Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Anti-Fog Solution

Has anyone had experience with using anti-fog solutions. My goggles have not fogged up, but my prescription glasses or glacier glasses fog up (depending on which one I am wearing). The fog gets so thick as my body generates more heat that I can not see. Not good, as I constantly wobble out of the snow trails.

I have found one called FogTech and another one called Cat Crap. I did try using a FogTech wipe someone gave me, but on my regular prescription glasses they just streaked the lenses and actually make matters worse.

Spit works great on my diving mask. Totally fogs up without it in icy water. I've never tried it on goggles though.

In my 40 or so years of competitive swimming (some diving, too) , none of the marketed products worked any better than spit.
Doesn't help much for your goggles; but shows the utter failure of man to improve on nature.

Charlie, check REI they have anti-fog in small single use packets.

Try glycerine. You can purchase it at your local drugstores.

I have always thought that the fogging comes from moisture rising from your shirt collar opening and also from your own breath.

Not a climbing site but..


http://dirtbike.off-road.com/dirtbike/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=304315

Well, I spent 20 years skiing in and out of Ostrander Hut every few weeks. I'd only use goggles in really bad conditions (rain/snow high wind). Mostly I'd just use my better vented side-shield glasses.

For goggles, I tired glycerine, spit (which does work on diving masks) & several "anti-fog" packets. None of them ever worked more than a mile or so in gnarly conditions (rain/snow/sweat). My best solution was to keep several dry cloths or tissues in plastic bags and stop to clean the googles. Then I'd hope it would stop blowing and snowing and I could take the goggles off.

I also tried different models of goggle, but no difference. To go as long as possible, you can't take them off or even readjust them.

Hmmm. Should have read your post more closely. Do you wear prescription glasses under your goggles? And for the glacier glasses, if they're fogging, I suspect they're not vented well enough. I never had that problem, only goggles... .

George

Not sure if this would work for your goggles, but when I was scuba diving we used toothpaste to initially clean our goggles, but it was also suppose to help in cutting down on fogging.

When my wife and I go snowboarding she uses my paintball google anti-fog solution on her glasses and it works great for her... its made by 32 degrees and its about 3 bucks per bottle, you can buy it online, just do a google search for; 32 Degrees Paintball Mask/Lens Anti-Fog Spray

But most retail paintball stores would have it in stock, (Maybe even walmart), if not the 32 degrees another companies version, but the 32 degrees has always worked best.

Thanks for all the information. Good stuff all. I'll try out the suggested ideas and see what works best. I need something as I can not stop every couple minutes and pull off my googles and neoprene face mask to clean my prescription glasses. I have a Mount Washington trip later this month followed by Rainer a few months later, so I need to work out all the potential problems that I can forsee. We have had two back-to-back blizzards here and that has presented an excellent opportunity to test new winter gear.

I climbed Rainier two years ago using rented double boots that were too big for me and older style glacier glasses (necessary because of my prescription) that fogged heavily from perspiration. Neither I nor anyone in my group had anything antifog (and I was the only one who seemed to have a problem), so I just had to frequently remove my glasses and wipe with a bandana. Eventually put on a second pair of heavy socks and was able to get my boots tight enough, but the hike up to Camp Muir generally sucked because of those issues. Fortunately, neither problem continued for the remainder of the trip. I've had pretty good luck since using "Fog Eliminator" reusable anti-fog cloths by Nikon. Forget if I found them at REI or A16.

thinking outside the box......

I have heard of people with sweaty feet who spray anti-perspirant (not just plain deodorant) on their feet to help keep their socks dry.

Wonder what would happen if you applied this to the skin all around your eyes to reduce sweating under the glasses/glacier glasses/ski goggles?

another option: cut some holes in the foam "face seal" around the edges of your goggles so there is more ventilation. I have resorted to that, starting small of course.

For those who wear glasses, an alternative to glacier glasses is a pair of good quality overglasses, such as those made by Cocoon. You can find them at places like Bass Pro Shops, Cabella's and of course online. The best way to figure out the size/color of lenses is online, as there's a .pdf file you can print for proper sizing.

I won't wear overglasses in situations where there was a risk of frostbite, but then I won't wear glacier glasses then either - goggles are the best choice then. But, the overglasses have enough ventilation so that fogging won't be a problem.

Ventilation is not the whole problem for me. My regular eye glasses fog up when my body warms up, especially if I have a lot of clothes on. But, of course, when wearing glacier glasses or goggles (or both) the fogging is worse.

Sunday, I made a trip to REI and purchased as many products as I could find. Today I put them to a test. The products were fog-tech, cat crap (both spray and wax), and a No-Fog Cloth from Smith who makes goggles. The product that worked best for me was the No-Fog Cloth from Smith. I used every combination, regular glasses, regular glasses with goggles, glacier glasses, glacier glasses with goggles. I worked up a sweat where my cotton clothes were soaked. I wore a balaclava, neoprene face mask, polartec knit hat and a hooded coat. This kept the heat in close to my face and it was just seconds before I fogged up. I continued this process using all three of the products. I used the products according to the directions.

The fog-tech streaked, the cat crap lasted for a very brief period and then afterwards left spots on my glasses much like dirty snow/rain splatter on a car's windshield , but the No-Fog cloth was 90-100% effective about 90% of the time.

Charlie,
Good to know. Thanks for running the trials.