Words and photos by Topher Donahue | May 17, 2013

With the prevalence of helmets, the most popular eyewear for skiing has quickly become goggles. The most common approach these days is to just leave them on the helmet, and just wear them no matter what the weather is like.  But is this always the best option?  Not necessarily.

To decide which is best, I watched the group of people I know who spend the most time in the deep snow, bright sun, and variable conditions of mountain weather: The Ski Guides of CMH.

Here’s what I learned:

• Some guides wear goggles almost all the time while skiing, but carry sunglasses for the brightest days, lunch, and relaxing.
• Some guides carry goggles as well as two pairs of glasses, one with dark lenses for bright conditions and one with yellow lenses for flat light conditions – skiing first in flat light is one of the big challenges of guiding, and the right eyewear makes a huge difference.
• And some guides, like CMH Cariboos Manager, John Mellis, love their glasses. I can’t blame him.  Glasses just feel better, allow better peripheral vision, and give more sensitivity to the lovely mountain world.

• Johnny wears glasses when the face shots approach neck deep:

• Then leaves them on when the face shots start wrapping around his head:

• And even when the face shots reach meaty double-overhead levels, Johnny still rips in his glasses:

• But sometimes, when it’s snowing really hard, Johnny finally breaks out the goggles:

Here are the problems with goggles:

• If you tend to overheat, even the best-designed goggles will fog up.
• Goggles don’t handle bright conditions as well as glasses.
• Goggles are not as comfortable as glasses.
• Goggles tend to restrict your vision more.
• Goggle lenses are not as versatile as glasses.
• For uphill ski touring or boot packing, goggles are too warm.

Here are the problems with glasses:

• Glasses don’t shed the face shots as readily.
• Not all helmets fit well with glasses.
• Glasses don’t keep your face warm.
• Glasses fall off easier when you fall.
• Glasses don’t protect your face as well.

If you are going to carry extra eyewear while Heli-Skiing or anywhere in the backcountry, be sure to time your changes without causing other skiers to wait (or worry) for you, and without filling your glasses and goggles with snow in the process.  If you would rather keep it simple while Heli-Skiing, just wear goggles and choose a lens in the middle of the hue spectrum – not too dark and not too bright.

Like so many questions about the mountains, the right answer is: It depends on conditions.