Breathable Ski Gloves

[TonyPlush]

So I just spent a week skiing in my new Helly Hansen jacket, and I was pretty amazed by its breathability. Despite working up a sweat, I always stayed dry. (Full post here)

Meanwhile, while my torso stayed completely dry no matter what, my hands were constantly SOAKED.

This was obviously annoying, and is leading towards a pretty unbearable smell. But even worse, when the temperatures started to drop, it got downright dangerous. On a few 7 degree windy chairlifts, my wet hands started to feel like ice blocks, and I even started losing feeling in all my fingers.

All this got me thinking, do they make breathable gloves, similar to my HH jacket? I'd think keeping the sweat out would go a long way towards keeping the warm in.

 

[Josh Matta]

If your hand are completely soaked....I would start taking layers of your body...

 

[jmeb]

I'm admittedly a fanboy because of the quality to price ratio, but Free The Powder has gloves specifically designed around the idea of breathability rather than waterproofness for this reason. https://www.freethepowder.com/pages/what-makes-free-the-powder-gloves-different

At the end of the day, breathable and waterproof tend to be antagonistic.

 

[Living Proof]

It has been a few years since buying my last ski gloves, Mountain Hardware Dry Q gloves have been excellent in reducing sweating hands. They are not highly insulated and breathe to let out the moisture. Although not highly insulated, because my hands are dry, they remain warm. Frequently, I would try on someone else's glove at lunchtime and was amazed at how much drier mine were. MH still makes the Dry Q gloves, check them out. BTW. in old Epic forums, there were many good threads about wet gloves, and MH Dry Q consistently got good reviews.

 

[Green08]

Sadly gloves are a tough design challenge. Any waterproof membrane is going to trap a lot of your own sweat. My wife has fully skunked a pair of down mitts with a waterproof layer, and finder her Gore-Tex Gordini gloves get damp by the end of the day.

The least expensive adjustment is to wear a liner glove that wicks well, and then change out the liners at lunch or whenever they get too damp. The liner glove can dry outside of your glove and transport some of that sweat elsewhere.

Otherwise look for a glove that is neither 100% leather nor with a waterproof membrane like Gore-Tex. This seems contrary to the usual marketing, but necessary to let your steamy glove microclimate breathe without having to become enough of a swamp to push moisture through a plastic waterproof membrane. A full leather glove will not really breathe either.

Your palm should still be fully leather or synthetic leather so you can be in ample contact with snow covered items and not risk soaking in water. But the back of your hand is where you can have something truly breathable.

Lincoln and Flylow make gloves with a cloth back that are cheap and extremely breathable. But the cloth can absorb any melted snow fast, and that breath ability can be too much on the coldest or windy days.

Free the Powder examines this problem extensively when they developed their line of gloves. They chose to go with a soft shell material, which struck a balance of being able to breathe enough without absorbing water or Letting in too much wind.

Hestra and Flylow both make gloves with tough nylon backs and without a waterproof membrane. The Hestra Heli Army leather lineup is super popular and people don’t seem to complain frequently it lacks Gore Tex.

So if you like your premium Scandinavian jacket, perhaps it needs to be paired with some premium Scandinavian gloves.

 

[John O]

I'm admittedly a fanboy because of the quality to price ratio, but Free The Powder has gloves specifically designed around the idea of breathability rather than waterproofness for this reason. https://www.freethepowder.com/pages/what-makes-free-the-powder-gloves-different

At the end of the day, breathable and waterproof tend to be antagonistic.

I've been using Free The Powder gloves for the last few years and have become a believer in their approach of breathability over waterproofness. I probably wouldn't use them in the rain, but otherwise I use them pretty much everyday except very warm spring days and my hands absolutely stay noticeably drier than they used to (when I used to wear nothing but GoreTex).

If your hand are completely soaked....I would start taking layers of your body...

Also a good point to keep in mind. Your hands are definitely going to sweat less if you're dressed appropriately.

 

[jmeb]

I've been using Free The Powder gloves for the last few years and have become a believer in their approach of breathability over waterproofness. I probably wouldn't use them in the rain, but otherwise I use them pretty much everyday except very warm spring days and my hands absolutely stay noticeably drier than they used to (when I used to wear nothing but GoreTex).

Same here. I have a pair of their first-gen mitts, and more recent RX gloves. May add a pair of their spring gloves for...spring days.

Removable liners are a huge upgrade. Well worth the cost -- easy to dry overnight -- even in a van. And you can buy backup liners for $20 -- good for swapping out if your hands get sweaty.

 

[Analisa]

If you can't find something ultra breatheable, I'd consider a lighter glove or unlined option and wool liners. Wool can insulate really well when wet, so it'll provide more consistent comfort than the sweating-on-the-way-down-ice-cubes-on-the-lift-up that you get with the synthetic insulation in most gloves.

 

[PTskier]

Use deodorant foot powder in your gloves. Palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and arm pits have the same sort of stinky sweat glands. It also makes the gloves easier to pull on & off. If the gloves don't have much leather, launder them occasionally. Be ready for the innards to either fall apart or get inside out. Try your underarm deodorant on the palms of your hands during the day.

Carry another pair of gloves to change into at noon. Use your boot dryers to dry your gloves over night.

 

[albertanskigirl]

I'm like a lot of posters above - I have merino wool liners, and I change them out at lunch. I actually also bring an extra pair of mitts, and will change those out too if I need to at lunch.

The are the icebreaker liners I have:
https://ca.icebreaker.com/en/accessories/oasis-glove-liners/IBM207.html?dwvar_IBM207_color=001

 

[Beerman]

As mentioned above, removable liners and less torso coverage should make a big difference.
I am not a very sweaty guy and use silk liners, if required, as they wick really well.

 

[BC.]

This post doesn’t exactly answer the OP question, but addresses the referenced sweaty hands/wet inside glove issue.

Suggestion to try nitrile gloves as a liner....the sweat stays inside the nitrile, therefore keeping the inside of glove dry....leading to dryer, warmer hands.

*I wear nitriles with my Free the Powder gloves.....the gloves are never wet inside....dry as a bone....hands stay warm all day.

It’s a cheap experiment, try it, it might work for you.

 

[E221b]

I second the Free The Powder gloves. Super breathable and the new ones have removable liners

 

[Beerman]

This post doesn’t exactly answer the OP question, but addresses the referenced sweaty hands/wet inside glove issue.

Suggestion to try nitrile gloves as a liner....the sweat stays inside the nitrile, therefore keeping the inside of glove dry....leading to dryer, warmer hands.

*I wear nitriles with my Free the Powder gloves.....the gloves are never wet inside....dry as a bone....hands stay warm all day.

It’s a cheap experiment, try it, it might work for you.

The OP is mentioning wet hands, but not differentiating between sweaty hands or wet hands from water ingress. Based on the way OP is written I would suggest sweat is the issue. My wife in her early ski days had this problem and after a few questions, I found out she had the grip of death going on, and relaxing mentally, relaxed her grip, eliminating the sweat issue.
If the sweat is due to exertion, wear less, as mentioned above, or more breathable gloves.

As for nitrile gloves, yes they will keep the wind out, but not let the sweat out, so your hands will be swimming in a plastic bag. That's if i've assumed correctly that the OP is sweat based wetness.

 

[TonyPlush]

The OP is mentioning wet hands, but not differentiating between sweaty hands or wet hands from water ingress. Based on the way OP is written I would suggest sweat is the issue. My wife in her early ski days had this problem and after a few questions, I found out she had the grip of death going on, and relaxing mentally, relaxed her grip, eliminating the sweat issue.
If the sweat is due to exertion, wear less, as mentioned above, or more breathable gloves.

As for nitrile gloves, yes they will keep the wind out, but not let the sweat out, so your hands will be swimming in a plastic bag. That's if i've assumed correctly that the OP is sweat based wetness.

Pretty sure it's sweat, as the issue was there even when it wasn't snowing and I hadn't fallen. If it is, then it's definitely exertion based. I'm pretty relaxed on the mountain and intentionally keep a loose grip on the poles.

Less layers would probably fix the issue, but in the conditions I was skiing in, I think I might freeze on the lift ride up.

 

[DonC]

If sweat is the issue then definitely go with liner gloves. Your hands need a base layer just as much as any other part of your body. In my experience (and I have tried lots of varieties of glove because I have pretty sweaty hands) the problem is that gloves, whether or not they have a waterproof membrane, are made with linings that do not do a good job of transporting moisture away. The liners do, so you feel dryer.

Also, when you go in for lunch and take off your gloves, the moisture buildup that has accumulated in a typical glove lining cools down and no longer can move across the fabric/insulation layers and membrane, trapping it inside, and as soon as you put your hand back in and go outside your had feels damp and cold. A liner glove, even if a bit damp when you go inside, will be dry by the time lunch ends, and keeps that moisture in the glove away from your skin long enough for the glove to warm up and the moisture to start evaporating again when you go back outside.

 

[Sibhusky]

I recently bought Seirus mitten liners, huge improvement. There was one day they got damp, but that was it. I guess they are wicking it into the glove, but my hand doesn't know that. I might buy a second pair to switch them but so far it hasn't been needed.

 

[Slim]

@Green08 has described the situation perfectly.

For cold days:
2 pairs of baselayer liners + removable insulated inner glove/mitten + single layer shell(no Gore-Tex etc. insert!)
Top choices Hestra Army or Free the Powder with any decent liner glove.
The liner glove wicks and dries quick. Plus, it’s tiny so you can carry two and swap when damp. The removable insulated inner glove let’s you wear just the shell when it’s warmer, to prevent overheating and sweating. It also dries MUCH faster than gloves with fixed insulation. So you actually have a good chance of drying them out over lunch. The single layer shell breathers much better than the shells with a GTX insert inside them. (One layer of fabric vs 2 or 3)

For warmer days (or people with warmer hands) the OR Lodestar gloves are really great.

They have a back of nylon bonded to fleece for snow repellancy, warmth and maximum breathability, combined with a leather palm with bonded fleece insulation. This combination means they breathe super well, and absorb very little moisture, so they dry quickly. They also are only one layer of fabric, so they have good dexterity and are easy to put on. I wear them with a liner for cooler temps, and on their own for mild weather. They have excellent articulation.

Wearing them on their own for skinning in falling snow in the photo below:

 

[jzmtl]

As for nitrile gloves, yes they will keep the wind out, but not let the sweat out, so your hands will be swimming in a plastic bag. That's if i've assumed correctly that the OP is sweat based wetness.

It's not nearly as bad as it sounds. I heard about it here and tried it a few times, now it's my go to method for -20 days. You will feel a little damp initially but will soon forget about it and start to enjoy warm hands.

 

[Tom K.]

Another vote for Free The Powder gloves.

Personally prefer those without removable liners, by a small margin.