What to wear skiing, by the number on the forecast

The table

This is our guidance rather than anybody’s published figure, and it assumes a resort day on groomed runs with a lift. Read down the column for the temperature on the forecast, then adjust for wind and sun below.

Why only the middle layer changes

Because each of the three layers does exactly one job, and only one of those jobs scales with temperature.

• The base layer moves sweat off your skin. That job is the same at 40F and at zero - what changes is only the weight of the fabric. The layering system in full and base layers ranked on the only number that compares.
• The outer layer stops wind and water. Also the same job at every temperature. An insulated outer blurs the line, which is exactly why shell against insulated is a real decision rather than a price tier.
• The mid layer is the thermostat. It is the only one of the three whose job is warmth, which is why it is the layer you change and the layer you carry a spare of - the layer everyone gets wrong and mid layers ranked on published gram weight.

Which is also the practical packing advice: one base layer, one shell, and two mid layers of different weights handles a week where the forecast moves thirty degrees. Most people pack the opposite way round.

The four adjustments that matter more than the number

A forecast temperature is a starting point. Four things move it, and two of them move it in the direction nobody expects.

• Wind: subtract about 10F for a chairlift. You are stationary, wet with sweat, and exposed for ten minutes at a time. A 20F day with a stiff breeze is a 10F day on the lift, and the lift is where people get cold rather than on the run.
• Sun: add about 10F on a bright day. Direct sun on snow is genuinely warm, and a clear 20F morning in March feels like 30F by eleven. It also burns - the places skiers actually burn.
• Altitude: the summit is colder than the base. Roughly three to five degrees Fahrenheit per thousand feet, and resort forecasts usually quote the base. Dress for the top.
• Effort: a beginner is colder than an expert on the same day. This is the one nobody tells you. An advanced skier is working hard and generating heat; a beginner spends the day stationary in a lesson line, falling over and getting back up wet. Dress a first-timer one column warmer than the table says.

Below zero, and the honest answer

There is a point where the question stops being “what do I wear” and starts being “should I go out”. Below about 0F, with any wind, exposed skin is at genuine risk in minutes and no clothing on this site changes that.

What changes instead is the plan: short runs, an indoor break every lift cycle, goggles on from the car, and a check of everyone’s face at the bottom of each run. How cold is too cold to ski, especially with children is the page that makes that call properly, and it is the one to read before you book a January trip. For a child the threshold is higher and the margin is smaller - they lose heat faster, and they will not tell you they are cold until they are miserable.

The other end: above 40F

Warm days catch people out more often than cold ones, because the instinct is still to dress for winter. Three things go wrong.

• You sweat through the base layer by mid-morning, and then the first cloud turns that into the coldest you will be all day. A spare base layer in the car fixes an afternoon.
• Wet snow soaks what dry snow would not. Spring snow behaves like rain - skiing in the rain, and the gear that decides whether it is miserable.
• The sun is at its worst. Higher angle, maximum reflection off snow, longer days, less skin covered. What to change for spring skiing and the three things that ruin day two.

The four items that cover the whole range

Everything in the table above is a variation on four purchases, and all four already appear on this site with their published figures.

MERIWOOL Merino 250 Base Layer Top

The midweight base layer the 20F and colder columns are built around, and the reason the table can specify a weight at all - MERIWOOL publishes a gsm figure where most of the category publishes adjectives. Merino’s advantage here is specific to skiing: it keeps insulating when damp, which matters because a beginner will be damp. The base layer roundup compares it against the lighter and synthetic options for the warmer columns.

Columbia Steens Mountain 2.0 Full Zip Fleece

The 250 g mid layer that the middle three rows of the table all specify. Columbia publishes the fleece weight, which is the only comparable number in the category, and it publishes center-back lengths for regular, tall and big. A full zip rather than a pullover is the right choice for a thermostat layer: you can dump heat on a lift without taking anything off.

BlackStrap Hood Balaclava

What the 20F-and-below rows mean by “cover your face”. Face covering is the single highest-value cold-weather addition because the face is the only skin that is exposed by design, and a balaclava under a helmet costs almost nothing in bulk. Which balaclava, and why most of them fog your goggles is the page that matters before you buy one, and face and neck coverage compared covers the lighter options for the warmer rows.

HotHands Hand Warmers

The 10F-and-below row, and the cheapest thing on this page. Worth being precise about what they fix: a warmer does not warm a cold hand back up well, it keeps a warm hand warm. Put them in at the car, not at the point of failure. Cold hands skiing: the fixes in order of how much they help puts them in their proper place - fourth, after glove fit, mittens and staying dry - and cold feet have a different cause entirely.

What changes for a child

Children are not small adults thermally, and the table above needs three amendments for anyone under about twelve.

• Dress them one column warmer, then check them. They have more surface area relative to their mass, they move less than you think during a lesson, and they will not report being cold until they are already finished for the day. Layering a child for the cold, and checking it is working has the checks.
• Mittens, not gloves, under about eight. Fingers warm each other - which and for whom.
• Raise the cold threshold. A day you would happily ski at 5F is not a day to take a six-year-old out, and how cold is too cold with children draws the line explicitly.

The full kit lists are elsewhere: what to wear skiing, from the skin outward for the layer-by-layer version without the temperatures, what not to wear for the mistakes, and the family packing list organized by bag for the trip itself.