Glasses.

[silly sloth]

I wear glasses like many other people and I was wondering do any of you switch to contacts or something for caving to prevent fogging/breaking them. Or is that not even an issue at all. Thanks

 

[Lankyman]

I wear glasses like many other people and I was wondering do any of you switch to contacts or something for caving to prevent fogging/breaking them. Or is that not even an issue at all. Thanks

I used to wear contacts but gave them up because of the general faffing around. For caving and climbing I used a piece of string (hi tech I know!) to stop them falling off my head. For fogging/spray underground I kept a clean soft cloth in my oversuit pocket. Keeping your head turned away from spray is a skill that's worth developing and was pretty essential when carbide lamps (bright flame) were in fashion. Overall, wearing glasses never really felt like a big issue for me.

 

[langcliffe]

I've worn glasses for over fifty years underground, and they have never been an issue. If they do get fogged up, and you haven't the good sense to take a clean soft cloth with you (as I don't), spit on them, wash them in a stream, give them a shake, and job done.

 

[martinr]

Apparently:

Mixing water and contact lenses is a major health risk:

• • Trapped Germs: Soft lenses absorb water like a sponge and trap bacteria, fungi, and parasites directly against your eyeball.
  • Severe Infections: This can lead to painful, vision-threatening conditions like Acanthamoeba keratitis (an infection caused by a microscopic organism found in water).
  • Lens Damage: Water can change the shape of your soft lenses, making them swell, stick to your eye, or scratch your cornea

 

[vikingaero]

Search for Googles4U, Glasses4U and all the cheap sites. You should have been given your prescription by your optician so you can have spare glasses made up for as little as £6 for the NHS nerd style. They don't have to fit 100% so put a lanyard on them. Then you can wear them without worry of breaking your expensive glasses, or you have spares if you do break them.

 

[MarkS]

Despite martinr's concerns above, I wear contacts for caving and have done for many years. I don't particularly like the combination of water/mud and glasses. The only times I can think of over the last 10+ years that they've been problematic were this summer when I got some dust in my eye and ended up caving back to the camp with one of my lenses in my mouth to keep it "clean" until I could wash it properly, and a few years back exploring a very long duck, where I could only keep one eye above the water; it went on so long that my lens rotated away from its usual orientation, making everything a bit blurry. I can't imagine it would have been a lot better with glasses though.

 

[Tritim230]

Unless it was a wet cave or multi-day expedition trips I always used disposable daily contact lenses. Problems of infection aren't such an issue with these. I do recall having to suck a lens or two if they got dry and dropped out, although I always put them back in again.
Fortunately (or not depending on your POV) I've had cataract surgery and had intra ocular lenses fitted which corrected my short sightedness. It has been revolutionary particularly as I'm an extremely active person and not having to wear prescription googles wild swimming is a godsend. I need glasses for reading but so do most people in their 60's or even younger!

 

[kay]

I've never found fogging an issue. When I first moved to varifocals, I found my feet were often out of focus so I switched to an old pair of unifocals instead. I'm more concerned about breaking them, so I never use my most up to date pair. It has the advantage I don't have to scrape all the mud off either.

I need glasses for reading but so do most people in their 60's or even younger!

I've had a cataract replaced by a "suboptimal" lens as my close sight is too valuable to me when botanising. So I can read about 9 inches away - not as good as my yet uncorrected other eye at 4 inches, but a damned sight better than the peering at arm's length I see amongst others of my age.

 

[alanw]

I've used prescription swim googles in the past. They can work very well, especially if there are waterfalls. Make sure you don't get blue/grey tinted ones.

In the dry, I use an old pair of specs, old but usable prescription, with a string round the back of my neck.

 

[Jacob P]

I use single use daily contact lenses, so as I bin them afterwards I don't worry about potential germs or water damage etc, never had an issue.

 

[smelin]

I've worn my glasses on every caving trip I've done (never got on with contacts) with no major issues, although recently I got new ones and took advantage of Specsavers' "buy one get one free" offer on frames to get a pair of 'safety' glasses for caving use (not that they provide any particular protection in a caving scenario that normal glasses couldn't, but they are less fragile). Although I'd had no incident yet, a few near misses reminded me how expensive my day-to-day ones are!