It’s time to talk about the best vaporizers for skiing and snowboarding. As many of you know, skiing is one of my absolute favorite things to do, and it presents a unique set of challenges for vaporizers (as well as combusting) due to the wind, cold, elevation, and snow.
After bringing around 50 different portable vapes up on the ski hill, I have settled on a handful of strong favorites. Check out some tips for using a vaporizer while out on the mountain or scroll down for a quick overview of my favorite vapes for skiing.
If you are looking for the best portable in situations other than skiing, check out my best dry herb portable vaporizer article.
5 Best Portable Vaporizers for Skiing
The five portable vaporizers that stand out as the best for skiing, in my opinion, are (in no particular order): The Crafty+, the Mighty, the Pax 3, the Davinci IQ 2, and the Grasshopper. I also think the Boundless CF is a good budget option.
Things I considered:
- Sturdiness in Pocket, Crashes
- Shape, Feel, and Comfort in the Pocket
- Cold Weather Performance & Heat-Up Time
- Battery Life, Replaceable?
- Vapor Flavor, Density, Potency
- Solo, Group Use
Finding the perfect vape for skiing can be tough because I need to worry about how the unit feels in my pocket. Can I duck down in a tuck position? Does it inhibit my movement in turns or weigh down my jacket in weird spots? The vape also needs to be sturdy enough in my pocket to survive crashes… go big or go home right?
Then the performance of every vape takes a hit out in the elements. The cold weather can sometimes cut battery capacity in half and also really slows down pre-heating. Even the elevation can play tricks on you when you get really high up there, especially with a torch and lighter powered vapes.
Lastly, I still care about the vapor flavor and potency, as well as for deciding if I need a vape for a solo user, two-person use, or larger group use.
Tips for Using a Vaporizer While Skiing
- Fully charge before leaving, need all the power you can get in the cold. Expect 50% battery capacity on very cold days.
- Keep the vape in your innermost pocket. It’s warmer and provides more padding for crashes.
- Empty vapes after use to help cut down on the smell.
- Bring extra batteries, and/or an external battery pack to recharge if you plan for very heavy use.
- JyARz are my go-to container for skiing. It’s a glass jar with a rugged outer shell. I like to pre-grind before I head out to make repacking as smooth as possible.
Where to Vape While Skiing
Generally, I like to vape in two main spots while skiing. The first is on the chairlift, this requires a vape with a reasonably fast heat-up time, and a short or medium session length otherwise you get to the top before the bowl is finished!
Quick tip! I like to start the pre-heating process while I am in the chairlift line so that I can start ripping shortly after getting on the chair. The Chairlift can be quite tough to impossible with lighters and torches on the windiest days, so I have not always had the best luck with the butane vapes on the slopes.
The other place I like to vape is in a nice secluded spot in the trees. Usually, when I stop in the trees I have a lot less issue with the wind, and falling snow. This is also the more relaxing and better way to vape with groups, however, there is only so much daylight so sometimes I like to keep moving if I want to get a lot of runs in!
Some resorts even have hidden smoke shacks. A few buddies and I head south to Bozeman every other year and we always like to go searching for the Big Sky Smoke Shacks. We haven’t found them all but I’d say at least a half-dozen.
Which Vape is Best For You? Pros and Cons
Crafty+ and Mighty
The Crafty+ and Mighty are two of the most enjoyable dry herb portable vaporizers to use with only a few downsides, the biggest of them being price.
First, both the Crafty+ and Mighty vaporizers are the easiest to use in group situations. Here’s why:
- They feature low draw resistance.
- There’s no technique required for loading or use.
- They both are very consistent regardless of the bowl size.
- Easy for non-vapers. No buttons, just inhale.
- Tastiest vapor overall.
- Crafty+ best for 2-3 people max.
- Mighty can easily get four people medicated.
I prefer to bring the Mighty with me skiing because I know that it will never run out of battery life. The Crafty+ is the smaller, more pocketable version, but gets maybe half the battery life of the Mighty. The downside to the Mighty is the size. It might be a bit too big to fit in your snow pants pocket, but it will definitely fit in your jacket and really feels at home in a backpack.
I bring the Crafty Plus when I know it will be just me out on the slopes and I know for a FACT that it’s fully charged. I average three bowls per charge on the very cold days.
Expect the Crafty and Mighty to take a couple of minutes to heat up in the cold, since they vibrate to let you know they are heated up, I often click them on while they are still in the pocket. Expect these units to hold around .25g of herb when full.
Pax 3 and Davinci IQ 2
The Pax 3 and the Davinci IQ 2 are some of the smallest and most durable portable vaporizers I’ve tested. They both heat up fast in the cold with the Pax 3 taking about 30 seconds and the IQ 2 dry herb vape reaching temp in about 60 seconds. While they give up a little bit of flavor because of the 100% conduction heating, they make up for in comfort, size, and overall battery life.
The IQ 2 features a replaceable battery allowing you to bring extras for longer days. The Pax3 battery is not replaceable, however, a single fully charged battery has outlasted any of the other vapes I have brought onto the mountain. The Pax 3 and the IQ 2 are the best options for most people all things considered. Both units hold about .15-.2g with the half-pack lid (pax3) or spacer (IQ2) and they both hold .3-.4 with the standard full bowl.
Grasshopper (Now Hopper IO)
The Grasshopper is the quickest heating hardest hitting vape in the cold. If you want something to pop out and quickly (heats up in under 10s in the cold) take a rip and get back to shredding ASAP the hopper may be your best choice.
The hopper also has good flavor and a replaceable battery so you can bring extras to keep the fun going. With that said the Grasshopper does have one MAJOR downside and a few minor ones.
While my Grasshoppers have been very reliable overall, I have multiple friends and have talked to plenty of people online who have had a lot of reliability issues (even without the added stress of extremely cold weather vaping). The Hopper does have a lifetime warranty, so they will fix it, but dealing with a broken vape can be a huge hassle and huge time waste so this is a big downside. Definitely think twice about considering the hopper if it is going to be your only vaporizer.
The minor downsides are that the Hopper bowl only holds about .15g so it’s really best for 1 or maybe 2 people. The bowl is also a bit harder to pack (especially on a chairlift) and the battery life is weakest in this category so do bring extras!
Budget Options
Boundless CF
The Boundless CF dry herb portable vaporizer is definitely my go-to budget unit for the slopes. It has more draw resistance than the others, it is the only non fully adjustable temp model listed here, it has the second smallest battery behind the Grasshopper and it is NOT replaceable. However the CF is very easy to use, it heats up nearly as fast as the Pax 3 in the cold, it works well with varying sized bowls from .1-.3g of herb so it’s good for solo or group use. This is the cheapest battery-powered unit I recommend at $98.
Dynavap Vapcap M
The Dynvavap VapeCap 2020 M (Shop 2020 M) is the cheapest unit overall coming in at only $75 which is well below the competition. The M is very small, very light, and very efficient. It is definitely best used by yourself due to the small bowl and difficulty repacking on the slopes. Unfortunately, this vape is also powered by a butane torch or a lighter so some days I have great luck with it, and other days it’s a pain in the butt to deal with when it’s really windy or heavily snowing. Depending on the elevation of your local hill/mountain you can also run into butane lighter/torch issues as you get higher, although it does help to open the butane valve further at higher elevations.
Thanks for checking my article out! If you have any questions, comments, or concerns let me know down in the comments box. I would also love to hear some of your favorite skiing and snowboarding spots. I plan to expand my skiing outside of Montana these next few winters so give me some ideas!
