Wearing so-called fashion sunglasses? You may like the look, but why suffer with such austere frames? Look for some comfort factors: nonslip rubber inserts at the temple ends and in the nosepiece; lightweight frames (big fashion pieces are absurdly heavy); adjustable nose pieces. Why should YOU have to adjust to the sunglasses? It should be the other way around.
Great prices and free shipping on your new shades from:
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Julbo Sunglasses are at home in the mountains.
Mountaineers call it “dazzle.” It’s that crazy cumulative effect of direct and reflected light that hammers your eyes when you’re traversing highly reflective environments such as snow fields, glaciers, or exposed granite. It’s uncomfortable and it’s dangerous. The higher you go, the worse it gets. Ultraviolet radiation increases 4% for every 1,000 feet of altitude you gain, and UV gets reflected right along with visible light.
And remember, cloud cover is no great friend. While clouds may reduce reflections and ease the stab of visible light, UV rays dance right on through. You still need to wear shades.
If you compromise on your mountaineering sunglasses, the consequences can be dire. Snow blindness, aka ultraviolet keratitis or photokeratitis—a searing of the cornea—can render you effectively blind for a day or more. It often takes a full day for snow blindness to kick in. Forgoing your shades will catch up to you later.
If you’re going to be exposed to serious dazzle, you need special-purpose sunglasses—glacier glasses—with these criteria:
Finally, be sure to carry a backup pair. Your backups could permit a bit more visible light than your primary pair so you’d have lighter shades for cloudy days.
Julbo has been the eyewear of choice for mountaineers for more than 100 years—and still is. Unfortunately, the French company’s marketing message is a bit confusing. They offer an array of models that meet all or most of the criteria above, but they toss in all sorts of strange proprietary names for their lenses (Spectron? Arc? Camel?) And they rate their visible-light transmission Euro-style—e.g., Category 3, Category 4—rather than simply stating it as a percentage..
Bottom line: Choose a Julbo model with side shields and Cat 4 Spectron or Camel lenses.
REI and Zappos both carry a good selection of Julbos. Both have good prices and excellent customer service.
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The Mainsail is amazingly lightweight, and you gotta love that blue.
The polycarbonate Mainsail is one of my absolute favorite everyday, all-round sunglasses, which is saying a lot, given that Costa makes some of the best glass lenses in the business. Click here to read about the spiffy glass Hammerhead. But no glass lenses come close to the gossamer essence of Mainsail, the kind of shades you simply forget are on your face. Until you take them off, that is, and glare and wildly scattered light are restored to their cornea-stabbing norm. Mainsail may be wondrously lightweight, but its gently curved rimless nylon frame with supersoft rubberized nosepiece holds this pup firmly in place throughout any active pursuit—I gave myself whiplash trying to jettison it. Behind the spiffy blue mirrored lenses is a gray base tint that delivers a realistic world view along with just a smidgen of exterior attitude. The lenses are polarized, of course, and permit 10 percent visible light transmission—just right for long days anywhere but atop K-2. I’m already ruing the day that Mainsail acquires a scratch, but Costa’s standard hard case, lens cloth, and sunglass retainer increase the odds of Mainsail’s living a long and active life. Not Rx-able. $169 from Frames Direct. Click here for free shipping.
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Maui Jim Kapena: Bronze God
When it comes to fine sunglass lenses, glass is the gold standard. Glass imparts a crispness of vision that other materials can only dream of. Covet the Maui Jim Kapena with the same reverence and self-satisfaction as you would a Rolex watch—but happily, Kapena’s craftsmanship and cachet come at a fraction of the price. Kapena is a bargain for what you get: vision that improves on reality. I’ve been wearing it in MJ’s polarized, high-contrast bronze tint with 12% visible light transmission, and I love what I see. Astounding detail. Brilliant contrast. A way of resolving chaos into clarity, such as the day I drove into a thunderstorm while a brilliant late sun was stabbing my eyes and creating crazy road glare. None of that was a match for Kapena, which set everything right, eliminated the glare, made sense of the road, the traffic, and the setting sun. Bronze’s high contrast is a great advantage in those situations when technically, there isn’t much light, but what light there is wreaking visual mischief. And, of course, when the sun is at full mast as well. I also dig Kapena’s updated aviator flair, its spring-loaded nickel/silver hinges, and its adjustable nosepieces. Caveat: Although Maui Jim uses super-thin glass, Kapena is heavier than an equivalent polycarbonate model (not that anything is quite its equal), and can take a toll on a sensitive nose. And, of course, glass can shatter; don’t wear Kapena in any circumstance that could entail impact to your face. Frames Direct has a great selection of Maui Jims and offers a free protective hard case and microfiber cloth with every pair.
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Carter Wears Julbo Shades
My nephew Carter gets it. He knows that shades make him look cool. The chicks dig ‘em, even more than that tat on his arm. But he also knows that UV exposure is a cumulative thing. The damage starts in infancy, and he’d no sooner head out into the Rocky Mountain sunshine without his shades on than he would sunbathe sans sunscreen. Babies need sunglasses. Kids need sunglasses. Carter wears sunglasses. His shades of choice are the Julbo Looping 1 infant sunglasses with 100% UV, adult-quality lenses in a kid-friendly configuration. Now, Carter’s a smart dude for a three-month-old, but occasionally he does things like put his shoes on the wrong foot or his sunglasses upside-down. No prob with the latter, because these puppies are symmetrical. Upside-down is right-side up. Are you thinking he’ll lose them? Nope. They come with a comfy head strap. Break them? I doubt it, but we’ll do a full review when Carter’s had a chance to thrash these things a bit. My guess is that they’ll stand up to the abuse. They’re $34, and you always get free shipping at zappos.com
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