Micropore Refresh

In 2008 I purchased a pair of Julbo Micropore glacier glasses from Opticus. This was before PRK, so I needed prescription lenses.

At that time, Opticus was the main (perhaps only) supplier of prescription glacier glasses for the US Antarctic Program and Raytheon Polar Services. Opticus sent me the frames with the prescription lenses installed, but included the uninstalled standard Julbo lenses in the package.

After my surgical shine job I installed the standard lenses, but still did not get back into the habit of wearing the Micropore glasses. They had quite a few miles on them by then. Both the nose pads and the rubber covers on ear hooks at the end of the temple arms were torn up, which diminished their comfort. And outside of deployments under Special Circumstances – like being on a glacier (do they still have those?) – the Micropores are not as functional as my Rudy Rydons. They fail to meet my simple sunglass criteria. Yet they are fun to wear, and unlike sports-wrap style spectacles like the Rydons, the Micropores fold down flat (more so if you do not have the leather side shields installed, as I usually do not). That is attractive for travel when you want to be able to store your spectacles without taking up a lot of space in a bag.

Julbo discontinued the Micropores I-don’t-know-how-many years ago. I think the modern equivalent is the Julbo Cham. But I recently learned that Julbo still offers spare Micropore parts. When I saw that, I jumped at the chance to refresh my pair. I purchased new temple arms, a new nose pad, and a new nose bridge.

I couldn’t actually figure out how to remove the old nose bridge. But once I removed everything that was obviously removable, I was able to clean my original nose bridge and decided that I didn’t actually need to replace that part (and my old one was already sanitized). The temple arms and nose pad were simple to replace.

The aggressive curve of the ear-hooks on this style of spectacles does not work well with the cable retention I use on the Rydons. Nor is such a thing necessary to keep them on your face – those big hooks keep them secure. But I do like the option of having some sort of lanyard so that I can drop the glasses and let them hang around my neck. This is especially useful given that the lenses are not photochromic. The Micropores originally came with a simple nylon cord, but I don’t know what happened to that. Now I am using a Chums Tech Cord. It is an injection molded piece of silicone, and about as simple as it gets. I like it.

The Micropores remain inferior to the Rydons, but I’m enjoying wearing them again intermittently. It is pleasing to be able to buy new components and rebuild old equipment. Eventually I may get custom cut lenses.