Advice needed from people who wear glasses

[mister moose]

On glasses vs contacts - I tried glasses under the goggles a few times on powder days. If you fall, or perhaps I should say when you fall, the problem is magnified. If the goggles get pushed or pulled from your face, you have snow all over everything. It's bad enough without glasses. With glasses the amount of moisture you can wipe off goes off the charts and perma-fog sets in.

 

[mdf]

Contacts and reading glasses for the lodge.............skiing is the only time I bother with contacts anymore.

Same for me. I know the OP said they don't want to go to contacts, but for the rest of us, how do you deal with the reading issue for maps, cameras, and the lift ticket purchase? I have a small pair of readers that permanently stay in my jacket.

But I've been wondering about stick-on readers .. a plastic crescent that sticks like the old Playform toys. Probably put it sideways on the edge rather than at the bottom..
https://www.amazon.com/stores/node/...n=STICKTITE LENS&ref_=bl_dp_s_web_17962838011

 

[Jilly]

I have those stick on's on a couple pairs of Oakley sunglasses. They work great. Don't know about putting them on goggles though.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

I struggled with foggy glasses inside goggles for years and years. I used all the anti-fog products out there to no avail. The Smith goggles with a fan work and Smith has a great lifetime guarantee, but only on the fan. They send you a new goggle if you send them a goggle with a failed fan. But if the foam fails or the strap won't support the fan any more, you buy a new goggle. The latter is the thing that got to me after about my third Smith goggle: The fan ended up flapping against my helmet.

I now use the smallest trifocal lens/frame available (old guy) inside a Bolle OTG (no model name on the frame) that changes lens darkness with the sun. It breathes well enough to keep the glasses from fogging except for when I'm stopped.

I also put the goggles on when inside.

 

[Carolinacub]

I'm a bifocal wearer. I bought some inexpensive single vision glasses that I wear under my OTG goggles, If I need to see close up I pull out the readers. If I fall and they get wet or start fogging.....no big deal....I stop pull out the glasses chammy and stand there and wipe everything down.

 

[François Pugh]

A bit late to the party, but I like many here sufered with over the glasses fogged up goggles until I got the Smith OTG TURBO FAN goggles. Other things that help are smaller glasses and don't get over heated.

 

[Andy Mink]

I do the goggles over glasses. Do make sure your earpieces are close to your temples. Otherwise it is hard to work the goggles over the lenses. Try different goggles on and make sure they don't press on the top of your glasses or your nose will be sore from pressure. I've had occasional fogging issues but once I start moving it clears.

The bonus with glasses is the ability to put my prescription sun glasses on with the goggles for the really bright days.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I tried using contacts for racing. The lenses wouldn't stay put when I got into a tuck and had to look 'up' to see where I was going. Fortunately my vision isn't so bad I need them so I am doing without them. I never liked contacts anyway.

Another vote for Turbo goggles (from a friend).

 

[ejj]

I use 1-day contacts sometimes. Other times I use small-frame glasses with compatible goggles. Make sure you try on the goggles with your glasses and helmet to make sure this is a viable option; I ended up buying Smith Prophecy goggles--a good looking goggle frame that is not obviously an OTG.

 

[Philpug]

My problem with glasses was the coke bottle thick lenses and magnification. I had awful vision, 20/200 with 6.25/6.00 astigmatism but when I tried to wear glasses, I felt like I was 8' off the snow at all times. I couldn't even deal with them long enough to get to the fogging issues.

 

[Pdub]

Definitely worth the trouble to go with contacts. I wear glasses to work, but for sports, especially skiing, there is no substitute for contacts (or Lasik). A few times last season I left my contacts at home and had to ski with glasses under goggles. It was awful. There was distortion and fogging, not to mention that thing hanging on your nose. You can get a much better correction with contacts and you won't even notice them after a few minutes. In the lodge you can use readers, which are crazy cheap.

 

[KevinF]

I use glasses with Smith I/OX goggles. Works fine. My optometrist has told me that I'm a bad candidate for lasik.

I've found that goggles can come up, just so long as they're not resting on a surface with moisture. i.e,. inside of your goggles will be warm from sitting on your face, if you raise them onto your snow covered hat / helmet, then the warm air trapped by your goggles will melt the snow, and fogging will result. But that's independent of whether or not you're wearing glasses.

I can rest my goggles on the brim of my helmet, so then the inside gets cold and then I never have a problem.

 

[Bruuuce]

I used SportRX to make a prescription insert for my goggles. I use them in a Smith IO/X goggle. They work awesome.

https://www.sportrx.com/prescription-ski-goggle-insert.html

+1 on these. I use them in Smith I/O's and I/O X's. I love them.

 

[Doug Briggs]

I know a number of racers that use the inserts ^^^ and like them a lot.

 

[SSSdave]

Interesting read. My left eye is a bit near sighted and lazy-eyed, my right eye farsighted, both eyes at 70:20 so eyesight is marginal such that I don't legally need to wear them to drive. Corrected with glasses 20:20. Am fortunate my eyesight isn't so poor that I need to ski with corrected vision.

I've had lots of reading glasses about my home and everywhere else the last couple decades. My career was very vision oriented spending hours looking through stereo microscopes at tiny microcircuits and have also been a serious photography enthusiast over decades. I tried to use eyeglasses corrected for distance under large ski goggles but did not find such workable. Could be I just needed to try some different models that of course is expensive. So tend to just slip my eyeglasses into a coat pocket and pull them out when needed while otherwise wearing hi end goggles. I much prefer goggles versus sunglasses as the latter dries my eyes out causing blurring. However sometimes mid winter by late afternoon late in a ski day, if slopes become shadowed and dim, will just wear my eyeglasses for a run or three and that does indeed allow me to see much better.

 

[Seldomski]

Those goggle glasses inserts looks pretty handy. My vision right now is good enough to ski without glasses, but I do miss out on some detail... I tried contacts, but apparently I don't blink as much as I should while skiing. So they would dry out and fall off into my goggles. Then I would have to stop on the mountain and try to fish these little lenses out of my goggles! It was a total failure skiing with contacts.

I have skied with just glasses before and it was somewhat disorienting... I don't have a clear lens goggles and the next best thing for me night skiing was just to wear my glasses. They blocked some wind from motion and sharpened everything up. However, I did experience something like @Philpug described -- the snow seemed much further away than usual. It was pretty disorienting initially, but I did get used to it.

 

[AngryAnalyst]

I’m pretty blind so this was dumb, but for a long time I skied without any corrective lenses at all. I now use daily contacts.

FWIW my Dad (about 60 years old) tried glasses and when they fogged up he crashed hard and hurt himself. Would not recommend.

 

[Bruuuce]

Having the inserts radically increased my confidence level. I always felt that I was skiing "by feel" because my vision is just bad enough to be a bit blurry at distance. I can now see the contours of the snow. I just don't like contacts in the winter so that didn't work for me and glasses underneath goggles never felt comfortable. These work and swap easily between goggles.

 

[oldschoolskier]

My vision has changed and unfortunately I may need to wear glasses more regularly, including potentially while skiing.

How do you folks who require corrective vision deal with this when you ski? I do not think I want to go the contacts route like most people I know due to the inconvenience, not being used to them, and the fact that my far vision correction distorts my near reading vision.

Do people wear glasses under goggles, do you get a prescription goggle lense, and if so any recommendations? My glasses prescription is a little different for each eye, so not sure if they can even do that with goggle lenses.

Potentially needing some sort of vision correction while skiing is all new to me so wanted to check in for advice from the Pugski community.

Thanks!

I’ve been wearing glasses for years (45 years) and for skiing I wear contacts. For the near vision thing (yes arms got too short) I use cheap readers.

The reason is simple goggle selection and fit. Older OTG goggle fit glasses better (a lot better), let me rephrase the new OTG don’t.

That said the new goggles without glasses fit way better and have more selection and better fit.

As to contacts, daily wear are oh so easy with little or no cares or worries. Learn to use them you’ll be happy. Cheap readers in the pocket, if you need them.

 

[KingGrump]

I tried contacts, but apparently I don't blink as much as I should while skiing. So they would dry out and fall off into my goggles.

Different goggles have different air flow patterns. Also some goggles flow more air than others. May have to try a few to find the optimal pair for your eyes.