Eye Protection for Ice Climbing

I can't imagine being out there on a bright day without UV protection. My prescription lenses are transition sunglasses. It's still a huge hindrance for me when they fog up. 

My wife got her eye bloodied and chipped a tooth from ice climbing, the thing that probably saved her from losing her eye were the sunglasses she was wearing. Another friend took a chunk of ice to his face while climbing and got a black eye. I wear some type of eye protection, transition glasses that give me uv protection when it’s bright and lighten up when it’s not so bright. My wife wears a pair of setters glasses that just recently broke when more ice hit her when she was in a static belay. So yes, it’s a good idea to wear eye pro. Even if not to protect your eyes from chunks of ice, protect them from the sun at least.  

situational awareness. you should not be getting hit in the face with chunks of ice at belay.  If you are sticking your wife in a place where she is getting busted teeth god help you.....  Leaders job is to put the belay in a safe spot. 

I wear prescription glasses. They are small and fogging has never been an issue as I suppose it is with wrap-around specs. A few times each season I hear a PING as high-speed, too-small-to-see chips of ice hit the lens. I would probably be injured several times by now if my eyes weren't protected.

I think my issue is my face heats up excessively.. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

situational awareness. you should not be getting hit in the face with chunks of ice at belay.  If you are sticking your wife in a place where she is getting busted teeth god help you..... 

busted teeth was during climbing, not while on belay. Broken glasses was during belay, mostly protected, but ice goes where it goes, she was anchored in and couldn’t move much. Her helmet and glasses saved an injury. Thanks for your condescension though. 

Sam Bedell wrote:

I've noticed that few pro ice climbers wear eye protection, including guides who have been doing it for decades. This seems like a good data point. If Will Gadd doesn't wear glasses (and he seems to think about risk a lot), then maybe it's okay? Has anyone heard of someone getting a serious eye injury while ice climbing?

Every dog will have its day...slight misuse of the phrase. Short answer is yes. Ran into a guy in Silverton last year climbing with an eye patch, a result of falling ice. I know something hit Alan Rousseau leading to worse vision. Think it was on Bradley so I presume it was ice. 

Pretty rare to catch me without sunglasses. The Julbo Ultimate covers with Reactive 2-4 have been a godsend. 

I prefer to wear a ball cap under my helmet for face protection. I have worn contact lenses in the past to correct my distance vision but that has improved. I have never been able to lead steep ice with glasses on. I take sunglasses for sunny days for hiking and belays. Goggles for top belays on cold windy days. 

Thanks for all the replies! There are some ideas I like and I’ll try a few things to see if anything works for me. Some of the posts convinced me it’s not a bad idea to wear at least safety glasses at the belay. One of the main reasons I like ice climbing so much is because it takes you up these insanely beautiful places. I want to enjoy my lead and if I can’t see clearly that takes away a lot of the enjoyment. So it has to be sth that actually works well for me.

Concerning the keeper cord discussion: I like to have one. My glasses usually fog up at the worst time and it’s nice to be able to get rid of them quickly. I usually just put them under my hardshell to keep them from dangling around once I have a comfortable stance.

Lastly, I guess it’s not unusual to sometimes get hit by bigger pieces of ice on lead, but if it happens all the time to you, maybe there is some room for improvement in your technique. I’m still very much progressing myself but I definitely noticed that the more proficient I become, the less it looks and feels like I’m battling the ice. 

Head movement. Learn to both steer the dinner plates with your tool and slip them with you head. 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Head movement. Learn to both steer the dinner plates with your tool and slip them with you head. 

Yeah, but I also realised this has the potential to seriously derail this conversation about eye protection, so I regret saying sth about that topic.

Eye protection is awesome. Not being able to see sucks. I in the situation where I am forced to wear eye protection 100percent of the time because I can't see without it. Often I get so fogged up that I can't see shit with it so I am merely voiceing my dream of how nice it would be to be able to see on a hard dangerous lead without being encumbered with completely fogged up glasses. Some of you all are very lucky to have good eyesight. By all means wear your sunglasses but if they fog up you are lucky you can take them off and still be able to see. 

Disclosure - I am a Co-owner of Furnace Industries.

Love that eye protection is an actual conversation and that folks are speaking about the importance of eye safety here! I personally have a pair of prescription eye glasses which I also wear while Ice and Rock climbing, my glasses have saved me on numerous occasions while ice climbing over the years and even had to replace a lens due to a significant single scratch while rock climbing.

We (as in Furnace Industries) work with Escape Climbing carrying their training picks. Last year at Michigan Ice Fest we had a chance to sit & chat with our Escape rep during the fest and got to  check out the route setter safety glasses they manufacture. Make a long story short, these setter safety glasses also work great for Ice Climbing & Drytooling. We have been carrying them for the last year now and have had a number of folks let us know that they love them, one most notably being my friend Bob, who does the drytool route development at Birdsboro Quarry in PA.

Anyway these safety glasses are OSHA approved with an ANSI Z87.1 Safety Rating. If anyone is interested you can check them out here.

either way, please take protecting your eyes seriously. There are a couple of options out there as folks have mentioned in the previous comments. I've seen many folks in the northeast use a face shield and I totally get why! Believe me when I say It is no fun trying to back off a climb while dealing with an eye injury in the moment..

Happy & Safe Sends!

I wear a $20 pair of 3M clear safety glasses that you see at Home Depot/Lowe’s… I rub a light coating of dishsoap onto both sides of the lenses which prevents them from getting foggy.  Years before I ever ice climbed, a friend was swinging an aluminum baseball bat at ice cubes that his son was ‘pitching‘ to him… one sharp piece of shattered ice cube went into his eye and did some major damage (he was wearing an eye patch for over a year). I rely on my eyes for my occupation, so once I started ice climbing it wasn’t much of a question for me, started out wearing ski goggles and eventually switched to safety glasses.

I have the old petzl visor that they discontinued. It honestly blows my mind that eye protection isn’t the norm and I’d rather trad climb without a helmet than ice climb without eye protection. 

Several years I ago I was sitting atop a 60 foot crag. Climber below me had no eye protection and didn't realize he got chunks of ice in his forehead. So lucky it didn't land in his eyes. I sometimes wear my sunglasses, and also wraparound clear/tinted safety glasses.