The best neck gaiters for skiing, and the way to wear one

Three jobs, and the one nobody buys it for

A neck gaiter closes the gap between a jacket collar and a helmet. That gap does three things when it is open: it lets warm air escape upward like a chimney, it exposes the neck and lower face to windchill, and it leaves cheeks bare on the one day a season that is genuinely severe.

The third job is the one people do not buy it for and should: sun. A snowfield reflects a large share of the ultraviolet light hitting it, and at altitude the light is more intense to begin with, so you are lit from above and below at once. The strip of face between a goggle and a collar is exposed to all of it all day. The UV page covers what that does, and it is why a published UPF figure is worth more on this product than the warmth is.

The wearing mistake that fogs your goggles

This is the most useful paragraph on the page. A gaiter must sit under the bottom edge of your goggle foam, against your face - never pulled up inside the goggle frame.

If it is tucked inside, every breath you exhale is channelled up behind the lens instead of out into the air. A warm, humid stream hitting a cold inner lens is the textbook fogging condition, and it will happen within a couple of minutes of the first lift. People then blame the goggle, buy an anti-fog spray, and wipe the inner lens - which destroys the factory anti-fog treatment permanently and makes the whole thing worse.

The anti-fog page is largely a page about this one mistake, and the goggle fit guide covers the seal it depends on.

The four formats

For most people a midweight stretch tube covers the whole season, with a fleece tube or a thin balaclava added for the coldest handful of days. If you are going the balaclava route, it has to be thin enough not to change how the helmet sits - the helmet liners page explains why that matters, and the balaclava roundup compares five of them on published weight, fabric and breathing design.

The picks

Turtle Fur Comfort Shell Totally Tubular

The pick, and the reason is the published UPF 50+ rating. In a category where almost every product publishes nothing beyond "soft" and "warm", a stated UV figure is the only comparable specification available, and it happens to be the thing that matters most in spring.

The rest of the published spec supports it: brushed polyester and spandex with four-way stretch, so it seals around the face without gripping; published as moisture-wicking and odor resistant, which matters across a multi-day trip; and tube construction with no seam at the front, which is where a seam would sit against your nose.

Honest cons: it is midweight, so a genuinely severe day wants something warmer over it, and it is one size, which is loose on a small adult. No published warranty term.

Turtle Fur Youth Comfort Shell

Same published fabric, sized for a child - and the sizing is the entire point. An adult tube on a child is loose, which means it slides down, gets pulled up too far, and ends up tucked under the goggle, which is the fogging failure above. Turtle Fur publishes a separate smaller kids size below the youth one, so there are genuinely two child sizes rather than one nominal one.

Buy two if you can. Gaiters are the single most-lost item in a family gear bag, and they cost less than a lift-line hot chocolate.

Fabric, briefly

• Synthetic stretch. Dries fast, stretches, cheap, and the format most published specs exist for. The sensible default.
• Merino. Warmer for its weight, keeps insulating when damp - and it will get damp, because you are breathing through it - and does not smell after three days. More expensive, slower to dry. The published figure to compare is gsm, exactly as on the base layer page.
• Fleece. Warmest per dollar, bulkiest, and it holds moisture from your breath more than the others.
• Cotton. No. Same reason as everywhere else on this site: it holds moisture against skin and stays cold.

Care, which is one line

Wash it. A gaiter spends the day with your breath passing through it, and it is the single grubbiest item in a ski bag by the end of a week. Cool wash, air dry, no fabric softener - which coats fibers and kills wicking. The washing page covers the rest of the soft goods.

Who should buy what

• Most adults, most of the season. One midweight stretch tube with a published UPF figure.
• A child. A youth or kids size, two of them, and never a scarf.
• Anyone who skis in severe cold. Add a thin balaclava rather than a thicker tube, so the ears and forehead are covered too. The bands are here.
• Anyone whose goggles fog constantly. Fix the wearing position first. It is free, and it is the cause about eighty percent of the time.
• Spring skiers. The UPF figure, and the wider face-protection page for what else to cover.