View Full Version : glasses vs rain
downes911
08-18-2009, 09:57
not sure if i want to mess with contacts on the trail. but here are my thoughts - I wear glasses that automatically tint in the sun, but anyone that wears glasses knows what a pain they can be in the rain!! which makes me think i might want my contacts - but that is extra weight (contacts, xtra pair, solution, eye drops, sunglasses) not to mention the hassle of putting them on and taking them off.
So i'm back to glasses and hoping that my rain hat will be enough cover to make the glasses a viable solution.
HELP - what are you thoughts out there, my other blind friends
I used contacts on the trail. Just worth the hassle in the morning for the convenience during the rest of the day.
Carry a small refillable bottle that you can refill in town with solution, a dedicated packtowel to clean your hands before handling the contacts, and you should be fine.
I had sunglasses for the first couple of weeks on the AT, but once the leaves came in sent the sun glasses home... just didn't need them.
leeki pole
08-18-2009, 10:14
Yep, I'm a -6.0 diopter so I can't even read the alarm clock from 3 feet away. I would not consider glasses, but think about a small mirror so you can put them in easily. It's worth the hassle.
Needless to say it's a personal choice. I wear a cap with a brim so rain on the lenses is rarely an issue. I don't like messing with contacts out in the boonies either.
Nasty Dog Virus
08-18-2009, 11:05
For me, the extra weight of my contacts/case/solution/small mirror is worth not having to deal with my glasses getting wet and fogging up.
if you are going to wear your glasses, I'd suggest bringing a piece of material to clean them off which is non-synthetic.
Yep, I'm a -6.0 diopter so I can't even read the alarm clock from 3 feet away. I would not consider glasses, but think about a small mirror so you can put them in easily. It's worth the hassle.
Dang! I thought I was a bat!
Glasses. Bifocals in hard case. Ballcap. Swirling fog is a pain.
Feral Bill
08-18-2009, 11:29
I have never worn contacts, just glasses. A broad brimmed hat works all sorts of wonders.
Old Grouse
08-18-2009, 12:05
I normally wear a bandana to keep the bugs off my bald head, but switch to a baseball cap in the rain. Of course after a while you get droplets on the lenses, but hey - that's life in the woods.
GrubbyJohn
08-18-2009, 12:57
i wear glasses also. just throw a hat on and boogie up the trail.
Blissful
08-18-2009, 14:43
I just got an OR hat to help with that issue as my precip baseball cap didn't cut it.
Ball cap has worked as well as anything for me. If very windy, pull your rain hood over the top of it. Not really that big of issue. I've tried contacts in the past, could never get past about 8 hours of wear at a time before having to take them out. Glasses make a lot more sense on the trail.
leeki pole
08-18-2009, 15:28
Ball cap has worked as well as anything for me. If very windy, pull your rain hood over the top of it. Not really that big of issue. I've tried contacts in the past, could never get past about 8 hours of wear at a time before having to take them out. Glasses make a lot more sense on the trail.
I have to chime in here, glasses make no sense on the trail. If you have to take them out every 8 hours, you need to see your eye doc. I can wear mine for a week if I have to (don't want to) but it can be done. I cannot fathom trying to wear glasses as opposed to extended wear contacts. Caps and hoods are a temporary relief. Contacts are the way to go.
I have to chime in here, glasses make no sense on the trail. If you have to take them out every 8 hours, you need to see your eye doc. I can wear mine for a week if I have to (don't want to) but it can be done. I cannot fathom trying to wear glasses as opposed to extended wear contacts. Caps and hoods are a temporary relief. Contacts are the way to go.
Might be true for most, not me. Tried several brands of extended wear. After about 8 hours my eyes will burn/itch/water. Have asked several optometrists since then if anything new in contact design in the past 20 years would change this and they say no. Could try the laser surgery - not messing with that.
summermike
08-18-2009, 18:15
I wear RGPs contacts on the trail and off. No problems while hiking, it's no different from putting them in and taking them out at home. Definitely worth it.
Trailweaver
08-18-2009, 18:38
Obviously it's going to come down to a personal choice. I have never been able to wear contacts, and curse glasses frequently when it's raining and they're sliding down my nose. Still, it's usually not too bad with a good baseball cap and the hood of the rain jacket pulled up over that. I just wish I didn't have to do anything. ; - )
I coat my glass lenses with Rain X. Helps the raindrops slide right off.
Glasses and hat, no problem (except fogging) I lost a contact in a tent while sleeping in 5 degree weather one night. I didn't even bother looking for it, figuring it had frozen and broken into a million pieces.
Hikes in Rain
08-18-2009, 20:11
Yep, I'm a -6.0 diopter so I can't even read the alarm clock from 3 feet away. I would not consider glasses, but think about a small mirror so you can put them in easily. It's worth the hassle.
Only -6.0? I'm a -7.5. Free to make whatever I like of the world beyond a few inches. Like you, I couldn't consider glasses any more than I could consider going without pants. In fact, if it came to the choice, forget the pants! All the paraphanalia needed is just unavoidable weight.
Here's a link (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44872) to a good thread about contacts in the woods.
waywardfool
08-18-2009, 21:00
-11.5 here :(
Worn glasses hiking for going on 35 years now. Usually wear a hat in the rain. Couldn't do it without cat crap, though. Opps...make that Cat Crap.
This stuff: http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___83081
Solves the fog problem...
I need my contacts. My glasses just don't correct my vision as well as my contacts. I wear hard, bifocal contacts. I've got a 5-inch clear field of vision right at the end of my nose. Everything else is a great big blur.
I also wear my sunglasses, even in the woods, to cut down on the UV rays doing permanent damage to my already messed up eyes.
It's a personal choice. If you go with the contacts, just be VERY clean when handling them. I also remove mine in my tent. Hard lenses are "popped" out of the eye, and they sometimes go flying. I learned the hard way to keep them confined to the inside of my tent.
yeah, I just can't imagine keeping clean enough on the trail to deal with contacts
Never tried this, but is RainX an option?
BitBucket
08-18-2009, 22:46
I was -6.75 for about 20 years, until Lasik....went from having to sleep with my glasses on to 20/15 overnight....
Couldn't imagine having to deal with contacts on the trail...
MikenSalem
08-18-2009, 22:57
I sweat too much for glasses they won't stay up nor anywhere near clean. :(: I wear my contacts and I also have a set of sunglasses from the fish'in dept at wally world that have magnifiers at the bottom like my bifocals.:sun Tried the; near eye - distance eye, but that didn't work so I'm distance only. I'm not paying for bifocal contacts. Thought about the laser :-? but i'd be the one who saw sunbursts afterward. As far as a mirror you can train yourself not to use one, I also carry a travel set for the cleaner, little bottle and it's half empty. I have my bifocals just in case, sorta like light weight insurance.
Hikes in Rain
08-19-2009, 05:49
MikenSalem, have you tried Bauch and Lomb's variable focus lenses? They're not really bifocals; I think it's concentric rings. I do know I don't need the reading glasses over contacts anymore (that was just insulting!), and there's no transition whatsoever from reading to distance...you just see.
sasquatch2014
08-19-2009, 09:02
I had done the contact thing for a while and lost one one day while hiking in the rain. Hiked the last few miles closing one eye from time to time to adjust the depth perception. It was raining so hard I knew there was no way I was going to get a new one in my eye until camp. With only one would have switched over to glasses for the rest of that day but they had been lost earlier that year down near Harpers Ferry, I keep hoping that they will finish their hike.
I have been hiking with glasses since last year. don't really like it but due to Corneal Ulcers and risking long term damage to my eye I can't go too long with contacts in and so I will have to take them out after 8-10 hrs. I am one of those fools that no matter how I try I can't do it very well with out a mirror, so I have that extra weight as well.
As far as rain and the glasses well it happens. I keep my head shaved, that way no one mistakes what little hair I have for a case of mange. This does add to the amount of water that runs down into my eyes. I kept a bandana wrapped in a small ziplock so that I would have something dry and handy to clear them with. Third day of rain it too was wet and a bit grimy. That is what I think put all the scratches on my one lens. I have tried the Cat Crap and it seems to work ok. Most of the time until I stopped moving for any long period of time I just lived with the water and fog. Once I began to hike the fog seemed to go with the breeze.
I use the extended wear contacts. Live, work, hike, drive and sleep with them in. They last a month. All I need to do is carry a 1-oz. bottle of rewetting drops, and use upon waking and going to sleep. Halfway through the month I need to take them out for just one night to let my eyes renew and to renew the contacts themselves with a bit of solution in a small storage container. Then the contacts go back in for the rest of the month. First of the next month I rest the eyes one overnight and put in a new pair.
Hardest part is to be sure to put the contact prescribed for the left eye in the left eye; the right contact in the right eye. In other words, not hard at all.
This has worked well for me in general, and worked especially well on long distance backpacking trips. So much better than glasses, or fooling with contacts you have to take out at night. It's easy enough to do the resting/cleaning during town zeros. If I was an ounce weenie I could even bounce-box the small bottle of saline solution and small contacts container up the trail.
I include one spare pair of contacts in my pack, along with a pair of glasses in a protective carrier, "just in case." But there's never been a "case." YMMV.
MikenSalem, have you tried Bauch and Lomb's variable focus lenses? They're not really bifocals; I think it's concentric rings. I do know I don't need the reading glasses over contacts anymore (that was just insulting!), and there's no transition whatsoever from reading to distance...you just see.
Another vote for what many mistakenly call bifocal contacts. They are the type of contacts I made a post about above.
They just work. I don't know how, they just do. No longer need reading glasses.
me too, i wear glasses and a brimmed cap in the rain, no problem. I have had big problems with my light sensitive "sun" glasses, though -- in weather below around 32 degrees they turn as dark as they go, and stay that way! i have to warm them for quite a while before they will lighten -- much of the time they're just too darn dark in the winter. anyone else have that happen?
jersey joe
08-19-2009, 13:35
I used contacts on my thru hike. Sure there was a little extra weight and hassle, but for me it was worth it. Not a big glasses fan when outdoors.
Of course, since my hike I have gotten the lasik surgery, so, it is no longer an issue.(lasik is better than contacts is better than glasses)
pyroman53
08-19-2009, 14:13
I have had big problems with my light sensitive "sun" glasses, though -- in weather below around 32 degrees they turn as dark as they go, and stay that way! i have to warm them for quite a while before they will lighten -- much of the time they're just too darn dark in the winter. anyone else have that happen?
Yep. Since I live in Phoenix, I didn't know I had this problem until I was up in the Cascades of Oregon this Spring. Sure got dark!!
I was in snow at the time and it didn't bother me, but might become a problem if in the green tunnel below 32.
The other day at Auto Zone I saw Rain X Anti Fog. Think'n about giving this a try.
Lead Dog
08-19-2009, 15:10
I'm a contact wearer but prefer glasses for all trail use. I used to try contacts on overnights but once they got to more than one night and into weeks at a time, glasses are the only way to go. Baseball cap and glasses work well for me. I do get the 'fog over' every now again on those hot hill climbs but that I can deal with.
Yep. Since I live in Phoenix, I didn't know I had this problem until I was up in the Cascades of Oregon this Spring. Sure got dark!!
I was in snow at the time and it didn't bother me, but might become a problem if in the green tunnel below 32.
maybe its just a problem for old people.
waywardfool
08-19-2009, 23:25
The other day at Auto Zone I saw Rain X Anti Fog. Think'n about giving this a try.
Probably nothing to it, but I'd ate least think about any effect that the Rain-X would have on any anti-glare/anti-scratch coatings on your lenses. I know that some/all of the coatings can be chemically stripped and be redone...I'd hate to find that Rain-X (or anything not made specifically for glasses happens to have the right solvent in it.
I wear glasses on the trail with a baseball cap to keep the rain off the glasses. When it rains really hard then I just take the glasses off and hike without them.
Panzer
-11.5 here :(
Worn glasses hiking for going on 35 years now. Usually wear a hat in the rain. Couldn't do it without cat crap, though. Opps...make that Cat Crap.
This stuff: http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___83081
Solves the fog problem...
Hiked the last few miles closing one eye from time to time to adjust the depth perception.
I have tried the Cat Crap and it seems to work ok.
me too, i wear glasses and a brimmed cap in the rain, no problem. I have had big problems with my light sensitive "sun" glasses, though -- in weather below around 32 degrees they turn as dark as they go, and stay that way! i have to warm them for quite a while before they will lighten -- much of the time they're just too darn dark in the winter. anyone else have that happen?
I would really like to hear more feedback on the catcrap. Always nervous about applying stuff to lenses.
Lost a lens once. It was dry.:) Pain. One eyed covered or squinted. Have a real hard time walking with bifocals on, but they are better than one lense.
I have used Transitions I & II in cold weather without the issue you describe.
They do not totally lighten up, always a tint. No good in dim light in the woods. Or driving at night.
I have gone back to clear lenses. Thinking about "photogrey" for the next set. You should speak to the optician, I have had 4-5 pair of defective lenses in the past 10 years.
Old Grouse
08-22-2009, 14:00
Years ago I had photosensitive lenses. I didn't have the complaint you all describe. However, my eyes became overly sensitive to even normal brightness. After I went back to regular lenses it took a couple of months to regain my tolerance for normal brightness.
Zabigail
08-22-2009, 17:19
-11.5 here :(
Worn glasses hiking for going on 35 years now. Usually wear a hat in the rain. Couldn't do it without cat crap, though. Opps...make that Cat Crap.
This stuff: http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___83081
Solves the fog problem...
I have tried this stuff, and it does seem to work but I used it in normal everyday winter/rain errand runs at the time I tried it. Off to go look and find it and buy some more! I figure since it worked just for errand runs it should at least help with hiking.
Snowleopard
08-22-2009, 18:08
I wear glasses on the trail with a baseball cap to keep the rain off the glasses. When it rains really hard then I just take the glasses off and hike without them.
Panzer
I also wear glasses with a broad brimmed hat or sometimes a rain parka with a hood that extends out like a brim. If I take my glasses off and hike without them I'd have to paint my poles white :)
Cookerhiker
08-22-2009, 21:18
I also wear glasses with a broad brimmed hat or sometimes a rain parka with a hood that extends out like a brim. If I take my glasses off and hike without them I'd have to paint my poles white :)
Same here. My rainhat brim isn't too broad and often flops down but my rain parka hood covers so well that sometimes I have to pull it back. And like you, I'm blind without my glasses.
On real hot humid days, I wear a band to keep the glasses from sliding down my nose. The only time I've had problems with glasses fogging up is during extremely heavy downpours or thick blowing mist like I experienced the first time I hiked up Mt. Washington or my hike over Max Patch (http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=84053).
I wear glasses and a brimmed hat but it's still a pain in the arse when it's wet. Never thought about trying Rain-X. Wonder if it's safe on plastic/resin lenses?
buff_jeff
08-26-2009, 20:40
It was so bad going up Washington last week that I pulled over and put my contacts in. I literally couldn't see a thing with the old specs on. I wear prescription sunglasses on sunny days, but for now I'm going to wear contacts on rainy days.
aquaman1208
08-26-2009, 21:05
I wear glasses but don't have contacts. Even though I need them, wend they get foggy or it's to rainy I'm better off without them. I have left them behind twice at campsites and have been lucky enough to have them found by hikers behind me. Once in Virginia a couple carried them for two days before bumping into me.
I now wear glasses not contacts. The only time I regretted this while backpacking was in March of 1993, when I had to blindly climb a mountain in a snowstorm to get to a shelter. Not that there was much visibility anyway, but it was greater than my field of vision. Luckily for me, my partner hadn't listened to my advice and had brought contacts so we could find some blazes.
maxpatch67
08-27-2009, 16:45
Get laser surgery. :) Seriously, you'll love it. You won't believe you messed with glasses and contacts all those years.