Photochromatische Brille

It's the weekend, the mountain is calling - and the same question arises as always: which glasses should I take with me? Classic sunglasses for bright skies - Blue Bird, as we love it - darken so much in flat light or whiteout that you can barely make out the contours. Glasses for bad weather, on the other hand, are so blinding in good weather that they hurt. So how practical it would be to have a single pair of glasses that automatically adapt to all light and weather conditions!

The Topside Boys goggle from Julbo has been developed for long days in the snow in the far north. (Reactive glass 0-4). Find out in the next few lines whether it also fulfils the requirements of the Alps.

Julbo, manufacturer of goggles, glasses and helmets, invited us to legendary Zermatt to present the new "Cyclon - Pair of Kings" goggle with a photochromic lens that covers categories 0 to 4. Sam Anthamatten "King of Freeride" and Antti Ollila "King of Freestyle" co-developed them and I was allowed to test them for you. In the following, I talk in detail about my three-day trip, the goggles, their manufacturer and the two athletes behind them.

The special feature of the Scott Shield ski goggles is the Amplifier lens, which adapts to changing light conditions and, according to the manufacturer, only lets through the "important" wavelengths and blocks less useful wavelength ranges.

The Julbo Aerospace is a ski goggle with an integrated ventilation system that has never been available on the market in this form before. A simple handle allows the double-glazed lens to be extended from the frame by approx. 1 cm. This means that the goggles/lens are well ventilated, e.g. on strenuous climbs.

Designed for high-speed endurance sports, the Rush sunglasses are available in many combinations of colours and lenses. In the version with self-tinting lenses, the high-quality Julbo glasses have proven themselves in a wide variety of sports and weather conditions and are therefore our Gear of the Week.

Julbo takes an innovative approach to helmets and goggles. For example, several high-quality ski goggles with self-tinting lenses have been produced for a while now. For the current season, they are being combined with a helmet that is specially adapted for use with ski goggles and is therefore designed not only to provide an optimum fit, but also to ventilate the goggles to reliably prevent fogging.

There are many goggles, and the modern style with particularly large, rimless lenses is no longer a rarity. However, the high-end Skydome model from Julbo also offers a photochromatic lens that automatically adapts to the light conditions.

Since mid-December I've been testing the Uvex Downhill 2000 Polavision Pro, the first time Uvex has combined Polavision technology to prevent reflections and light reflexes with a Variomatic lens, which adapts to the prevailing light conditions by brightening and darkening. In my personal experience over the last 6 weeks, this has been a successful marriage!