If you want to wear sunglasses and/or prescription glasses while belaying a climber, especially outdoors on multipitch climbs, I hope this post helps you cobble together a system that is functional and fairly robust.

Glasses #

I bought my first pair of Roka glasses a couple years ago and they transformed my life. Before, I’d worn:

  • prescription glasses to see far,
  • prescription sunglasses to see far in sunlight,
  • contacts to see far without my glasses falling off while I run, bike, or climb,
  • contacts plus sunglasses to run, bike, or climb in sunlight.

Then I replaced all those configurations with Rokas. I have a pair of transition glasses (aka photochromic, they darken in sunlight), with Roka’s special rubber that grips my nose and ears. I can run, bike, and climb with them and they don’t slip, even when I sweat. They’re an all-purpose vision device: I put them on my face and I can see.

You don’t need to spend $400 on a pair of Rokas though; the rest of this post applies to any (sun)glasses. I just had to tell you how much I like Rokas.

Belay glasses #

Before I got my Rokas, I used to climb and belay wearing contacts. That worked fine with belay glasses except in sunlight, when I wished I had belay sunglasses. Now, though, I wear Rokas all the time, and my belay glasses fight with my Roka glasses for nose-space.

YY Vertical Clip-Ups are unique: they’re built to work with your existing glasses. They clip to the top of your glasses’ frame, and they can flip up (so you can see normally) or down (so you can look upward through the prisms).

They’re a bit heavy, so even the special Roka rubber can’t keep my glasses from slipping on a sweaty day when the Clip Ups are attached. YY Vertical includes a pair of ear hooks to attach to your glasses so they embrace your head more ardently. I lost mine. In Europe, you can order replacements from YY Vertical. Here in the US, I replaced them with these from Amazon.

Combined with my glasses, they look like this:

They slip on and off the arms in a few seconds, so you don’t need to look dorky when you’re not climbing. The whole package looks like this:

The Clip Ups pop on and off the glasses in a second. I put them on while I belay and put them away in their case clipped to my harness when I climb. Now I can see far, straight ahead or up, in sunlight or shade!

Reinforce the tips #

The four rubber tips that keep the Clip Ups gripping your glasses are not well-secured to the Clip Ups. You should reinforce them with Super Glue as soon as you buy your Clip Ups, otherwise the tips will fall off almost immediately and become micro-trash. I learned this too late and lost three of the four. Just like the ear hooks, YY Vertical sells replacements only in Europe. I replaced mine with the smallest size from this box of rubber tips; but I wish I hadn’t had to waste the rest of the box.

Upgrade the case #

All belay glasses, including Clip Ups, are sold with a flimsy case and a flimsy carabiner that will soon break, falling off your harness when you’re five pitches up and tumbling into the void. I guess a robust case would double the total cost of the belay glasses and give us all sticker shock, but it’s a shameful waste.

I replaced the Clip Ups case with this “tactical wallet with coin purse” by OneTigris, plus a full-strength climbing carabiner:

OneTigris makes gear for guys who want to dress up like commandos and go to January 6th riots, I think. Apparently those guys need tactical wallets with coin purses so they can buy an ice cream cone after they survive the apocalypse. OneTigris stuff is silly but well-built, and this wallet fits the Clip Ups snugly and has a carabiner loop that seems durable. It has a water-resistant zipper that keeps dust out. There are a few little pockets where you could slide a chapstick or something, too.

After years of faffing around, I think I found a belaying setup that works for me. Maybe it will work for you, too!