What not to wear skiing, and what to wear instead

Why normal winter clothing fails on a mountain

Everything on this page works fine for a winter walk. Skiing is different in three specific ways, and every mistake below is one of these three biting:

• You sit in snow. Repeatedly, for a first-timer, and also on every chairlift. Water arrives under pressure at your seat and knees, which is nothing like snow landing on your shoulders.
• You sweat and then stop. Working hard on the way down, then sitting still on a lift in the wind. Sweat that has nowhere to go becomes cold water against your skin at exactly the moment you stop generating heat.
• Everything is wind. A chairlift is fifteen minutes of exposure with no shelter and no exercise, and it is where people actually get cold.

The nine mistakes

1. Jeans

The most common and the most decisive. Denim is cotton, it absorbs water, it takes hours to dry, and once wet it freezes into something stiff and abrasive. A beginner sits down a lot, so jeans are usually soaked through by mid-morning and the day ends early.

Instead: waterproof snow pants over a base layer. Published insulated pants start around $50, which is less than a lift ticket, and pants deserve a higher waterproof rating than a jacket for exactly this reason. Rental pants exist at many resorts if buying is not possible.

2. Cotton anything, against your skin

A cotton t-shirt, cotton underwear, a cotton hoodie. Cotton absorbs many times its weight in water, loses effectively all its insulating value when wet, and dries slowly. It holds your own sweat against your skin all day. There is a mountaineering expression about this and it is not gentle.

Instead: merino wool or a synthetic base layer, which move moisture away from the skin and keep insulating when damp. The base layer page covers weights and how many layers to wear.

3. Two pairs of socks, or thick socks

The most counterintuitive item on the list. Inside a rigid ski boot, bulk compresses, and compressed fabric insulates worse than uncompressed fabric while also restricting circulation. Two pairs also create a friction layer that produces blisters within a morning.

Instead: one thin merino ski sock, over the calf so the boot cuff does not bite into bare skin. Why thin is warmer, in full is the single most useful counterintuitive thing on this site.

4. A scarf, or a gaiter pulled over your nose

A dangling scarf is a genuine hazard around a chairlift and a drag lift. More commonly, though, the problem is fogging: a gaiter across the nose funnels every warm breath upward into the bottom of your goggles, and a fogged goggle does not recover on the mountain.

Instead: a neck gaiter worn below the nose, or a balaclava with a proper breathing area. The gaiter-over-the-nose habit is the largest single cause of goggle fogging and almost nobody knows it.

5. A cotton hoodie under the jacket

The hood bunches behind your neck under a helmet, the cotton does everything described above, and the whole garment stays wet from the first fall to the last run.

Instead: a fleece or a light synthetic mid layer without a hood, or the zip-out liner of an interchange jacket.

6. A wool hat under a helmet

A helmet is sized to fit your head. Adding a thick hat changes the fit, lifts the helmet, opens a gap at the goggles and blocks the vents, and a helmet that moves is doing less than it should.

Instead: a thin helmet liner or skull cap designed for the job, or nothing. The helmet fit test should be run with whatever you intend to wear underneath.

7. A regular winter coat

A city puffer keeps you warm standing at a bus stop and is not waterproof, has no powder skirt, no vents and no wrist gaiters. Snow gets in at the hem and the cuffs, and there is no way to dump heat when you overheat on a warm afternoon.

Instead: a ski jacket, or a waterproof shell over layers you already own. Shell against insulated is the decision, and our jacket picks list what each maker publishes.

8. Fashion gloves, or one pair for the week

Knitted or leather town gloves are wet within an hour of a beginner putting their hands in the snow, which happens constantly. And once a glove is wet, it stays wet.

Instead: waterproof ski gloves or mittens, and a second cheap pair for the afternoon. Two dry pairs beats one expensive wet pair by a distance. The full cold hands answer and gloves against mittens.

9. Sunglasses instead of goggles, and no sunscreen

Sunglasses work on a clear still day and fail the moment it snows, gets windy, or the light goes flat. They also do not stay on in a fall. And snow reflects a great deal of ultraviolet light upward, so people burn under the chin and inside the nose on days that do not feel sunny.

Instead: goggles with published 100% UV protection, plus sunscreen applied under the chin and lip balm with sun protection. The full comparison is more one-sided than most gear questions.

The whole list, condensed

So what does the outfit actually look like?

Three layers on the top, two on the bottom, and nothing complicated:

• Against your skin: a merino or synthetic base layer, top and bottom.
• Middle: a fleece or light insulated jacket. On a warm day, skip it.
• Outside: a waterproof jacket and waterproof snow pants.
• Extremities: one thin merino ski sock, waterproof gloves or mittens, a helmet, goggles, and a neck gaiter kept below the nose.

That is the entire list, and the what-to-wear page breaks it down by temperature. If you would rather have it as something to tick off before you leave the house, the gear checklist and the family packing list are both printable.