 Poster: A snowHead
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Made a trip to Chicago to see best friend and get some extra skiing in in Michigan... And since everything's such a bargain in the US and my trusty 5+ year old SOS troosers had the inner seam taping come off, it seemed an ideal time to hit the internet shops hard and save on shipping and dodgy customs charges to my ski free home of Bangkok.
Atomic skiwear
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I'm 6 ft and 190lbs or 1.8m and 87kg... their online sizing guide seems decent, as the Large i ordered in both fit me well - they are an 'athletic' fit so not baggy boardy stylee...
Jacket's a Treeline 2L Flex - which has some insulation which i've always preferred. There are shell options too.
Pants are the Ridgeline 2L - again some insulation, and chosen over the Treeline model as the Ridgeline has (removeable) suspenders.
The Atomic site will give you the full technical info, but they both have Pertex Shield material and primaloft insulation - my old Sos uses Dermizax and is also quite soft and comfortable, but the Atomic fabrics are another step up it seems in comfort and stretch/ flex. Extremely comfy, very light and packing for the return flight they also pack down remarkably, almost goose down like.
Jacket comes with all the good stuff, like a left forearm pocket for the lft pass, wrist gaiter(?) with thumb loop, removeable hood which fit the helmet fine, powder skirt, and the vents work as it was mostly pretty warm at Crystal Mountain where we were.
The troosers are great - and these new fabrics with the stretch really feel fabulous - like softshells but more waterproof and windproof.
One problem - the suspenders lose their adjustment. The plastic adjustment buckle doohickey thing slides down... Making the suspenders a bit, well, pants, really. ( The troosers also have a good waist adjustment also)... But this was fixed with some spare doohickeys from the retired SOS pants - see below.
Left is the SOS suspender, Right is the Atomic - and in the middle is the fixed version with an SOS piece threaded through the Atomic suspender, no stitching required and now works perfectly, haha.
There's minimal branding on them too - i wasn't previously aware but the Parent company is Amer Sports who also own Salomon and Arcteryx... I finally got to see and feel some Arcteryx gear in Chicago - looks great and everyone raves on the performance etc, but they are the heavily Goretex side of things it seems for Amer... And the Atomic fabric is far, far softer, more flexible, nice quite matte colour too - the black of my pants is luvverly 
Smith Vantage and a photochromic lens
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Again the online sizing guide was reliable and my coopin is a size Large also.
Many, many vents and is certainly cool enough ( especially when it gets freezing night skiing and you've got the vents open because you forgot which way is open or closed... ) , the ear pads can easily be removed in warmer weather and tis comfy and fits perfectly with the Smith goggles as you'd hope they would - goggles are the IO/7.
Got the pair that comes with a very dark 'blackout' lens but also the photochromic red sensor. They also come with a nice semi hard case for the spare lens.
After a while fighting to get the red sensor lens fitted ( first time with the interchangeable lens thing) and used this lens for night skiing under lights ( 't would be tricky skiing without the lights...) and then overcast daytime and also bright blue sky days - worked very well indeed. I'd say my light sensitivity is pretty average, so the more sensitive or maybe a bright day on a glacier might be a bit squint worthy, but otherwise i'm very pleased with it. the tint seems to show contrast well without obviously distorting colours and so on.
With the warmer weather also, the combination seemed to avoid any issue with fogging up of the goggles.
Other photochromic options to look at might be Atomic ( Zeiss lenses), Julbo, and Bolle...
Apologies for the what looks like a heavily posed photo... But if i'd known i wouldn't have been chewing on my raggedy chapped lip
Friend's 4 (four) year old son enjoying some moguls...
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