Goggles are a hugely important part of your winter alpine wardrobe. They provide the essential protection for your eyes in conditions that can be extremely challenging and harsh. They are not just a flashy hairband or a fashion accessory to be worn on your head when in the bar sipping vin chaud.

WHY WEAR GOGGLES?
In the mountains, the weather is highly changeable and can be brutal. If the sun comes out, you’re at such an elevation the brightness is amplified increasing the damaging affect it will have on your eyes. If the weather is cloudy, overcast or snowing you are unlikely to be able to see too much meaning your eyes will need assistance to keep you safe on the hill.
In both situations, goggles not glasses provide the only real solution.
All of our adults goggles are helmet compatible. Saying this, some will fit some helmets better than others, but generally speaking they will all work well together. Where possible try your helmet with the goggles to be sure.
We also sell goggles that may be worn over spectacles. These are identifiable by the letters: OTG.

LENSES.

Simply put, in strong, bright sunlight goggles with a dark lens will keep the sun from your eyes but just as importantly they prevent reflected light reaching your eyes. The snow in bright weather bounces the sunlight back up and into your eyes. Sunglasses will not block this reflected light as there is no close fit around your face with snowblindness being the ultimate price to pay. Goggles block this light, direct or otherwise. The lenses themselves are fully 100% UV A,B,C and harmful blue light safe.
The lens categories for strong sunlight will be 3 and 4. A simple rule of thumb for identifying these lenses is to look for a lens with ‘reflective’ coating.
In bad conditions, you will need to wear something that will help you optically. In overcast, low light conditions your eyes cannot adjust the flat light meaning that you will struggle to pick up contours on the snow before you. A pale yellow or orange lens will create contrast and give definition allowing the lay of the slope to be seen more easily. These lens categories would be 2. A secondary benefit of goggles in these conditions is that they will keep the elements from the skin on your face. Again, in cold, icy conditions this is essential. This is definitely not something glasses will offer you.
All our lenses, except those on our basic children’s model are double lensed. This means there are two lenses held together at the edges with a narrow foam insert between. This creates a void between the lenses that will prevent them from fogging up. With the venting in the frames and lenses and the hydrophobic lens coatings, this works very effectively.

LENS TYPES:

● Very bright conditions: Fire Iridium
   This is a very dark lens and does not offer much in the way of low light definition. Should be recommended for very bright
   weather only!
● Bright conditions: Black Iridium / LST Trail Silver & Gold / Orange
   Mirror / Silver, Blue & Red Mirror / Gold, Bronze & Red Chrome
   These lenses give great bright weather protection and some definition. Quite versatile.
● Variable conditions: LST Trail Silver / Pink Iridium / Silver
   Chrome / G30 / Amplifier
   These lenses are suitable for ‘most’ light conditions except the very brightest and very dull conditions. The base lens tint is orange or light brown offering the definition required in low light, but they have a flash coating to give bright light protection. These are very useful, highly versatile lenses.
● Low light or worse: Orange / Persimmon / VR28 / Light Amplifier
   High Intensity Yellow
   These are probably the most commonly seen lenses on the mountain. However, whilst people do wear them when the sun is out
   we wouldn’t recommend that as they actively enhance light!

LENS SHAPES:

There are two basic types of lens. The traditional style lens that appears ‘flat’ is a cylindrical lens. This is a gently curved lens around it’s vertical axis. Modern technologies have allowed lenses to curve along both vertical and horizontal axis creating a ‘spheric’ lens. This appears bulbous in the frame.

WHAT ELSE A LENS DOES:

As well as blocking out harmful stuff and helping you see in the gloom, goggles offer a very important function; optical clarity. It is vital that you are able to see clearly and the quality of the lens will directly affect this.
All lenses are interchangeable, allowing lenses to be easily swapped in and out.
A cheap goggle, sub £20 will have flimsy, filmy feeling lenses that distort easily under stress. This easy distortion will directly affect how you see through it. These lenses are just flat bits of plastic bent to fit into a frame. This bending will distort your vision. This distortion will quickly tire your eyes as they will have to compensate for the distortion causing ocular tiredness and probable blurry vision.
As you pay more, you get better lenses. This is the main reason for the gradual increase in goggle prices through the range.
The spheric lens was created to improve the optical clarity of the user. The theory is that a spheric lens mirrors the shape of the human eye meaning a far more accurate field of vision.
Lenses are also thinner towards the far edges of the lens. This prevents distortion as your eyes move left to right.
Good lenses are moulded and fused into shape rather than bent, again vastly improving performance.

WOMEN’S SPECIFIC MODELS:

For the longest time, women have had to make do with generic goggles, trying to find smaller frame sizes within unisex styles. Whilst many goggles are unisex and perfectly adequate ie; Oakley A Frame, we offer a great range of women’s specific goggles. This does not mean a pretty paint job, but a smaller, narrower frame with a different structural geometry to it and a softer face foam. Ultimately though, if the goggle fits…

Anon Majestic: Pixi / White Emblem / Black
Oakley Stockholm: Pink / White / White / Black / Amethyst
Scott Radiant: Mauve / Pearl / Black
Scott Jewel: White / Brown
Bloc Venom: Black / White / Silver

Don’t forget that unisex goggles will also work, particularly:
Adidas Yodai: Gold
Anon Figment: Black / Winterfresh / Doodles / Test Pattern
Oakley A Frame: Grey / Black / Carbon / White
Scott Witness: White / Grey / Black

Finally, we need to mention maintenance.
● When in use, only clean the lenses with the bag the goggles are sold with. This is a special fabric designed to do this job. Tissues, cotton, sleeves etc are highly abrasive and will scratch the lens with use.
● Only clean the lens when it is dry. If you stack it and the goggle fills with snow, let the goggle dry out, then clean it even if it means skiing with a bit of snow inside!
● Do not put the goggles down on the lenses! This will damage them!
● No matter how cool you think it is, DO NOT wear them on your head. Your head is like a funnel and pumps out a huge amount of heat. If you have your goggles on your head they will catch the steam and fog. Whilst goggles should remain fog free through the venting and double lenses, this will aggravate it enormously!

You love your eyes, they’re quite useful! Goggles will make life better for you on the hill!