Backpacking and contact lenses

[tomcat32]

I have done at least a half dozen trips of 10+ days including an AT thru hike with contacts. I always have extended wear and carry glasses in a hard case. I use the smallest no rinse saline I can find, no mirror. Hand sanitizer BURNS. I have a small bit of Dr Bronners or similar soap and just enough water to clean my hands to make it safe. I never had any issues.

 

[TEO]

I've been a contact wearer for years, but have never figured out why people use a mirror.

Re. using hand sanitizer: often when backpacking, I don't find washing my hands properly with soap and water is easily done. By using liberal amounts of hand sanitizer and rubbing your fingers together, you can get a fair amount of grit off. Keep in mind you only need to get a relatively small surface area on your index fingers and thumbs clean. Let your fingers air dry, & then rinse them with lens cleaner or saline solution. For those of us who can't sleep with contacts in, it's not a perfect solution, but it does work.

P.s. I echo bringing a pair of glasses for wearing around camp. It stinks to miss out on a cloudless night in the wilderness, especially when you're sleeping underneath the stars.

 

[Stan]

There are compasses with mirrors (so you can see who's lost I suppose) so if a mirror is needed, this is a good way to bring one.

I stopped using contacts when I started needing magnifiers and managing multiple pairs of eye wear became less conveneient than the contacts.

 

[TCD]

Most people find a mirror helpful when putting in a contact, so they can accurately "hit" their eye, and not get interference from the lid. The sighting mirror on my Silva Ranger compass has worked fine for this.

Most of the time, I just leave the lenses in (extended wear).

Carla, interesting that your lenses "don't work" at altitude. Is it that they become dry, or foggy? Or does the refractive correction actually stop working? Mine worked fine for two weeks at 18,500- 21, 500. The only effect I noticed was that the one time I had to change a lens, the lens dried out and shriveled up in seconds when not in my eye. I needed to put a lot of saline on the lens, and then "hurry" it into place before it dried.

 

[Billy]

I've been a contact wearer for years, but have never figured out why people use a mirror...

As a former contact wearer who has since had LASIK, I can answer that. It's simple. Because some people are more coordinated than others, or more careful than others, or have longer lashes than others, or simply prefer to use a mirror, etc. Also, when the lens goes for an unplanned ride and is hanging on a lash or on your cheek, a mirror is a nice thing to have.

 

[Mike P.]

Yes, yes, do bring a mirror! you can get a tiny one in a makeup container or other small cosmetic container. I have made the mistake of forgetting one--what a pain. I always backpack with contacts and bring glasses for night time. This may seem obvious, but take out your contacts while it's still daylight. You'd be surprised at how hard it is to change contacts, while blinding yourself in your tiny mirror with your headlamp!

Also, I have found that when I go above 10-12,000 feet my contacts don't work--so, not sure where you are going, but keep altitude in mind. Something about the pressure changing or affecting the way the contact sits on your eyem which renders your prescription pretty useless--big change, at least for me, when I get up in altitude. I now know to switch to glasses above a certain altitude.

Pressure would be different so maybe shape of the eye is changing somewhat. (Similar to what happened to Beck Weathers on Everest back in 1996 after he had old RK surgery done on his eyes, he was much higher though. See his book & Into Thin Air for more details)

EB, sounds like your friend will be just fine. With what your first post had in it, couldn't tell what kind of activities she had done previously. Any trip on Mansfield is a great time.

 

[Gritter]

I know a lot of people who wear contacts on trips and have no issues at all.

I love my contacts but I always wear my glasses on overnight trips.

Although a 365 degree view is great, I think contacts add an non necessary hassle that I don't want to deal with in the back country.