Sunglasses question

[cowprintrabbit]

DH and I will be on the Le Boreal sailing December 7.

I know we need polarized, wraparound sunglasses; my question is whether we need fancy glacier glasses from a sporting goods store that I will never wear again. Can I get the polarized lens for my Oakley Radars or will the tiny sliver of light between the bottom of the lens and my cheek be blinding?

[dileep]

I used my Ray Ban prescription sunglasses that I use at home.

[parischris]

Originally Posted by cowprintrabbit

DH and I will be on the Le Boreal sailing December 7.

I know we need polarized, wraparound sunglasses; my question is whether we need fancy glacier glasses from a sporting goods store that I will never wear again. Can I get the polarized lens for my Oakley Radars or will the tiny sliver of light between the bottom of the lens and my cheek be blinding?

Personally I use Julbo explorers to minimise the amount of light, but 'normal' polarised sunglasses will also suffice. The places you are going are not usually saturated with snow...penguin rookeries need to be clear of snow to raise the chicks. So whilst you will see plenty of ice and snow, it's not like you are going skiing and need that level of protection.

[einsteinsmom]

We just used regular sunglasses and can still see!! Ski goggles are useful, sometimes the snow is blowing sideways!!
kristy

[PerfectlyPerth]

I used mostly my normal sunnies - had ski goggles as spare for the blizzardy days or on the zodiacs.

Make sure you attach them to a little rubber strap so they don't go far if blown off by the strong winds.

[scapel]

Originally Posted by cowprintrabbit

DH and I will be on the Le Boreal sailing December 7.

I know we need polarized, wraparound sunglasses; my question is whether we need fancy glacier glasses from a sporting goods store that I will never wear again. Can I get the polarized lens for my Oakley Radars or will the tiny sliver of light between the bottom of the lens and my cheek be blinding?

On the glasses question. If you don’t wear glasses any good sun glasses will work. Polarized helps you see under the water better. If you wear glasses, I would use snow goggles over them. I had the auto dimming prescription glasses and between the bright snow and cold (which also dims the glasses) it got so dark I couldn’t see. For taking pictures I usually could see through the view finder, but not with the auto dimming glasses. I had to take them off to see through the view finder. So if I had regular glasses and snow goggles, I could just temporarily take off the snow goggles and take pictures.
Be sure and wear skin protection on the cheeks and nose. I had a baseball cap that help protect the forehead. 2 hours and you could be blistered depending on how sensitive your skin is.

[cowprintrabbit]

Originally Posted by scapel

On the glasses question. If you don’t wear glasses any good sun glasses will work. Polarized helps you see under the water better. If you wear glasses, I would use snow goggles over them. I had the auto dimming prescription glasses and between the bright snow and cold (which also dims the glasses) it got so dark I couldn’t see. For taking pictures I usually could see through the view finder, but not with the auto dimming glasses. I had to take them off to see through the view finder. So if I had regular glasses and snow goggles, I could just temporarily take off the snow goggles and take pictures.
Be sure and wear skin protection on the cheeks and nose. I had a baseball cap that help protect the forehead. 2 hours and you could be blistered depending on how sensitive your skin is.

I had Lasik 5 years ago, so no more glasses - woohoo! My eyes are super sensitive to the sun though, not sure if that's a side effect, or if I was just used to always having something in front of my eyes...

Thanks for the sunburn tip! I was in Anchorage this weekend and discovered that I can still burn through SPF 40 up there - sounds like it's the same at the other end of the world, too.

[digitl]

Though I took my sunglasses, I didn't wear them on our February/ March trip. It just didn't seem to be that bright.

It was, as has been noted, 'bright' enough to need a fairly strong sunscreen!

[Kununoppin]

My husband wears self-dimming eyeglasses. They were a problem in Antarctica because they were always too dark.

[scapel]

[quote=Kununoppin;36482140]My husband wears self-dimming eyeglasses. They were a problem in Antarctica because they were always too dark.[/QUO[/i]

I had the same problem. My optometrist told me that not only the bright light dimmed them but so did the cold. I would not recommend using them on an Antarctic trip. I wonderd if one wore sun glasses over the autodim glasses if it prevented them from getting too dark. Unfortunatelly I did not think about this while down in the Antarctic.