This Ruroc Helmet Ruined My Ski Holiday

“I don’t like talking to you wearing that. It’s intimidating.”

A friend said this to me—and he’s not joking. His name is Stuart. Stuart is about as affable a person as you could wish to meet, and we have skied together three or four times. Now, however, he doesn’t want anything to do with me. I haven’t upset him, we are on good terms—but he hates what I’ve got on my head. By the end of the week, so do I.

The intimidating headgear I’m wearing is the Ruroc RG2. It is, according to Ruroc, the world’s only full-face snowsports helmet—and now I can fully understand why, despite initially thinking it looked like the ideal lid to replace my aging POC. On paper, the RG2 should be a winner, despite a starting price of $379 (making it more expensive than nearly all of WIRED’s picks in our ski helmet guide). Only when you wear it do the drawbacks become abundantly clear.

The RG2 is actually an ISPO Award-winning helmet. It has a built-in Twiceme NFC chip, so you can store critical medical information that can be easily accessed by first responders in emergencies. To protect your noggin, it’s lined with Rheon, a breathable, energy-absorbing polymer (originally conceived from a NASA project looking at space shuttle foam replacements) that’s flexible in its natural state but instantly stiffens on impact.

For even more outlay, there’s an optional JBL-powered Cardo Communication System that lets you stream music, take calls, connect with a GoPro, and chat with up to 15 other equally intimidating Ruroc users on a mesh network.

The big boon of the RG2 over the original RG1, however, comes down to a simple tweak in this updated design. In the RG1, you secured the lower face plate using plastic clips that slid—usually unwillingly—into place. It worked, but any supposed cool factor for wearers was immediately ruined as others watched them attempt to wrestle those clips into place with no helpful mirrors on hand outside your average ski lift or mountain restaurant. The solution? Magnets. Ruroc finally made that call after sifting through “15 years of direct feedback.”

Sloping off: The RG2’s full-face setup proved to be a look not conducive to social skiing.

Photograph: Jeremy White

Gone are the plastic clips and in comes the Magnetic Mask System, which “lets users easily remove the helmet’s chin piece while wearing gloves.” Trouble is, taking the chin piece off was never the problem. Putting the darn thing on was the issue. Still, this new magnetic system is definitely easier, but it’s by no means foolproof, and you will still likely have to take two or three stabs at getting it locked in each time you want to add it to the helmet.