Alternative Face Protection For Skiing

October 10, 2019 11:36 AM

I wear a Seirus Combo Scarf for skiing, but I dislike the Hannibal Lecterness/ inability to easily slide it down off my face to have a conversation. All the alternatives I look at - e.g. balaclavas - don't have mouth/ nose ventilation, which are critical to prevent goggle steaming and breath dampness. What alternatives are there to my Lecter mask, or, how do folks wear balaclavas without steaming up their goggles?
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

If it’s really cold, I wear a separate helmet liner under my helmet and a fleece neck tube. At slightly warmer temps, I use the fleece neck tube. I can move the tube up and down as necessary.


I also use a face protection cream that has a decent SPF rating and provides some wind protection.
posted by TORunner at 12:02 PM on October 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Some of the masks that Airhole Facemasks makes are in such wild patterns that it really offsets the Lecterness. Like, you can get skeletons and machine prints, but also puppies and parrots and rainbows...they also make one line that velcros on in the back which can be convenient for talking.
posted by epanalepsis at 12:10 PM on October 10, 2019

I tuck my balaclava (fleece gaitor) under the edge of my goggles, so they don’t steam. It gets damp and eventually frosty, though.
posted by amaire at 12:32 PM on October 10, 2019

How do I wear a balaclava without steaming up my glasses? I try to pull it up over my mouth and/or nose only when I'm moving. I still get some steaming and breath dampness and my face isn't always as warm as I would like. So obviously it's not the optimal solution but it works reasonably well most of the time. (As a glasses wearer, I don't even try to wear goggles because I expect I'd have even more trouble with steaming.)
posted by Redstart at 12:34 PM on October 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I use a merino wool Buff, worn balaclava-style (how-to at the 0:50 point of this video, sorry I don't see any non-video instructions). It's really thin but still surprisingly warm; thin enough that I can breathe through it and not fog up my glasses when I'm biking in the winter. It's easy to pull the face part of it down for talking or when you're stopped and there's less air flow and higher likelihood of fogging. It's 100% better than fleece or neoprene or whatever.
posted by misskaz at 2:52 PM on October 10, 2019

I also use a merino buff - has the additional advantage of not getting stinky with extended back country use - where fleeces seem to be more problematic. Haven't had problems with fogging my glasses using it.
posted by leslies at 3:34 PM on October 10, 2019

One merino buff as helmet liner (round the neck and then pull the back up over your head so it covers the ears), one fleece buff round the neck over the top so it comes up round the face but it's loose so there's room to breathe. I found a fleece buff with a windproof layer on the front of the top half.
posted by quacks like a duck at 10:10 PM on October 10, 2019