UKC

Just wondering whether it's worth getting polarised sunglasses or not if going to be spending some time above the snow line? I've already got goggles for when conditions apply but will polarised lenses for sunglasses give me any real benefits when climbing in the mountains?

Any advice would be great, cheers!

In reply to mantlej:


My thoughts would be: what is the polarisation angle of light reflected off snow?

Since snow is essentially a random surface, and therefore reflecting light with random polarisation, I can't see that polarised glasses will make a great deal of difference, unlike open water or wet roads, where the polarisation is much more uniform (being reflected from an essentially planar surface).

In reply to captain paranoia: Thanks for the advice. Sounds like I don't need to bother then and can save a bit of money! Cheers

In reply to mantlej: For wet glaciers etc. you'll want a pretty dark pair (cat 3 at least) that wrap all the way around, not just normal beach shades (or even normal polarised lenses). Proper glacier glasses are pretty expensive rrp but if you shop around you can find some pretty good deals.