We’ve had a few of you asking about the origins of the glacier glasses, so we thought we’d shed some light on this popular subject! Filson have written a pretty wonderful summary on their blog, but we’ll try to add some new info for you gear junkies along the way.

The rather crazy beginnings of glacier glasses started over 2,000 years ago when the Inuit and Yupik of Alaska and Northern Canada made ‘iggaak’ - or as we would now call them, snow goggles - from walrus ivory, bone, wood, and caribou antler. Some had beautiful carvings around the slits, adding their own style to this very rudimentary, yet ingenious form of UV protection. The narrow slits allowed the user to see the snowy landscape ahead of them, but shielded their eyes from most of the damaging UV radiation, and unwanted glare.

Iggaak snow goggles from Inuit and American Indian communities — Image credit: Smithsonian Magazine and the National Museum of the American Indian

Perhaps it is not surprising that people living in the Arctic were the first to experiment with this form of eyewear where some latitudes experience near-constant daylight during the summer months. Snow blindness - a type of sunburn that affects the eyes from prolonged UV exposure - would have been common without such protection.

Research many years later has shown that by focussing the light through a smaller gap (think of a pinhole camera), your vision becomes much more acute. Funnelling the light has a corrective property, which also explains why mountaineers and skiers seeking the best vision for their outdoor endeavours, still turn to an old favorite, glacier glasses.

Ironically, when winter mountaineering became more popularised in the European Alps in the 18th century, humanity almost took a step backwards in terms of technological evolution with Harold Raeburn (a Scottish mountaineer) reporting the use of “…masks…made of linen or cotton, with holes cut for the eyes” as their chosen form of sun protection in the mountains. (I challenge you now to look back at photos from this era of climbing and alpine mountaineering, and not think to yourself, “But where is their eyewear?!”).

Harold Raeburn winter mountaineering on Ben Nevis — Photo credit: AE Robertson, SMC Image Archive | UK Climbing

Cue the entry of John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), an English art critic who spent many years in the Alps, particularly around the valleys of Chamonix. Bemoaning eye pain on his trips, he hired a craftsman to make him some eyewear with tinted lenses. Sadly we can’t source any imagery of these ‘sunglasses’ - so if anyone has evidence of their style, we’d be intrigued to see it!

Jump forward to 1888 and we meet Jules Baud (sounds like “Julbo” not-so-coincidentally). Born in the Jura Mountains he grew up surrounded by a community of ‘cristalliers’ - people who would venture in the mountains in search of precious crystals. In need of protective eyewear, Baud pioneered the first pair of ‘Cristallier frames’ featuring blue tint lenses, wire frames, and glass side shields.

Cristallier blue lens sunglasses from Julbo eyewear dating back to 1800s — Photo credit: Julbo Eyewear

Although smoked and colored glass technology evolved in the late 1800s, it seems that the real breakthrough came in the early 1900s - coinciding with both the launch of campaigns by the UK and US to conquer the world’s highest mountains, including Mount Everest; and of course, World War I and II. From the 1920s to the 1960s there was a distinct rise in glacier glasses as we know them today (dark tint lenses and side shields) in varying shapes. As far as we can tell, all of these were secured with a head strap that fastened around the back of the head - rather than having temples behind the ears.

A collage of mountaineers on Everest, and Edward Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wearing glacier goggles/sunglasses — Photo credit: Alfred Gregory | Jamling Tenzing Norgay

So, we find ourselves with one more missing link.. At what point did glacier glasses get their (now iconic) rounded temples that tuck behind one's ear? The answer is, we’re not quite sure.. The National Trust Collection holds a pair of medical “safety sunglasses” that have all the hallmark features of glacier glasses. But they are recorded with a widely varying speculative date range of 1872-1985.

Medical glasses with rounded lenses, leather side shields and malleable temples from the National Trust Collection — Photo credit: National Trust Collections

Julbo’s first pair of Glacier sunglasses were launched in 1950, under the frame name, Vermont due to a brand collaboration they had formed with an outdoor gear store called Climb High, based in Vermont. So although they may not be the original side shield and curved temple sunglasses, they seem to be the original ‘glacier glasses’ as we know them today.

Jump forward to the 21st century and glacier glasses have made a revival. Our preferred pair come from the team at VALLON, who brought back this classic style with all the mod-cons required for modern performance when undertaking mountaineering endeavours in the Alps, or high Himalaya. Fully adaptable TR90 temples (that also aren’t susceptible to the cold like traditional metal), and a high-quality finish on the leather attachments are, for us, what set their ‘Heron Glacier’ glasses apart from others on the market.

So, there you have it! A summary of the history and heritage of glacier glasses. We had fun researching this article, but if you have any other insights you can share with us on the evolution of these fantastic sunglasses, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Adriana Brownlee in the Himalaya wearing Heron Glacier sunglasses — Image credit: VALLON | Adriana Brownlee

Hero image credit: Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

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From the Archives: The History of Glacier Glasses

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