The Eyes Have It

I recently responded to a Redit post on this, so I thought I'd share it here too. The original post is at: Alpine Eyewear.

I use a combination of lenses and prescription glasses and have significant myopia and astigmatism, and need progressives/readers. 

I disagree with the 'you don't need Cat 4' comment: why would you take the chance? Yes, Cat 3 are in fact fine most of the time, but play it safe and you never, ever want snow blindness. 

Here's what I run: alpine climbing is generally lenses with the exception of overnights. For lenses I have Acuvue Oasys with Hydraclear Plus, and can clean them daily. I like Julbos over that, either a darkening sunglasses (Reactiv, Cat 0-3) or if on glaciers Cat 4s. If it's overnight I'll consider a prescription version of the Julbos, or sometimes bring both. 

For rock climbing I prefer prescription progressives, and most often a standard optician sunglass is fine at low elevations, or clear on a gray day, but sometimes the Julbo Reactivs. I can see granular details needed especially when placing trad gear or figuring out footwork. 

Toby on The Empress, Chapel Pond Slab, Adirondacks, 2024

For backcountry touring, I like lenses, and take tiny folding readers (2 pair, they can get lost...) I like my old Zeal sunglasses or for the down goggles. Same setup for on piste/inbounds skiing. I have used both outfits like SportRx and Julbo to grind high quality lenses and find that Julbo is my first choice, but both are good. In the US SportRx is faster, although Cat 4s take longer. Julbo's US service team is excellent too.

Topping out on Mineville Pillar, Adirondacks, 2025 (c) Tom Lannmann

Great Day at The North Face of Pitchoff, Adirondacks, 2025

Another Jacket? New Pants too??

Yes, and a new pant system, and and and. Those who know me well, know that I have very poor impulse control for getting new kit. Fortunately this does not extend to other areas of life (much, anymore), thanks to years of hard earned experience and sobriety. So when I got a new Patagonia M10 jacket and pants this past year and this year, it was not such a shocker. What was shocking is how good these simple pieces are for what I use them for, alpine and ice climbing.

Topping out on Mineville Pillar in the Adirondacks, photo (c) Tom Lannamann

First, the pants. I got these first because I read about everything Colin Hayley writes on the subject of tools for alpine climbing (Colin Hayley on Layering). He's annoyingly and consistently right, which is not surprising given the number of miles he has on his odometer and his intellect.  The latter seems healthy and high functioning in spite of some youthful indiscretions of his own admission (who has times for psychedelics anymore anyway...) When some years ago he started writing about pants patterned on martial arts pants, or the old Gramicci gusseted crotch ones, I was interested. These were the best for high stepping and the kind of mobility climbing of any kind requires. And the M10 pants live up to that.

Some observers have asked if these relatively baggy pants don't get caught up in crampons. Not at all, and normally my pants are a patchwork of Tyvec tape (see above link.) They do exactly what they are supposed to do, and roll up into the size of a small (1-200 ml) water bottle. Jacket is similarly compact, maybe a 500 ml water bottle and much less weight. They are both masterpieces of brevity. Two chest pockets on the jacket and a two-way zipper for all your venting needs. A great hood which works well over a helmet and/or balaclava, and wrist cuffs which can go over or under gloves and mittens. Pants with a zipper to pee through, a thigh pocket, loops for attaching boot bungies, and a nicely rubberized waistband with no drawstring. It's as close to a perfect setup as I've ever had. 

I run warm and thought it was going to be too hot without zips to dump heat from the pants, and had the same concern for the M10 Jacket. Not so. Under the pants thus far (a cold winter in the northeast) I wear just a pair of Nano-Air pants (more on these to follow) and have never overheated in below freezing temperatures. As Mark Twight wrote, if it's above freezing and you're going alpine climbing, go home (most of the time.) I have skied with full kit and not overheated. I do shed the jacket on approaches, and for hard leads I just use it over a long john top and remove my mid layer (also Nano-Air). I'd probably shift to long johns under the pants for temperatures straddling freezing. It's a dynamite system and I have been tweaking mine for years. This beats other solutions by Patagonia, dead bird, TNF, Norrona and many other very fine manufacturers. I still use my tried and true Beringia setup for skiing, both touring and resort, but otherwise I'm all-in with this setup.