Editor's Picks: The Best Ski Goggles of 2027, Tested and Reviewed

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Your choice in ski goggles is a decision that goes way beyond fashion and style. It’s truly a matter of performance. These days, goggles are high-tech instruments designed to not just protect your eyes and face, but actually greatly increase what you can see on snow. Turns out that being outside surrounded by highly-reflective surfaces (snow) can play tricks with the light, so eyewear makers have developed ways to help skiers see better, no matter the conditions. The list includes everything from oversized fits to small, low-profile looks, and should cover the bases for anyone looking for a new pair of high-performance ski goggles.

Whether it’s ChromaPop, Prizm, HD, VIVID, RIG, CBL, Clarity, Infrared, or AMP, goggle manufacturers have all named their proprietary contrast-boosting lens technology. While they all work slightly differently, the on-snow performance of all these is pretty similar, greatly increasing visual contrast and clarity to make it much easier to see in flat light on a cloudy day, high-glare situations in full sun, or in low light on a mid-winter afternoon.

Like ski boots, the important thing to think about when buying goggles isn’t necessarily the lens technology, but finding a good pair that fits both your face and your helmet. You’re looking for a clean, comfortable seal around your cheeks and nose to prevent the elements from coming in. Most brands design their goggles to integrate cleanly with their own helmets, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work with other brands. We’ve included some notes on which integration worked best for our testers.

Common Ski Goggle Shapes and Lens Types:

There are three types of lens shapes typically found in ski goggles, all offering some different pros and cons. Here’s a quick guide on which might be best for you.

Spherical: Spherical lens bulge out in the middle with a rounded, bubble-like appearance. The lens surface has no flat spots, reducing glare. These tend to work best for large faces, or for skiers looking for the most peripheral vision.

Cylindrical: These are a traditional lens with a flat surface that wraps cylindrically around your face. They offer a stylish low-profile fit, but some lower-end goggles may be optically distorted and prone to glare.

Toric: A hybrid between cylindrical and spherical lenses, toric lenses have a more aggressive curve on the vertical axis than the horizontal axis, offering a better fit for wide faces, great optics and similar peripheral vision to spherical lenses. Toric=torus=donut-shaped.

Conical: Similar to cylindrical lenses, conical lenses offer a flat surface that’s tilted downwards to bring the bottom of the lenses closer to your face, offering improved downward vision.

OTG: This isn’t a lens shape as much as a designation that OTG (Over-The-Glasses) goggles will fit over prescription eyewear, so you can ski with your prescription glasses on and not worry about contacts.

A note on goggle care:

Goggles are expensive, so we highly recommend keeping them clean and protected when not in use to have them last season after season. That will keep any sensitive anti-fog and other lens coatings from getting scratched off the lens. While most modern goggles aren’t prone to acute damage from this anymore, if you’re skiing on a super wet day and your goggles fog up, don’t wipe the inside of the lens!

It’s worth going into the lodge to give them a few minutes to dry off. Also, we highly recommend keeping them protected in their case or bag or at least covered with a lens cover when not in use.

About Powder’s Editor’s Picks

Our Editor’s Picks lists are collections of the skis, boots, outerwear, and other gear that stood out to us while testing. If you want to learn more about how reviews work at Powder, we’re very transparent about our process. 

These lists are constantly growing and evolving as we try new gear, all season long. If you’ve got a favorite piece of equipment that you think we should write about, let us know here. And, if you represent a brand or company and think your gear deserves a writeup, we’d love to get in touch. 

Smith Stash XL

• Size: XL
• Lens style: cylindrical, non-magnetic
• Price: $165-$195
• Best for: large faces, backcountry skiing

Think of these as the evolution of one of our all-time favorite ski goggles, the Smith Squad. The new Smith Stash XL is an oversized (XL) cylindrical-lens goggle with loads of ventilation and a fit best for large faces. It’s slightly bigger even than the old Squad XL, but is also available in a smaller standard frame size. The huge 51mm goggle strap should stay put, and plays nice with every helmet we tried it on. Like the rest of the lineup, these are available in a huge amount of different colorways (20, according to their website) to mix and match with any ski outfit. There’s no magnetic lens swap, but the photochromic lens option more or less negates the need for it.

Some are available with photochromic ChromaPop lenses for mixed conditions. I’m particularly a fan of these for touring, since they’re extremely light and feature a flexible frame/lens that easily stashes into a pack for ascents.

Pit Viper Pro Callout

• Size: medium
• Lens style: toric, magnetic locking
• Price:
• Best for: medium faces, bringing the vibes

It’s nearly 2027, and Pit Viper is way just making shitty plastic sunglasses for bros to wear to the bar. This winter, Pit Viper has a new high-end ski goggle: The Pro Callout, and it checks the same boxes that goggles from more “established” brands do, at a more affordable price point. These feature a high-quality polycarbonate toric lens, huge peripheral vision, and a easily-changed magnetic lens.

Despite the larger-looking frame, they actually fit medium faces best. Of course, they come in some signature Pit Viper colorways, including the very loud “Miami Nights” and the somewhat more subdued “Exec” options.

POC Ciasma

• Size: medium
• Lens style: cylindrical, magnetic
• Price: $390
• Best for: medium faces, one goggle to do it all

POC’s newest flagship goggle, the POC Ciasma is the only in the line to offer magnetic lens swap. The cylindrical lens features POC’s signature Clarity contrast-boosting tech, and what we’ll call the easiest to use locking magnetic swap system of any goggles we tried. It’s secure enough to stay on even in a crash (what good are goggles if the lens flies off as soon as you tomahawk?), but not so secure that it takes an Ocean’s 11-style heist team to get get them off your face when the light changes.

These offer a medium frame, with a huge field of view, and come with two sets of lenses to cover your bases in all conditions. These bring a modern vibe to the classic cylindrical goggle look, complete with really nice materials, a durable frame and crystal-clear optics.

Vallon Crossroads

• Size: large
• Lens style: toric, magnetic/mechanical
• Price:
• Best for: larger faces, storm skiing

As a relatively new player to the goggle game, Vallon dives into the deep end with their new Crossroads goggle, featuring Zeiss optics lenses, a locking magnetic interchange system, and plenty of venting for warmer and wetter days. The brand might be best known for fashion-forward mountain sports eyewear, but the Crossroads offers a modern style packed with features. A neat addition is the inclusion of a plastic lens case for storing the extra lens that comes with each pair—no more hoping the soft microfiber bag actually protects your spare lenses from whatever else is in your pocket.

Speaking of extra lenses, testers were particularly a fan of the low-light lens option that offered some of the best contrast and visibility boost out of any goggles we tested. Turns out that a storm day doesn’t need to mean skiing by Braille.

Scott Ambit Goggle

• Size: medium, compact
• Lens style: toric, fixed lens
• Price: $150
• Best for: medium faces, saving some $$$

Scott’s new Ambit goggles make the argument that nice goggles don’t have to cost as much as your whole ski vacation. If you’re looking for a set of high-quality goggles but don’t mind skipping out on interchangeable lenses, save some cash with Scott’s Ambit goggles.

In fact, these would make an awesome second pair of goggles to keep around for particularly nasty storm days, as the low-light options Cat S1 and S2 lens options offer great visibility with Scott’s color and contrast-boosting AMP technology.

Atomic Four Q L Signature

• Size: large or medium
• Lens style: cylindrical, magnetic/mechanical
• Price: $300
• Best for: larger or medium faces, best helmet integration

Atomic’s Four Q goggles have been around for a few years now, but it’s the goggle I keep coming back to year after year. It fits amazingly well with just about every single helmet I’ve tried it with (not just Atomic helmets), offers remarkably good optical quality, particularly with the photochromic lens options, and the lens change system is simple and effective.

I have a huge head, so I tend to opt for the Large size, but these are now available in a medium frame to better suit skiers with less of a dome. These are also available in some Atomic athlete Signature colorways, including Aymar Navarro (pink) and Amie Engerbretson (cheetah print).