When hitting the slopes, you can’t do without a full set of professional gear to keep you warm, dry, and protected from injuries.
Alongside stylish ski jackets, boots, helmets, gloves, and ski poles, there’s one critical piece of equipment you should never overlook: goggles.
Their most important function? Protecting your eyes from intense light—more specifically, preventing snow blindness.
What is Snow Blindness?
Snow blindness, also known as photokeratitis or ultraviolet keratitis, is an eye injury caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays.
UV rays from the sun can harm your skin, causing it to darken and age prematurely. Luckily, your skin has some level of protection from clothing or sunscreen. Your eyes, however, are far less fortunate—they must face the sun’s rays directly.
In everyday environments, the light your eyes perceive is primarily reflected off surfaces like the ground or buildings, which have an average reflectivity of 10–35%. This significantly reduces the intensity of sunlight, making it generally harmless to your eyes. But snow is a completely different story.
Snow is composed of countless ice crystals, acting like tiny mirrors with high reflectivity. In snowy, open areas with little obstruction, sunlight isn’t weakened—it’s amplified. The reflectivity of snow can reach up to 95%, which is why snowy landscapes appear so bright after heavy snowfall.
For skiers who neglect proper eye protection, being on the slopes is essentially equivalent to staring directly at the sun. Overexposure to UV rays can burn the corneal and conjunctival epithelium, leading to symptoms like swollen eyelids, eye pain, light sensitivity, tearing, difficulty opening the eyes, and blurry vision—this is snow blindness.
Prolonged exposure to such conditions can even cause the proteins in the eye to denature, much like how clear egg whites turn solid when cooked. This can result in chronic eye damage, including cataracts and macular degeneration.
Now You Know Why Ski Goggles Are Essential!
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