) when we unexpectedly encountered the floor.
Helmet score: 7/10 | Goggles score: 8/10
Helmet price: £240 | POC | RXSport
Goggles price: £220 | Blue Tomato | POC | RXSport
REVIEW: Rarely is WIRED completely surprised by a product. These armless sunglasses, held in place by an adjustable cord made from recycled Japanese nylon, should not work, but somehow they do—brilliantly. And while everyone we showed them to poured scorn initially, once they wore them and adjusted the lanyard, they too were almost universally sold on the idea.
The cord sits over the ear just like regular glasses arms, but holds the super-light lenses securely without feeling like you’re in swimming goggles. However, there’s a difference to trying these on in the bar and actually skiing in them, but we’re delighted to say they do a superb job, and simply won’t fall off your face, even—and we speak from experience here—when inadvertently cartwheeling through powder.
We did struggle with a little steaming-up on ski lifts, often the case when wearing glasses and a helmet, but once we were moving again vision remained crystal clear. We also loved the fact they could be stashed in any pocket, safe in the knowledge that it was impossible for the non-existent arms to snap off if we slam on them.
Score: 9/10
Price: $140 | Ombraz | Lens & Frame Co
Cleverly, this unisex street-style helmet isn’t strictly just for snow sports, as once you remove the insulated ear pads it passes as the perfect BMX or skateboarding lid.
Bern have the most streetwise of helmet designs, but with the 2.0 they’re not sidestepping protection for prettiness as it has MIPS (Multi-Directional Impact Protection System) safeguarding your head from rotational impacts, and a brilliantly comfortable twist-to-tighten size adjustment system that ensures your helmet is snug and secure.
Bern helmets are also upgradable and customisable, with various fleecy insert options for powder days, as well as being compatible with the excellent Outdoor Tech Audio Chips Ultra (£219) wireless Bluetooth speakers that sit perfectly in the earpads.
Price: £140 | Bern | Absolute Snow
A welcome update to the not-just-ironically-cool 80s ski frames, the Leandro, available with a range of ultralight photochromic borosilicate optical glass lenses (including a white-out ready pink), features eye-protecting magnetic leather shields that are thankfully removable if you want to wear your shades off the mountain.
They also boast something called Spectral Control Technology, which filters up to 96 percent of blue light and, according to Serengeti, acts like a high-def visual equaliser, creating the perfect mix of colours across all conditions to protect eyes from ageing. That's a lofty claim, and we haven't tried these ourselves, but the versatility of these ski shades is what draws us in.
Price: £220 | Amazon | Serengeti
While not quite as featherweight as the Bern, at 400g this plush lid (the men’s version is the Grid MIPS) from Giro ticks all the boxes, with MIPS concussion-reducing impact protection, great low-profile looks, and stylish colorways. The nifty bi-component knitted Polartec lining is super soft, while also helping to wick away sweat. The magnetic buckle—like the one we liked so much on the POC—is easy to undo with one hand, and you can swiftly adjust the size to fit with a simple dial, that’s also glove friendly. It’s not cheap by any means (though is on sale right now), so if you are looking for a bona fide bargain, the Giro Ledge has MIPS, a RRP of just £90, but is currently on sale for half that outlay.
Price: £194 | Alpine Trek | Giro
REVIEW: There must be millions of hours of unwatched (and unwatchable) amateur action cam footage. Professionals make it look easy, but capturing alpine action, and making it look good, is anything but easy. Unless that is, you arm yourself with the remarkable Insta360 One X2 and, crucially, teach yourself to edit using the app.
This waterproof all-action 360-degree, 5.7K, 30fps, 18.4mp video camera absolutely smashed our expectations with a combination of silky smooth image and post-production versatility. Attach it to the 120cm selfie stick, start skiing and absolutely everything is recorded and stitched almost seamlessly together (with the stick digitally erased from every shot, of course).
The image is so eerily smooth you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s a gimbal involved, and you can switch between standard flat videos, picture-in-picture for vlogging/commentary/vanity or instant panoramic pics.
And while it’s fun to pan around your 360-degree world using the app, the real payoff comes when you delve into the extensive editing options that include time lapse, freeze frames and our favourite 'smart track' that locks onto your chosen subject for an effortless, flowing edit without the camera operator having to think.
Score: 8/10
Price: From £429 | Amazon | Apple | Jessops
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
