gloves or mittens?

[James]

So tonight was -20 and I tried the rubber glove idea at local mole hill. It's not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, I almost forgot I had them on instead of glove liners. By the time to take it off there was very little moisture inside, and my gloves were bone dry. I think it helped with warmth, my hands feel cold but not uncomfortably so. Putting on and taking off gloves is quite a pain in the butt though given the sticky nature of rubber.

Going to keep trying it.

There are less sticky ones. The black nitrile for example.

Borrowed some Gordini down mittens the last two days with the low temps. First mitten use in like a dozen years. With those and some wool? glove liners was pretty warm. The liners are a pain as they stick to velcro. Two others had the exact same mitten and swear by them.

 

[jzmtl]

There are less sticky ones. The black nitrile for example.

Will keep an eye out for those, I used gray ones.

 

[Goose]

And so no one has had anything to say (unless I overlooked it) about any battery powered heated gloves or for that matter heated mits or liners.
There seems to be a number of available products. As for gloves or mittens price seems to range from 70ish and everything up to a few hundred and even more. Heated liners of course considerable cheaper (relatively speaking).

But some these gloves (at most any of the price ranges) seem to heat only the back of the had where as some others heat around each finger too.

Like anything else price is never a sure bet. Sometimes reasonably priced items are just fine and expensive ones are no better. Yet we can also find cheaper and expensive ones not worthy of anything at all. And of course somewhere in there would be a pair that really does work or at least best of any of them and usually not going to be on the cheaper side (though that's never always written in stone. But how much (even if there are good ones) does or can the average person spend on expensive gloves especially for an entire fam? That can be a hefty payout.

But Im a bit surprised no one has mentioned any experiences with any powered heated gloves. Good, bad, great, crap, indifferent , worthy? etc,. I would think some have tried them somewhere skiing wise and I would also think a pair that wasn't a piece of crap might work well. IDK but the logic seems simple enough at first glance.

 

[Monique]

But fwiw on our very first chair was a skier with mittens and I asked the glove/mitten question and the person said they switched to mittens a few years back and never looked back and felt it was one the best decision she ever made.

For some reason, women seem more willing to make this choice than men. I don't know if it's a "perceived weakness" thing or just that women get so much colder on average.

And so no one has had anything to say (unless I overlooked it) about any battery powered heated gloves or for that matter heated mits or liners.
There seems to be a number of available products. As for gloves or mittens price seems to range from 70ish and everything up to a few hundred and even more. Heated liners of course considerable cheaper (relatively speaking).

I've known a few people who use them. From what I've seen, they don't last long enough and are finicky. Much like my opinion on boot heaters, although they seem to be quite popular. I'd rather have something that works without needing a power source. If my chemical warmers are duds, a spare set take almost no space in a pocket.

 

[blikkem]

I've always worn gloves and only felt cold a couple of times when it was between 5-10 degrees F and very windy. I have Black Diamond Guides (I think) with Primoloft One insulation. I bought them a couple of years ago and they are holding up great. This Saturday it's supposed to be around -10 not accounting for windchill so I plan on breaking out these old BD Mercury Mitts bought for an ex GF a while back, but was too big for her. Fit me just right, Women's small (shrug), who knew. They fit better then the men's medium that's my usual size so I kept them. We will see how it goes.

 

[LegacyGT]

For me, it's straight mittens with glove liners on colder days. I'll go to gloves but only when it's warm. I will never buy mittens with separations between the fingers on the inside. These defeat the purpose of mittens. In a mitten, your fingers stay warmer because they are together. Separate them and you lose this benefit. That's fine in a glove because it's the tradeoff for better dexterity. But in a mitten, I want my fingers touching each other.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Gloves, my feet get cold first anyways.

 

[Goose]

I hear that . But I must assume that quality plays a big part here wether we talk mittens or gloves.

I honestly feel most the average masses of skiers out on the slopes are probably not in a better pair of either one including myself and. My fam.

Especially kids. For some reason kiddie gloves just seem like someone decided need little protection.

But in general the average person is not looking for 100 dollar gloves. Nor even 69 dollar ones. But instead are picking up whatever is on sale like perhaps at the local Costco. But much like a jacket or whatever ....picking up a good deal can sometimes work great as for quality but sometimes it doesn't.

Skiing sure has it's expenses and spending significant money for gloves/mittens is most probably not on most people's list. Just the nature of the beast there.

I'd bet half the people on a mountain on a given day are in gloves or mittens not really up to the task of a very cold ski day.

Don't even know if there really is a perfect glove but there are at least ones much better suited for the task.

 

[Monique]

If you're skiing only a few days a season, chemical warmers are cheap.

If you're skiing a lot, they're a tiny fraction of the cost.

 

[Goose]

If you're skiing only a few days a season, chemical warmers are cheap.

If you're skiing a lot, they're a tiny fraction of the cost.

Im not a fan of chem pouch warmers. I just don't think they work well. problem is they don't hit the fingers and that's where needed most. How many people complain because their palm is freezing? Perhaps in mittens you can get them on the fingers. But that's about it imo and from past experiences. But also...everyone is very different as to just when they get fingers too cold for comfort. Some people it happens quite quickly and at higher temps. Kind of a strange thing.

 

[Sibhusky]

And here I am looking for mitten liners because they are so warm that even on days below zero my fingers get sweaty. I'll be sitting on the chair waving my hands around trying to dry them. And all I can find is liners that are gloves. Keeping warm is not a problem, it's keeping dry. It's a metabolism thing I think. One year a whole box of hand warmers got tossed because they expired and I haven't bought any since. I'm thinking on days without precip I might go to Dachstein mittens.

 

[Monique]

Im not a fan of chem pouch warmers. I just don't think they work well. problem is they don't hit the fingers and that's where needed most. How many people complain because their palm is freezing? Perhaps in mittens you can get them on the fingers. But that's about it imo and from past experiences. But also...everyone is very different as to just when they get fingers too cold for comfort. Some people it happens quite quickly and at higher temps. Kind of a strange thing.

I wear mittens, and I just keep the chemical warmers at the end of the mittens, on the backs of my fingers.

 

[David Chaus]

I use my Outdoor Research Capstone gloves, which have two batteries for each glove. I originally bought the Lucent gloves (one battery each glove) but those weren’t warm enough for me (I’m a diabetic with poor circulation). I exchanged those with the Lucent mittens, OR is really good about warranties and exchanges. The mittens were great, however I had a problem with a battery contact in one of the mittens after a year of use. OR totally rocks with customer service, they gladly warrantied a replacement. However, the mittens were out of stock until the next fall, so they offered the Capstone gloves, which were more expensive but they did a straight exchange anyway. I’m totally happy with them.

 

[Tony S]

Mittens

 

[Willyum215]

This recent cold snap in the NE has made me a mitten convert.

Bought a $90 pair of Flylow's (no idea of the model name) and my hands weren't cold at all, even in below zero wind chill conditions. At first I cringed at the price, but they have been worth every penny.

I'm sure above 25-30 degrees I'll switch back to gloves for the little bit of extra dexterity they offer.

 

[Phaceplanter]

My 3rd year. My father-in-law got my boys and I started, and he swore by mittens, so mittens we wore, and I couldn't understand why. Gloves just seemed like they would feel better grasping the poles. So yesterday I was out and of course knowing me, I brought two left handed gloves for my 9 yr old.

So to the loft shop we go and we're trying on the $20 cheapest gloves, and none of them seemed to fit right. So he tries on $40 mittens, with florescent lime yellow stripes to match his coat and he really liked them, so that's what we got. I tried on the adult version and really liked the feel - had the finger sleeves inside. Can't remember the brand, never heard of them. They had some Oakley mittens that fit nice too, so might convert.

 

[coskigirl]

Im not a fan of chem pouch warmers. I just don't think they work well. problem is they don't hit the fingers and that's where needed most. How many people complain because their palm is freezing? Perhaps in mittens you can get them on the fingers. But that's about it imo and from past experiences. But also...everyone is very different as to just when they get fingers too cold for comfort. Some people it happens quite quickly and at higher temps. Kind of a strange thing.

That's part of the problem. You shouldn't be putting them in your palm. They should be on the back of your hand so that the heat warms the blood in the veins near the skin which then takes the warmed blood out to the fingers.

 

[Goose]

Well, that's part of the problem then. You shouldn't be putting them in your palm. They should be on the back of your hand so that the heat warms the blood in the veins near the skin which then takes the warmed blood out to the fingers.

yea I knew that but just misspoke. I should have said "back" of palm. That's why many gloves I believe have the pouches back there. Unless that was for money for tolls or something..lol

 

[laine]

Question specific to mittens:

Mittens with all the fingers together vs. mittens with finger slots (not sure what they are called).
Is one design generally considered warmer than the other?
What's the point of the finger slots? It's not like you have more dexterity, right? I mean, your fingers may be separated, but they're still in a mitten.

Can anyone shed some light on this design?

Thanks!

 

[Monique]

Question specific to mittens:

Mittens with all the fingers together vs. mittens with finger slots (not sure what they are called).
Is one design generally considered warmer than the other?
What's the point of the finger slots? It's not like you have more dexterity, right? I mean, your fingers may be separated, but they're still in a mitten.

Can anyone shed some light on this design?

Thanks!

All of them together is definitely warmer (and lets you shove a chem pack up there).

I would also love to know the point of the finger stalls.