when it comes to sunglasses in the mountains there's a lot to take into
account there's therefore different categories polarization mirror casing so
in this video I'm breaking all that down to help you to decide what type of
sunglasses are best for you and your situation in the mountains
hey guys, welcome or welcome back to the channel my name is chase this is all about
preparing your mind your body and your gear so you can get outside and enjoy
the mountains make the most of it and come back safely and in this video we're
talking about sunglasses and this is the one thing that I wouldn't want to be
leaving at home if I was going above the snow line if it's a bright day and you
don't have sunglasses or if you have the wrong type of sunglasses you can be snow
blind like that and if you're snow blind you're in serious trouble so how we're
going to approach this is I'm going to show you a couple of pairs of sunglasses
that I have and I'll tell you the situations that I've used them in also
talk about some of those sunglasses that I've had in the past why I did like them
why I didn't like them to help you decide which ones are going to be right
for you so firstly we're going to get into the number categories which is
probably the main thing you need to understand about sunglasses particularly
if you're going to be on a Galatia so if you are going to be above the snow line
on a sunny day and particularly on a glacier and you're really going to want
to get category for sunglasses so category 4 is the highest level of Iowa
protection and this is only used in special-purpose sunglasses such as those
used in mountaineering so really really bright environments and the main reason
why this is so important is because when the sun is shining on the snow on a very
clear day not only is it super bright from the Sun itself but you also get the
reflection back from the snow from the ice and it comes up from the ground and
when you're up in the mountains above the snow line it's likely that you're
gonna be up there for a number of hours perhaps all day so you could be spending
hours and hours and hours in direct sunlight copying all the time so having
your correct eyewear is really really important so if you are going above the
snow line I would recommend that if you're going to buy a pair of sunglasses
now get a category 4 pair of sunglasses but what about category 3 is this
something you can get away with well yeah
essentially I have worn a pair of category 3 sunglasses in the Himalayas
they were a pair of Oakley's and I took them on a month-long trip while I was
climbing a matted Blom to 6000 something meter mountain in the Himalayas were up
there for a month and luckily it wasn't that sunny a lot of the days were
overcast but those were very high quality oakley sunglasses they weren't
specifically made for the mountains but they were category 3 and they were good
enough having said that when you have a category 4 pair of sunglasses at a
category 3 and you change directly to category 4 you notice the difference
immediately so you might not notice when you're just wearing category threes but
as soon as you put cat falls on your eyes just relax it is so much darker it
is so much easier to see where you're going you can pick out areas of like
potholes in the snow and you're just generally able to see better and you're
more relaxed and there's not so much strain on your eyes so for quite a while
I got away with wearing cat 3 sunglasses but I'm telling you if you're gonna buy
a new pair of sunglasses now definitely get cat for us because the difference is
just ridiculous I wouldn't go above the snow line with anything less than a cat
3 though certainly cat 1 and 2 is not enough for being above the snow line we
very well could end up snow blind or at least damaging your eyes a little bit so
I would highly recommend going for cat 4 at the very least cat 3 so now I'm going
to get into a couple of different sunglasses that I've got to show you
some of the details these ones are the first ones these are from Vallon
classics this is the Heron glacier 2.0 these are a category 4 pair of
sunglasses meaning they are super super dark they only let in 6% of the light so
not only other lenses really dark but this kind of shield around the outside
that you can see stops light from coming in from the side and that's obviously
going to make a little kind of cocoon around your eyes and it's super relaxing
when compared to wearing have free pair sunglasses the last thing
you want to be doing is squinting and straining your eyes when you're trying
to concentrate on climbing or crossing a Glacia so this pair of glasses in
particular I picked up recently I've only had one trip with them and that was
a very very sunny trip in the middle of summer on bare metal you can see the
whole video here but this was really the first time that I got to experience
wearing these sunglasses and I'm super happy with them I was a little concerned
at first about if that would block my field of vision if there was some sort
of avalanche or a rock fall but I figure I'm gonna hear that probably before I
see it so I mean as long as you're paying attention you should be fine I
certainly wouldn't wear them driving you wouldn't want people wearing these on
the road but obviously these are built specifically for the mountain
environment so that absolutely fine but that's kind of the main difference
between this kind of really super classic old-school style and the newer
ones they have a much wider field of vision to allow you to see more so
that's one thing to take into account they do kind of live in that vision
however on the flip side these look cool especially since these
are mirror cased lenses when you take photos with these glasses you get the
reflection of the mountain that looked absolutely incredible
I love old-school vintage classic style and valent have absolutely nailed that
look you should go and check out their Instagram the other reason I like this
brand is because they have a strong environmental policy firstly when they
send you their sunglasses is completely plastic free no packaging at all just a
cardboard box and that's it you're also getting involved with plastic freezer
last so far to date they've cleaned up over 15,000 kilograms of plastic from
the ocean through this global worldwide movement and I love to support companies
that have strong environmental policies that are helping us clean up our own
waste and crap from the mountains from the ocean so I like to see that one
thing to take into account when you buy these really kind of dark sunglasses is
that on cloudy or evening kind of conditions that lenses could be a little
too dark which is why there's actually a second version of this pair of
sunglasses the Heron Mountain 2.0 I believe that is
a category free lens so it's not quite as dark as there Glacia version I think
might want to take into account when you're looking for mountaineering
sunglasses is that you don't want to lose them you don't want to drop them I
like to take a backup pair just in case oh it's dropped my primary pair down
into a glacier or something because if you are left on a bright day without
sunglasses like I said before you're gonna be in a lot of trouble finding
that of course you can get those sunny savers to put on the ends but because of
this curve here you really don't need that so the question you might be asking
yourself is well are these polarized a clearly mirror cased but do they have
polarization well the answer is no and actually you really don't want to be
looking for polarization in mountaineering sunglasses the reason why
is because from a safety perspective polarization interferes with the light
reflected from the ice and that means that icy patches are very difficult to
identify so these are primarily got from mountaineering and skiing especially
skiing I want to be able to identify where there's a potentially icy patch
coming up and if I have polarization I'm not going to be able to recognize that
I'm gonna hit an ice patch and I'm probably gonna fall over so that Alpine
mountain mountaineering activities is definitely preferable to not get
polarized sunglasses the category four lenses cuts down glare regardless and in
combination with the side shields they eliminate pretty much any kind of glare
that you're going to experience especially on the cat 4 version so
polarization is something you really don't have to worry about and something
you might want to avoid especially if you're skiing another thing you're going
to want to take into account when you're looking at sunglasses is anti fog so if
you're climbing and skiing there's nothing worse than your sunglasses
fogging up it potentially be very dangerous so
definitely look for a pair of sunglasses that has a Anti Fog the Heron glacier
and mountain definitely do have that so that's another thing that you want to
look out for I was a little bit concerned with a face shield I thought
that might have really kind of block the airflow coming through but that wasn't a
problem at all so they've done a pretty good job there so I originally got these
glasses because they're incredibly classic style I thought I was going to
have to compromise with a few kind of features but in the end I have
everything I needed that only concern was just a field of vision but that's
something I'm kind of willing to sacrifice to look super fucking cool
alright next pair of sunglasses that I'm gonna show you a little bit sporty and
I'm gonna clean these first to talk about my running solar masses they are
from Sirocco the model is called Barcelona I pretty much bought this
model just because they were called the cilona that's where I live and these are
super light polarized lenses they're incredibly panoramic so you really have
no blockage of field of vision when you're wearing these they are anti fog
as well I have these anti slip bands which is handy when you're running so
that's something that you might want to take into account as well and the good
thing about these is they have interchangeable lenses they only include
this lens but there is three or four other different types of lenses you can
have completely clear ones orange tinted these ones are polarized so I wouldn't
want to be wearing these skiing I'd be going for my valent classics in
that case the main reason I got these is because they were very cheap they're
only around 35 euros I've got them on sale and I just wanted a pair of
sunglasses that I didn't have to worry that too much I could just throw in my
bag you know if I broke them then so be it only 35 euros I've never been one to
really lash out and spend the heaps of money on sunglasses because I'm useless
I just lose and break things all the time I basically got these for
long-distance running potentially for hiking although they are a little bit
too hectic for a oh hi so I tend to wear something a
little more casual if I'm just hiking which brings me to my third pair of
sunglasses which are really the only pair of really expensive sunglasses that
I own which are the club master from Ray Bans so these are obviously really
high-quality lenses very stylish and these are the glasses that have got away
with the rank for quite a while I wear these hiking I have worn them skiing
although they are polarized but these are just my wearing around the city and
everyday kind of sunglasses so the thing with Ray Bans obviously is that a really
high quality lens and these are actually quite dark so they will do the job when
you're out hiking and potentially skiing so you can get away with wearing just
regular sunglasses for a certain type of activities but again I highly recommend
that you get category 4 if you're going above the snow line so some other
sunglasses that I've had in the past the oakley's that I had were good enough
they did the job for that trip I've also used the dole boat explorer 2.0 or maybe
third version before hand but again I haven't seen those in years they were
very expensive something like a hundred and eighty Australian dollars or more so
that's why I've preferred to go for something a little bit cheaper I think
with the wear and tear that you put on these things in the mountains spending
insane amounts of money is not what I want to do I want to find something a
little bit more affordable but still very very good and ticks all the boxes
in terms of being category for having mirrored casings getting a good field of
vision having a nice color and a nice tint to relax and take the strain off
the eyes so that's what I'm using in the mountains at the moment I hope this has
helped if you go any comments or models that you've used in the past that you
want to recommend put it in the comment section below
I'll see you on the summit