Before we went to Scotland, people would ask me, “you know ski goggles are on kit list, are they really needed?” When you’ve not been out in the big mountains in high winds, cold and snow it maybe isn’t obvious why you’d want them.
If you’re out for a pleasant valley walk and it starts hailing, you can generally shelter til it stops. Maybe putting up your hood is enough because it’s coming down vertically.
When you’re on a big mountain and there’s old frozen snow being blown around, it’s like having sand blown in your face. It tends to be horizontal, and sods law says it’s coming from the direction you need to walk towards.
You can’t stop to shelter because you’d get cold sheltering, it won’t stop and besides there’s nothing to shelter behind. You have to keep moving.
The goggles make this so easy. Without goggles maybe you only have one eye half open when you look towards the wind. With goggles you can look ahead and plan your route across the next snowfield.
Given you can get goggles for less than £10, they might be one of the best value things you can buy when you go walking in the winter mountains.
Originally posted on this post on Instagram
