Some people are very happy to canter around trails while wearing , but others – and I count myself in this group – struggle with comfort when it comes to wearing glasses. I also don’t love the fact that lenses too often steam up, and the visual distortion you occasionally experience at the bottom of some sunnies can be a real issue on technical trails. Personally I prefer to wear a cap to keep the glare out of my eyes, and such headwear can also provide other elements of protection: the peak can save you from sunburn on your snout (a particularly pertinent concern for people with a prominent proboscis, like me) and you can flip it around to cover your neck, too, which might save you from serious heatstroke.
I also find it easier to stash and carry caps when I’m not using them, compared to sunglasses (which are typically far more delicate and prone to getting damaged), and they’re invariably much cheaper to buy. As I prepared to take on the recently, I was looking for a cap that would provide practical protection during what would inevitably be a very long day out. The Minimus Lite cap from Montane is designed specifically for runners and fastpackers, and besides promising to shield my eyes from the sun, it also claimed to be waterproof – something that’s always handy in the notoriously rainy Lake District.
So I began testing it out, with a view to wearing it on race day. Read on to find out my thoughts and to see how it performed compared to the . Aimed squarely.