Ski Kit
The Warmest
All the cozy, comfortable gear you’ll need to fend off frigid temperatures.
First chair at Jackson Hole on a cold-smoke powder day. Stowe on a bluebird morning, with a wind chill that seems impossibly low. Riding the Imperial Express to the top of Breckenridge on a blustery afternoon, in search of untracked lines. All are memorable, classic ski experiences—but you won’t enjoy any of them unless you have the right apparel to handle the cold. This kit pulls together the warmest ski gear on the market, from your jacket and pants down to your base layer, to fun extras like a balaclava and rechargeable hand warmers. We’re here to help you stay cozy on the mountain this season in the toughest of conditions, or if you tend to run cold and want gear that will keep you comfortable all winter long.
Arc’teryx Macai ($1,100)
Helly Hansen Alpha LifaLoft Insulated ($390)
Arc'teryx Atom ($280)
Woolx Glacier Long Sleeve Crew ($160)
Outdoor Research Prevail Heated GTX ($339)
Smith Level MIPS ($250)
BlackStrap Expedition Hood ($45)
Smartwool Full Cushion OTC ($31)
Ignik Ripple Rechargeable ($130)
An undeniably primo insulated jacket, the Macai (women's Andessa) features a healthy amount of 750-fill goose down and high-end, 3-layer Gore-Tex construction. If you’re a resort skier looking for the best combination of warmth, comfort, and protection, this is it.
Weather Protection
Warmth
Comfort
Breathability
Durability
Sustainability
The Alpha LifaLoft is the ultimate resort pant, delivering exceptional warmth and standout comfort. Its baffled insulation feels as cozy as a sleeping bag, and the polyester shell material is soft and highly mobile (provided the slightly snug fit works for you).
Weather Protection
Warmth
Comfort
Breathability
Durability
Sustainability
With its low-profile fit and relatively light synthetic insulation, the Atom offers a just-right combination of warmth, comfort, and breathability when worn in conjunction with a heavy outer layer. Its construction quality is also excellent, and the clean styling looks great around town.
Warmth
Comfort & Mobility
Breathability
Versatility
Durability
Sustainability
Merino wool is the warmest base layer material per ounce, and this 400-weight monster is among the thickest on the market. You can wear it on the most frigid days to keep your core toasty.
For the coldest of conditions and skiers who just can’t keep their hands warm, heated mittens like the Prevail offer all-day coziness. Simply plug the battery into the mitten, customize the warmth, then make sure to recharge when the day is done.
The Level is warm, comfortable, and protective, thanks to safety features like Koroyd and MIPS, and it’s constructed from durable materials. All told, it’s the coziest ski helmet we’ve tested.
Comfort
Warmth
Ventilation
Weight & Bulk
Durability
Sustainability
For the coldest and windiest resort days, a balaclava becomes one of our most prized pieces of gear on the mountain. The Expedition version from Blackstap is super warm, stretchy, and low-profile enough to fit under a helmet with ease.
Modern ski boot liners do a nice job of keeping your feet warm, but a great pair of socks plays an important role as well. The Smartwool Over the Calf Full Cushion offers excellent thickness and coverage, along with excellent build quality that should last.
Yes, you can buy single-use hand warmers on the cheap, but those go right to the landfill when they’re done working. For longer-term warmth, Ignik offers rechargeable hand warmers that should last season after season.
How We Built the Warmest Ski Kit
Ski Jacket
There are a number of ski jacket designs you can choose from, and each provides a different amount of warmth. At the coldest end of the spectrum are shell jackets, which have no insulation. If you wear just a shell, your midlayer and your base layer will provide your warmth. Then there are lightly insulated resort skiing jackets, which retain more heat than shell jackets, but still allow skiers to customize via their layering system underneath. Next up are more heavily insulated ski jackets, such as the Helly Hansen LifaLoft, which are built for cold days but aren’t quite at the top of the warmth heap. (It’s worth noting that many insulated ski jackets use synthetic fill, as it stays warmer when it’s wet and is cheaper than down.)
This kit is all about keeping you cozy no matter how cold things get, though. For maximum warmth, we chose the Arc’teryx Macai, which is filled with a healthy amount of 750-fill goose down and has a 3-layer Gore-Tex shell to keep you and all of that down dry. A similar option in the ultra-toasty ski jacket category is the Helly Hansen Kvitfjell Infinity, which uses 800-fill-power down—a small step up in fill power from the Macai—but with an in-house Lifa Infinity membrane. Both jackets are in rarified company for warmth and have streamlined designs that wear well around town. (Perhaps this helps justify the lofty price tag for some folks who will use them as their winter jackets as well.) In the end, the Kvitjell Infinity has a slightly higher fill power (800 vs. 750 in the Macai), but uses duck instead of goose down, which is slightly less warm. We couldn’t pin down the fill weight of the Infinity, so we gave the nod to the Macai instead, which we’ve used extensively, but both are ultra-warm ski jackets.
Keep in mind that jackets like the Macai and Kvitfjell Infinity are bulky and don’t leave much wiggle room on warm ski days. You can wear them directly over your base layer with no midlayer to mitigate that fact a little bit, but these are super warm jackets that offer few ways to dump heat. If you ski all season long, including when the conditions aren’t frigid, you likely will end up wanting another ski jacket option with less or no insulation.
Ski Pants
Ski pant warmth doesn’t get quite the same attention as ski jackets. This is because your torso has more mass than your legs and houses many of your internal organs, and therefore plays a greater role in core temperature regulation. In addition, your legs are consistently activated during resort skiing, so they generate some heat on their own. In practice, we’ve found that a quality thermal base layer, along with insulated ski pants and ski socks that reach up to the upper shins, keeps our legs nice and toasty even in frigid conditions.
For these reasons, Arc’teryx does not make a Macai pant, nor does Helly Hansen make a Kvitfjell Infinity pant. Additionally, if you had all of that fluffy down around your legs while resort skiing, you would be too hot, and it probably would constrict your movement a bit, too. Save it for your torso, and warmth seekers should grab the cozy Helly Hansen LifaLoft Pants, which are filled with baffled LifaLoft insulation and kept us cozy on frigid testing days in Wyoming. The LifaLoft is the only model to get a 5 out of 5 “Warmth” rating in our ski pants gear guide, with the Patagonia Insulated Powder Town just behind.
Base Layer
You now have your ultra-warm ski jacket and ski pants covered, so let’s focus on what you’ll be wearing underneath. Your base layer is critical to staying warm, and merino wool makes it easy. Merino is soft and comfortable against the skin, and in our many years of gear testing, we’ve been blown away by how much warmth this all-natural material provides. It also breathes decently well and wicks moisture away from the skin. For resort skiing in sub-freezing temperatures, it’s an excellent choice, and the odor resistance is a nice bonus for lunch and après at the lodge.
The thickness of a merino wool base layer is measured in grams per square meter (g/m²), with 400 g/m² being as warm as you’ll find. For a quick breakdown of base layers for extreme cold, direct-to-consumer brand Woolx does a nice job with their Glacier Long Sleeve Crew, which is a healthy 400 g/m², built for the coldest of conditions, and costs a reasonable $160 for the top (reasonable for merino, that is). For comparison, Icebreaker makes a 300-weight MerinoFine base layer—which is toasty, but not as warm as the Glacier—for a whopping $250.
Those are some of the thickest merino tops on the market, but we think most people will be satisfied with Smartwool’s Classic Thermal Top, which features 250-weight merino wool. Why does Smartwool, perhaps the most prominent merino wool brand in the outdoor industry, stop at a 250-weight and call it “Thermal”? Unless you are doing all-day outdoor work in an extreme environment like Alaska or North Dakota, it should provide enough warmth alongside your other layers and more versatility for warmer days.
Midlayer
Many expert skiers wear an uninsulated shell jacket, a base layer, and then use their midlayer to customize warmth. With this setup, you can add a warm down midlayer on cold days, a lighter-weight synthetic midlayer on warmer days, and even have a couple of thicknesses of base layers to choose from as well. On bluebird spring days, drop the midlayer altogether and ski in just your shell and baselayer.
For this warmth-centric kit, it’s a bit more complicated. With your ultra-warm and heavily insulated ski jacket like the Arc’teryx Macai or Helly Hansen Kvitfjell Infinity, plus a thermal base layer like the Woolx Glacier Long Sleeve Crew or SmartWool Classic Thermal, you may end up being pretty darn warm in most conditions. Plus, the jacket is so thick that it’s essentially rolling up a normal insulated ski jacket and midlayer into one.
In considering whether or not to wear a midlayer—a third layer on your torso— in this maximum warmth set-up, we would encourage you to try on your ski jacket and heavyweight base layer to see how they feel. A down midlayer will add the most warmth, but with this kit, you may want to consider a lower-profile option like the synthetic Arc’teryx Atom (going with down on top of down might give you Michelin Man-like vibes). With 60g Coreloft insulation, the Atom is less bulky than a down jacket but still reasonably warm and more breathable.
With midlayers, we strongly prefer non-hooded versions, as the hood can flap when you are skiing fast downhill and get in the way, plus, you won’t wear the hood on your head in a resort skiing scenario. With a midlayer added, you will be entering the sauna-like warmth zone, but you can always shed it if need be.
Heated Mittens
One of the hottest topics is cold hands, which can ruin your ski day in a hurry. In terms of the absolute highest levels of warmth, there is a small but persistent market for heated mittens and gloves designed for the most frigid conditions and for those who need the extra boost. They are quite expensive: The Outdoor Research Prevail Gore-Tex Mitten we chose runs $339, and it’s decidedly mid-range for this product category. The concept is cool, though. Make sure the mitten’s rechargeable battery is fully juiced, plug the battery into the mitten itself, and then tuck it into the small pocket on the inside of the wrist. Crank up the heat and you’re cozy as can be.
There are a few other interesting heated glove options for those interested in this product category. Swedish brand Hestra, a premium ski glove and mitten maker we have loved over the years, offers the Heater Gauntlet Mitten for a pricey $575. We have not put that glove to the test yet, but if past experience is any guide, we would expect it to be of high quality and live up to its price point (relative to its heated glove peers, that is). For those in the know, the Chaval SuperNova Heated Glove has a cult-like following and may offer even better performance than the Prevail for a modest price increase. Last but not least, Amazon sells a number of heated gloves in the $100 price range at the time of publishing.
It’s worth noting that most folks don’t actually need heated mittens or gloves to keep their hands toasty. The warmest standard ski mitts we’ve worn are the Black Diamond Mercury Mitts. Our co-founder, who runs cold, used the Mercury as a belay mitt (while ice climbing) in temperatures down to the single digits. At $140, its less than half the price of a heated mitten from Outdoor Research.
Ski Boots, Socks, and Boot Warmers
Similar to your hands, cold feet can be a recipe for heading back to the lodge early. Keeping your feet warm is a bit more nuanced than your hands, though, because it’s more difficult to jam a battery pack into your ski boot (the Therm-ic Set Heat Kit is one way to try), but we’ll start with socks. Modern ski boot liners are inherently warm these days, and the full cushion Smartwool sock we’ve chosen for this kit should get you the rest of the way there. (Note: you shouldn’t wear a massively thick wool sock because it will compromise the fit of your boot, and that can lead to other issues.)
There is more nuance to foot warmth while skiing, starting with, well, the boot’s starting temperature. The big lesson here is to start the day with a warm ski boot. In the past, we’ve accidentally left our ski boots in our garage or back of our vehicle overnight, and the result is that you get to the hill, put your boot on, and the lining and shell are already frigid. Then your feet get cold rather quickly and are tough to warm up. This is a big no-no for those who want to warm up while skiing—you’re off on the wrong foot altogether.
At the very least, keep your boots inside in the warmth of your house the night before skiing, and perhaps even put them near your heater or a fireplace in the morning if you have one (at a distance where it won’t burn the shell plastic, of course). But the real lap of luxury comes with boot dryers/warmers. Many fancy ski lodges have boot warmers, which both dry out your boots after a day on the slopes and bring the internal temperature up to cozy levels before you even put them on. For those of us at home, you can buy a simple booter dryer to use at home, and use it on your gloves or mittens, too.
A Note on Boot Fit Circulation
For a final piece of advice on foot warmth while skiing: Make sure to dial in your ski boot fit. If the fit is too loose, extra air around your feet and toes will make the boot colder. If it’s too tight, your feet can lose circulation, leading to reduced blood flow. This has happened to us: On a cold February day at Winter Park, we skied until last chair with our boots fully buckled down, and ended up with frostnip on a couple of toes (yikes!). We’ve since learned that after a run, expert skiers often unbuckle their front buckles for the ride up the lift, then rebuckle at the top for the ride down. This gives you the performance you want while skiing, and more comfort and circulation to your feet when you’re not.
We’ll tell you a little story for context. During the last ski season, we were up at Steamboat on a cold day where the temps on the hill were in the single digits and the wind was howling. We had two adults and two kids skiing, and everyone was starting to get chilled. We popped into one of the mid-mountain lodges to warm up, and they had a little gear shop at the entrance with balaclavas. This normally is not a purchase that we would make, given that today’s ski helmets are so darn warm, you can shut the vents, and cinch up your jacket for solid coverage. But the balaclavas we purchased were game-changers. The face and neck coverage added a serious dose of warmth and blocked the wind, and with adjustable-fit helmets, it was easy to loosen the helmet a bit to accommodate the balaclava underneath. We now bring them when it’s really cold, and in these conditions, it becomes one of our favorite warmth-producing ski gear items.
In terms of your ski helmet and goggles, there isn’t quite as much you can do to stay warm as in other gear categories, but we have a few tips. The Smith Level MIPS comes with thick padding that provides as much warmth as any helmet we’ve tested, keeping your head cozy on frigid days (don’t forget your balaclava underneath). The helmet has 20 vents that can be opened on warmer days so your head can vent, and about half can be closed via a simple slider when you want to lock in maximum heat.
Goggles are more uniform in terms of warmth, and we opted not to include a specific item for this kit. That being said, one product line to keep in mind is Anon's MFI collection. The "MFI" represents the included mask that comes with several Anon goggles, including the popular M Series, and attaches to the base of the goggle's frame via magnets. This zero-gap fit helps cut the chill, though it's still no match for a balaclava in especially frigid and windy conditions.
Hand warmers have been a part of ski culture for as long as we can remember, and do indeed provide added warmth. The logic is simple: You place a small warm object, most commonly inside your gloves around the palm of your hand, or perhaps an interior pocket of one of your layers. They are decently effective at warming up the skin and air in that small zone, and they provide a nice mental boost and something to do in a lift line or on the chair.
The cheapest hand warmers—at least in the short term—are the single-use packets like these from Ignik. If you buy them in bulk, you’re looking at about $1 per pair, but as a site that covers sustainability, it’s hard for us to recommend them. They have an outer plastic wrap, and then after their relatively short warming career is over, they go right in the trash (we see them all over resort parking lots and even in the snow). We’ll also note that single-use hand warmers do not have the best reputation: You often have to work them around in your hands to get the warming process started, and it doesn’t always kick in as quickly or effectively as people would like.
The more sustainable option—and the money saver in the long run if you use them over the course of a season or multiple—is rechargeable hand warmers from Ignik. They are compact (2.8 x 1.4 inches each) and have two different modes (Turbo Mode reaches 122°F for 3 hours, while Efficiency Mode reaches 90°F for up to 12 hours). At the end of your ski or snowboard day, you simply set them back in the charger station and they’ll be ready for the next morning. They also come with a nifty carrying case, which is a nice touch to throw in your ski backpack.
Is the Warmest Ski Kit for You?
This ski gear above is as warm as you’ll find, and we had a lot of fun putting it together (you’d be amazed at how many people run cold on the mountain). If you're the type of skier who wants to make sure that they’ll never end a day early because of frozen digits, or you frequently ski at high latitudes or elevations, or if your internal thermometer trends towards chilly, this kit has your name written all over it. Even if you’re not wearing every single one of our picks, having one or two in your arsenal should considerably boost your warmth when you hit the hill.
Please remember, though: Safety first. If you or someone you are skiing or snowboarding with is feeling overly chilled, go inside a lodge and take a break by the fire to warm up. Exposed skin in winter conditions can be a real danger, and things can deteriorate more quickly than you might think. Staying out is never worth compromising your safety, so stay smart there to ski another day.
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