The Best Goggles of 2016

Published October 1, 2015 12:00AM

With these tools, you can vanquish flat light forever—improving reaction times and reducing eye fatigue. Heck, that's enough to make you a better skier.

Abominable Labs Abom

Nothing ruins a ski day faster than foggy goggles. But the geniuses at Abominable Labs have a solution. The antifog Abom has a thin, invisible heater inside the double-layer lens that works like a rear-window defroster—that is to say, brilliantly. Leave it on low in wet conditions, and switch to Boost mode after a wipeout for a quick thaw.

Scott Sports LCG Compact

Bluebird blower days are nice, but powder skiers spend more time in storms. During the nastiest conditions, we pulled out the LCG with its Illuminator lens. When it’s dumping, this lightly filtered storm lens is unmatched for depth of field and low-light contrast. Bonus: the goggles come with a slick contoured spare-lens case.

Zeal Optics Forecast

Swapping lenses can be a hassle. That’s why we prefer the impressively photochromic Forecast for variable-light days. In brilliant sun, the top-of-the-line Automatic+ lens lets in only 18 percent of visible light. In a storm, that light transmission jumps to 33 percent—and it transitions between those extremes in 30 seconds or less.

Spy Ace for Protect Our Winters

Buy these special-editon optics and three dollars from the sale helps the nonprofit POW fight climate change. Your reward: sweet-looking goggles built with Spy’s new cylindrical lens for improved clarity and impact protection. The tint kept contrast sharp in conditions ranging from bright sun to vertigo-inducing gray.

Oakley Flight Deck XM

Oakley’s Prizm lens—which lets in high-contrast colored rays to make terrain look sharp even on gray days—is the best we’ve ever seen for snow sports. We took the Flight Deck XM (a smaller version of last year’s model) out in milky conditions and were blown away by how crisp the snowpack looked. Oakley says the lens is so good it improves reaction times. We buy that, and it seems to reduce eye fatigue, too.

Rudy Project Klonyx Sferik

The oddly named Klonyx Sferik ships with one versatile spherical lens, good for skiing everything from dark glades to sunny bowls. But it’s the removable nose cover, which fights frost nip much better than a soggy neck gaiter, that really won us over.