Advice about glasses when climbing

If you need progressives like I do, it sucks to have reading magnification on when you're trying to hike or climb. If you want to see your footholds and to hike without falling, have your doc write a script for the magnification to be 6-15' for the bottom.
And wear Chums. 

I'll second Oakley frames like the Marshall. I've worn them for years and with hearing aids. The rubber coated straight temples work well. As for Chums - no - they are heavy, get wet, and that tail thing is a pain. Get some neoprene Croakies. Put them on and leave them on and you'll look retro. As for the prescription - my progressives work fine. People overthink this stuff. I've only been wearing glasses for 60+ years and climbing 50+ and have lost my glasses on a climb once. The little screw on the hinge fell out about four pitches up and I managed to catch the glasses but had to tie them on for the rest of the day. Spindrift behind them is the major complaint I have but you deal with it. When you need to buy mountaineering glasses go directly to Opticus based in Boulder. 

Just to keep this fun topic from getting stale:

The raddest photo of eyeglass keepers ever!  I hunted this image down and realized it had a huge influence on us when we were young seekers in the 1970s.

For a big prize:  identify the climber, the route and the book where it was published.  Hint:  he is still a regular contributor on MP.

Looks like Matinee at the gunks.

Richard Goldstone!

I remember that photo, but not where it was published. I was an impressionable youngster at that time, absorbing everything I could. I never drew the connection to our regular contributor here. Well, actually, in the deep depths of my dark brain there was something familiar about his MP handle. But I didn't think about it. 

Chria Jones, Climbing in North America.

I never owned RDs, but we definitely rolled our wool socks down over our multipitch-sized EBs.

Fortunately my little ophthalmologic procedure went well, and I can continue to abuse my contact lenses for another 5-6 months at least :-)

Nevertheless, I'm going to take a look at some glasses, just in case.

I did find that I preferred to just use one contact in my good eye, to using my very old pair of glasses.

Given that I'm -4.25 diopters in the affected eye, it was an interesting visual experience.

Mark E Dixonwrote:

I’ve been wearing contacts for decades, but may need to switch to glasses for a while. I am pretty much exclusively a boulderer at this point and fall a lot. I have no idea what features to look for. Any suggestions welcomed.

Get these https://a.co/d/hy3JRs3 

They work great to keep glasses on

 

I’d recommend thin metal frames that are somewhat flexible so you can bend them a bit behind your ears to stay on/avoid them slipping down. Not sure whether hearing aids would interfere w this. Mine haven’t fallen off yet in 6 years, and I do fall w them.

I had LASIK 25 years ago.  Got tired of my glasses fogging up when climbing in the winter.  

20/15 vision ever since.  

The technology now is significantly improved and the procedure costs less than when I did it.  

One of the best life decisions I ever made.  

I apologize if someone already mentioned this and I missed it, but as long as you get the frame width and temple arm length correct, then your glasses should stay on pretty well. I've worn glasses exclusively for the entire 8-ish years I've been climbing now and have never had them fall off on me. 

As Mack Johnson mentioned, the number one risk to them falling off is TR, following and auto belays because the rope/webbing can slip behind your ear and push them off, but wearing a helmet mitigates this. Falling on lead for example is a non-issue. 

Large lenses are a must too. Having a restricted field of view really sucks when climbing. I've found the added weight from larger lenses to not cause issues either (at least when paired with a lightweight metal frame), although my eyes are only moderately bad with about a -4.00 prescription.

I've also never had issues with bouldering, but I also really don't like bouldering, so I hardly ever do it... so YMMV.

Glasses fogging is an issue too.  Worse with keepers, "hell"mets, humidity.   Since glasses became a norm, I've had to bail on one lead due to fog, sweat, and smears.  Having a lens cloth nearby helps.

And hey, if you're a pad person there's more time to clean your specs while you're on the ground  ;-)

I feel glad that I did not need glasses for most of my climbing years.