Best Ski and Snowboard Helmet for Backcountry Use and Ski Mountaineering

The bulk of ski helmets in our review are decidedly made for the masses. That is not the case with the Salomon MTN Lab. The Salomon MTN Lab is a ski and snowboard helmet built for the backcountry. If you do the vast majority of your skiing on resorts via ski lifts, then you will likely be better served by other helmets on our list, but if you hit the slopes with a full avalanche kit and an ice ax more often than you do with a lift pass, then the Salomon MTN Lab is a ski and snowboard helmet made for you.

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Comfort and Fit

The Salomon MTN Lab backcountry ski and snowboard helmet favors oval shaped heads, not unlike the standard Giro fit. It is also not quite as deep as most snow helmets, so riders with taller heads might want to size up.

The earpads of the Salomon MTN Lab are attached to its fairly minimal liner, which is not as plush as other helmet liners, but saves weight and will keep you warm without causing you to overheat while climbing or skinning up the mountain.

Warmth

As we noted in the above section, the Salomon MTN Lab’s liner is more minimal and cooler than most, but it is made to keep you warm enough at high speeds, without causing you to overheat while working hard at low speeds. This is a balance that most ski and snowboard helmets need not achieve.

In the same vein, the large vents of the Salomon MTN Lab do not close, and this is the one area where we felt the helmet might have been better served by straying from its ultralight, minimalist style.

Ventilation

As you might expect of a helmet that scores below average in the warmth category, the Salomon MTN Lab shines in the ventilation category. Boasting a full 20 vents, the Salomon MTN Lab is by far the best-ventilated helmet in our review, and this should come as no surprise since it is a helmet that is meant to perform just as well while climbing as while skiing or snowboarding.

Furthermore, while the liner of the Salomon MTN Lab is fairly minimal, to begin with, the helmet also comes with a second “summer” liner which is even more breathable and trades the earflaps for a sweatband.

Safety Tech and Additional Features

For years, those who climbed mountains to ride down them were forced to choose between a ski helmet that offered inferior protection and performance while climbing the mountain, or a climbing helmet that offered greatly reduced coverage around the sides and back, which is where impact frequently occurs in high-speed ski and snowboard crashes.

The Salomon MTN Lab solves this problem by exceeding ratings for both ski and mountaineering helmets. It is this ability to double, from both a safety and comfort standpoint, as a ski helmet and a climbing helmet that makes the Salomon MTN Lab the perfect helmet for backcountry riders and ski mountaineers.

The Salomon MTN Lab also features headlamp mounting hooks, a staple of climbing helmets, for alpine starts.

Goggle Compatibility

As a more minimal helmet, there is no trouble getting larger-framed goggles under the Salomon MTN Lab’s brim, nor does it tend to leave an obnoxious gap between smaller framed goggles and your head. If goggle compatibility is your top priority, then there are better helmets for you, but you could not say that there is anything wrong with the MTN Lab’s goggle integration either.

Weight

As with ventilation, the Salomon MTN Lab backcountry ski and snowboard helmet is a superstar in this category. At 360g, it is the lightest helmet in our review and by a pretty wide margin. While we don’t generally have an ultralight mentality, we can certainly appreciate its advantages for those who spend more time going up than going down.

The Bottom Line

If you have ever reached for your ski helmet, then reached for your climbing helmet, and then hit the mountain for a day of ski mountaineering or backcountry riding in your mountain bike helmet as a less than stellar compromise, then the Salomon MTN Lab was made for you. While riders who are not hardcore backcountry enthusiasts will be better served by other helmets on our list, with prices as low as $159.99, the Salomon MTN Lab might be worth investing in as a second helmet just for those days when you hit the backcountry in search of fresh pow.

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