Reference charts
10 charts, laid out to be read at a glance, printed, or quoted. Every figure here is a published convention rather than an opinion, and each chart names where its numbers come from: industry sizing bands, ISO 11088 for the skier codes, the North American public avalanche danger scale, the Munter method for touring pace, and manufacturer specifications for everything else.
These are the same numbers the calculators use. The difference is format and it matters more than it sounds: a calculator answers one question for one person, and a chart lets you see the whole range at once, compare two sizes side by side, and take something into a shop on paper when there is no signal in the basement where the boot wall lives.
Sizing charts
Ski length chart by height and weight
The full grid, printable, with the weight correction applied rather than ignored.
Snowboard size chart by rider weight
Length by mass with waist width by boot size, which is the pairing that decides whether you drag an edge.
Mondopoint boot size conversion chart
Mondopoint to US, UK and EU, with the shell-fit check that matters more than any of them.
Ski boot flex index chart
What each flex band actually means, and why the number is not comparable between brands.
Ski waist width chart by conditions
What each width band is good at, what it gives up, and the brake width that has to match it.
The three numbers people most often look up
Ski length starts from height and is corrected by weight, discipline and ability. A ski standing on its tail should reach somewhere between your chin and the top of your head, and where you land inside that window is decided by mass more than anything else, because a ski is a spring and a heavier skier bends the same ski further. The window is about eight centimetres wide and inside it the choice is genuinely preference.
Boot size is mondopoint, which is the length of your foot in centimetres. Every other scale is a marketing translation of it, which is why two boots labelled US 9 can differ by a full size. Last width in millimetres is the specification that decides whether the boot is comfortable, and it is the one nobody looks up: Narrow is 97 to 98 mm, Medium is 99 to 101 mm, Wide is 102 to 104 mm.
Goggle VLT is the percentage of light the lens passes and it is the whole specification. 5 to 20 percent is bright sun; 20 to 40 percent is mixed sun and cloud; 40 to 60 percent is overcast; 60 to 90 percent is storm, snow, night. A dark lens in flat light hides the terrain you are about to ski into, which is a safety problem rather than a comfort one, and it is a more common mistake than a lens that is too bright.
Flex index, and why the chart carries a warning
Ski boot flex index is not standardised between brands at all, so a 100 flex from one maker can genuinely feel like a 90 from another. Treat it as a ranking within one brand rather than a number you can compare across a shop wall. The bands are still useful as a description of intent: 50 to 70 is beginner, 70 to 90 is beginner to intermediate, 90 to 110 is intermediate to advanced, 110 to 130 is advanced to expert, 130 and up is expert and race.
Most recreational skiers belong between 90 and 110 and buy stiffer than that because the number reads as a status marker. A boot too stiff to flex in the cold at the end of a long day is a boot you cannot steer, which is the opposite of what the extra stiffness was bought for.
Safety, pace and conditions
Goggle lens VLT chart
Visible light transmission bands against the weather they belong in, and the one wrong single choice.
Ski layering chart by temperature
What to wear at each temperature band, split into resort and touring because the answers differ.
DIN skier code chart
The ISO 11088 code tables in full, so you can walk into a shop knowing what row you are on.
Avalanche danger scale explained
The five levels, what each means for terrain choice, and why the middle of the scale kills the most people.
Ski touring pace and vertical chart
Munter units, vertical feet per hour, and honest figures for a party breaking trail.
The two charts that are not shopping charts
The avalanche danger scale and the skier code chart are both reference material for decisions that are made elsewhere by somebody qualified to make them.
The danger scale describes conditions and recommends terrain choices. It does not tell you whether a particular slope is safe, and the level that catches the most people is Considerable in the middle of the scale, not High at the top, because Considerable is the rating on which people still go out. Reading the scale is not a substitute for reading the full forecast, which names the avalanche problem, the aspects and the elevations, and it is certainly not a substitute for the course that teaches you what to do with any of it.
The skier code chart shows the ISO 11088 tables that a certified technician indexes their binding chart by. It deliberately stops at the code and does not print a release value, because that value comes off a chart specific to your binding model and is then verified on a calibrated release jig. Knowing your code means you walk into a shop prepared. It does not mean you touch the screw.
How these charts are built
Nothing here is a measurement we took. The sizing ranges are the published conventions used across the industry, cross-checked against several manufacturers' own charts, and where those disagree we use the middle of the range and say so. The wind chill figures use the current National Weather Service formula and the frostbite exposure times are the published NWS thresholds. The touring pace method is Munter's, which is the standard taught in avalanche courses, including the trail-breaking correction that most trip plans forget.
Where a chart disagrees with a manufacturer's own size guide for a specific model, use the manufacturer's. A general chart describes a population and a specific chart describes a specific product, and the specific one wins every time. These are here to give you a starting point and a sanity check, which is exactly what a shop does by eye before they measure you properly.
Where to go from a chart
Once you have a size, the gear roundups rank each shelf by tier and the gear index lists every verified product with its published specification. When you are ready to price a whole setup rather than one item, the build guides do it line by line with a running total, which is a much better use of a budget than optimising a single purchase.
How we choose: we compare published manufacturer specifications, published certification standards and verified owner reviews across retailers. We do not test equipment in person, and every figure quoted here is the manufacturer's published number unless we say otherwise. This is researched buying guidance and not professional instruction: binding release values are set by a certified technician on a calibrated jig, and avalanche terrain requires formal training and a current regional forecast that no article can replace. We earn commissions from Backcountry and from qualifying Amazon purchases.
