Clear Ski Goggles
A clear ski goggle lens has no tint in it, which makes it the wrong lens for a sunny morning and the only sensible one under floodlights. Corlin makes one for each frame, both magnetic, both carrying UV400.
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What is a clear ski goggle lens for?
Night skiing under floodlights. A clear lens filters nothing out of the visible light, so it hands you everything the lamps put on the snow, and it still carries UV400. The lens fitted in the box is Category 3 for bright sun, which is the right lens for the afternoon and the wrong one once the lights come on. Because the lenses are magnetic, you do not have to choose between the two at breakfast. Why it works after dark
Why a clear lens is the one for night skiing
Work out what your goggle is doing to the light and the answer stops being a matter of taste. The lens that came fitted is Category 3, built for bright sun, and a Category 3 lens passes 8% to 18% of the light that reaches it. At midday that is exactly right. Under floodlights, where a piste is lit to a fraction of what the sun delivers, taking away four fifths or more of the little that is there leaves you reading the surface late.
A clear lens has no tint, so there is nothing between your eyes and whatever light the lamps put on the snow. That is its whole job, and it is the reason it earns a place in a jacket pocket while being the wrong choice at every other hour of the day.
It is still a lens rather than an open frame. Both clear lenses carry UV400, which surprises people who assume tint and protection are the same thing, and both have the same anti-fog layer on the inner face as every other lens in the range: how the anti-fog layer works.
The lens change is what makes the evening work
Most people who ski after dark also skied that afternoon. A goggle with a lens bonded into it forces the choice at breakfast: take the dark lens and squint once the lamps come on, or take the clear one and squint all afternoon.
With magnets there is no choice to make. The Category 3 lens does the daylight, and when the lights come on you pull it and set the clear one in its place at the bottom of the lift, gloves on, in the time it takes to get your ticket out. The lens you took off goes in the case that came with the goggle.
The mechanics of the swap, and which lenses fit which frame, are set out here: how the magnetic lens system works.
Clear, transparent, untinted: the same lens
Three words are in circulation for one thing. Corlin lists it as a clear lens, plenty of skiers call it transparent, and a shop assistant might say untinted. They all describe a lens that filters nothing out of the visible light, so if you have been searching for transparent ski goggles you have been looking for this.
There are two of them, one for each frame, and they are not interchangeable. Reuben Lens Clear fits the Reuben frames and Claude Lens Clear fits the Claude frames, with no adapter between the two systems, so the goggle already in your bag decides which one you order.
The clear lenses, and what comes before
All 19 ski lenses-
Reuben Lens Clear No tint, for floodlights 499 SEK
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Claude Lens Clear No tint, for floodlights 499 SEK
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Reuben Lens Orange Category 1, late afternoon 499 SEK
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Claude Lens Pink Category 1, late afternoon 499 SEK
The hour before the lights
Late afternoon, when the sun has gone off the slope but the lamps are not on yet, is not a clear-lens hour. That is what a Category 1 lens in orange or pink is for, and it is the lens most people buy second. See which lens suits which light
Questions about clear ski goggles
Are clear and transparent ski goggle lenses the same thing?
Yes. Both words describe a lens with no tint in it, and Corlin sells it as a clear lens. Untinted is the third word for the same thing, and none of them describes the frame, only the lens in front of your eyes.
There is one for each frame: Reuben Lens Clear and Claude Lens Clear. Every other lens in the range has a tint of some kind, from Category 1 up to Category 3.
What are clear ski goggles actually used for?
Skiing under floodlights, and that is close to the whole list. With no tint in the way it hands you every bit of light the lamps put on the snow, which is what you need when there is not much of it to begin with.
That makes it a third lens rather than a first or second one. It sits in a pocket for the evenings and comes out when the lights go on.
Can I ski in daylight with a clear lens?
You can, and on a grey day with the cloud right down you will get away with it. In sun you will not enjoy it, because the lens takes nothing out of what the snow throws back at you and snow is a very good mirror.
This is worth being blunt about, because a clear lens looks like the safe all-round choice and is the opposite of one. The all-round lens in the range is the Category 3 that arrives fitted.
Do clear ski goggle lenses block UV?
Yes. Both clear lenses state 100% UV400 protection, the same as every tinted lens Corlin makes. Tint and ultraviolet protection are separate properties of a lens, and it is the coating rather than the color that stops UV.
A lens you can see straight through is therefore no less protective than a dark one. What it does not do is cut glare, which is the job the tint was doing.
Which clear lens fits my goggles?
The one named after your frame. Reuben Lens Clear goes on the Reuben frames and Claude Lens Clear on the Claude frames, and there is no adapter between them, so check the name printed on the goggle before ordering.
Both are magnetic, both cost the same, and both go in and out in seconds with gloves on.
Does a clear lens fog up more than a tinted one?
No. The anti-fog layer on the inner face is the same on the clear lens as on the rest of the range, and fogging comes down to airflow and fit rather than to how dark the lens is.
Cold evenings do bring it up more often, mostly because a lift queue after dark is time spent standing still while you are still warm from the last run.
Where to go next
Lens categories refer to the classification in EN ISO 12312-1:2022. For specifications and current availability, see the individual product page.