Back in 2014, Oregon based Abominable Labs ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for their active anti-fog goggles. At the end of last year, they started fulfilling pledges and the snow goggles are now available for the rest of us to order. The Abom goggles promise you can say goodbye to foggy lenses forever.
Fog happens when vapor in the air turns to water faster than it can evaporate–usually when the air outside is cold and you are heating up the air inside the goggles. You can try and wipe it away with your gloves but it usually comes right back and when it happens on the inside of your lenses, you are toast.
Abom’s KLAIR active anti-fog technology places an invisible heat-conductive film between a two-part lens. After pushing a button at the side of the snow goggles, the rechargeable battery sends a current through the film to heat the lens and keep fog away all day. You can choose to have it run for your whole ski session for up to 6 hours, or simply apply a 10 minute burst of current when you need it–the battery will then last up to 7 days. The battery takes 1 hour to recharge.
On a recent ski day in Park City we got pegged with freezing rain that iced up our lenses, making it pretty much impossible to see ad the descent a little hairy. If I could have just turned on my goggles to heat the lenses and melt the ice, that would have been ideal.
The Abom goggles retail for $249 and include a two-part scratch resistant polycarbonate Zeiss lens in X-Ray Grey, US wall plug and USB cable for charging. You can order different color lenses to swap out depending on the conditions for the day–red for overcast days, yellow for night or serious storms, and black for bluebird high altitude days. Extra lenses retail for $100.
