It doesn’t matter if you’re carving down a black diamond or are still working on your plough turns on the bunny hill, when you’re snowboarding or skiing you get treated to spectacular mountain views.
Except if you’re relying on foggy glasses to see those views.
Just like how you can’t ride without mountains, you can’t ride without cold temperatures. For skiers and snowboarders who wear glasses that can mean foggy lenses in their glasses and goggles that require constant wiping and impaire vision while on the slopes. To help out, the ASO Mammoth team has put together a list of basic tips to help keep your goggles and glasses fog-free on the snow. Check them out below and plan your Mammoth trip today!
Why Regular Goggles and Glasses Generally Don’t Mix
For starters, wearing glasses and goggles can be uncomfortable due to the frames being pushed against your nose or jostled by your goggles. Unfortunately, it gets worse than that because glasses and regular ski goggles typically don’t fit with one another. The resulting space between the frame and goggles causes fog that will coat both your glasses and goggles. Read more about this in our post Can I Wear Glasses with My Ski Goggles
The Simplest Solution is Contacts
If you can wear contact lenses, then you should wear contacts while skiing or snowboarding. Even if you don’t wear contacts often, you should make an exception for the slopes because they’ll require no extra gear and will make your ride more comfortable than wearing glasses.
If you’re someone who doesn’t have contacts or simply cannot wear them, don’t worry. There are other options.
Other Products that Could Help
Another simple solution is over the glasses goggles, often referred to as OTG. OTG goggles are designed to comfortably fit your face and create a seal with prescription glasses on underneath them, but that’s not all. In order to keep fog from forming on the lenses OTGs feature more vents to keep an even temperature inside your goggles. They can even include a small battery powered fan that ventilates your goggles.
OTGs are not the only solution to skiing and snowboarding with glasses though, because you can also purchase prescription goggle inserts that will eliminate the need to wear glasses without contacts. Another benefit of prescription inserts is that they often come with excellent anti-fog coating.
Although prescription inserts are an easy-to-use solution, they’re also an expensive one. Plus, if you forget to carry a regular pair of glasses with you then you’re stuck wearing your goggles all day long. Although you may be afraid to ride with your glasses in a pocket, we recommend keeping a pair on you at all times in case you want to take your goggles off.
How to Keep Your Goggles and Glasses from Fogging
Fog forms and coats your goggles when the temperature inside them is warmer than the temperature outside. This is why goggles immediately fog when you slide them up onto your warm forehead.
Anti-fog wipes are a good tool to keep fog from coating your lenses, and typically only need to be used at the beginning of the day. However, you can also prevent fogged goggles by acclimating your goggles to the cold air. It sounds silly, but if you simply wait a minute to put your goggles on after leaving a warm lodge then you’ll allow them to acclimate and prevent fog from building. Once fog forms inside your goggles it is difficult to get out, so always remember to keep your goggles from getting too warm while riding.