Eye protection

I'm not a huge fan of wearing safety glasses while rec climbing. My face gets sweaty, and I don't wear vision glasses in regular life, so I find it distracting to have that shield in front of my eyes, blah-blah-blah.

However...
I was climbing a redwood a few months ago, and I got some fluffy bark duff kicked in my face. My eyes watered and I had to stop and blink a lot while they watered, but I seemed to recover and get on with it. A few days later, my eyelid swelled up, and stayed that way for six weeks. I did warm compresses 3-6 times a night, but it didn't change or go away. Then it got infected. I finally went to the ophthalmologist, and you do NOT want me to describe what they did to me. It was a mix between the eyeball scene in A Clockwork Orange plus the eyelid-cutting scene in Rocky, followed by a few days where I looked like I had been in Fight Club. I just went for a follow up with an optometrist, and by using glowing dye, they said I also scratched the lens in that eye.

My point is this. I'm feeling a lot more open to wearing eye protection while climbing now.

Thanks for sharing that difficult experience! I'm lucky that the white pine in the east has very soft needles, even a straight poke in the eye will not cause damage. Many other pine species have very stiff needles which will scratch the cornea.

I think one of the reasons I like to lead climb in a group is so I don't get stuff kicked down on me. Seriously though, it is hazardous to look up when a climber is over you. When I kick excessive bark or other small tree bits loose I try to warn climbers below.

I rarely wear eye protection when rec climbing but in a group climb I will if climbers above keep sending stuff down.
-AJ

Thank God I didn't get into situations like yours, but I did get get some nasty debris falling in my eyes from a climber above. Additionally there are a lot of germs and bacteria on some trees, and you don't want them to get in such a cozy environment like a human eye.

I wear regular yellow uvex glasses, they hold pretty well and don't bother me at all.

Did a small research about the glasses this evening, and found a few good alternatives to wrap around safety goggles. Some glasses look just like regular light sun glasses but have a special anti scratch coating which is definitely a plus in protection from elements. This way you can comfortably use them while tree climbing. Example http://www.carid.com/uvex/uvex-safety-equipment-35968753.html