The features we buy but never use

[Tom K.]

I'll throw down on both of you, come ski the North Island of NZ in July and experience the worst a completely exposed volcano can offer ....wind-driven shotgun blasts of ice being scoured off ridges and wet snow - hood + balaclava minimum

You make it sound so enticing!

 

[NZRob]

You make it sound so enticing!

LOL....yeh well there is a good reason my family calls the mountain a demanding mistress. It can be absolutely magnificent (spring is the best in the world - in my humble opinion), but it can be the absolute worst too. Here's a common mid-winter rime ice build up after a typically brutal storm.

 

[Laurel Hill Crazie]

To each their own. Rain skiing in a closed-vent helmet is far preferable to a hood.

Balaclava or not.

How do you keep the rain from rolling down your neck and soaking your torso? The last time I skied in a rain shower with a closed vent helmet and no hood I got soaked because I couldn't keep my upturned jacket collar inside my helmet. That jacket had a detachable hood that I kept in my boot bag. My new jacket has a fixed hood.