After that, wear some gloves.
Now the problem with this is that if your hands are already cold once you put the gloves on, your hands are probably going to stay cold. This is because there is no heat source in the glove itself (unless you spend a LOT of money on a pair with a battery pack and heater) and all the glove does is insulate your hand from the outside world. (or not).
I'm on a bit of a quest to find decent gloves which keep my hands warm, are either waterproof or quick drying, and enable me to do stuff- like ropework or whatever without getting cold, wet hands. Does such a thing exist? I don't think so, but here are some thoughts on gloves which don't cost horrendous amounts of money which I have used in most normal situations (by that I mean day to day and lower level walking/running as opposed to mountaineering/scottish winter type stuff).
Powerstretch Gloves |
Look smart and are made of Powerstretch fleece. They aren't windproof, and if you stand around doing nothing, they provide just a little more protection than not having anything on. For walking and scrambling they are great, and for running in REALLY cold weather they are good as well. If its just a bit cold they may end up being a tad warm.
They do NOT dry quickly. Despite my thoughts that powerstretch would dry fast, it doesn't. I was on a run with Lynne, me in the Powerstretch and her in wool "thinnies"(see below). It rained, her gloves were dry by the end of the run, mine were still saturated and making my hands cold. After washing them yesterday morning, its now the afternoon after, and they are still pretty wet.
Good for an extra layer on a walk in or a run around, as long as you aren't going to be out for a long time in the wet- thats a quick recipe for cold hands.
Sealskinz active gloves
Sealskinz activity gloves |
Sealskinz general gloves
Sealskinz general gloves |
Sealskinz "handlebar" lobster gloves
Sealskinz lobster gloves- (with extra mud) |
Extremities "thinnie"
Outdoor designs windpro
Outdoor designs Wind pro |
Outdoor designs Stretch on
Cheap, not exactly anything proof, a good underglove. Dry quite fast, same kind of deal as the Extremities glove, but with less grip. Apologies, I don't have a pair to hand (haha) to take a picture of. They work well, but really don't keep your hands warm unless you are on a mission, keeping your exercise rate high.
Silk Liner gloves
Useless on their own. Buy a pair if you have a bigger glove and want an underglove. They boost the performance of a bigger glove by quite a lot. In the UK, a silk under glove with the sealskins lobster glove will see you through most things. As you can see from the picture, they aren't the most robust of things, but its made of silk, and really, you wouldn't expect them to.
Lynnes wool thinnies
She runs in these, loves them to bits, and has had then for a very long time. Made of wool, an excellent inner glove, brilliant running glove, and dries very fast, even when out exercising. They don't need to be turquoise, just in case you were wondering.
Icebreaker Merino base layer gloves
They look like the silk liner gloves above, and are a little thicker, however, they are as fragile, if not more so. For £20 a pair, they certainly aren't cheap as a base layer glove, are pretty much rubbish on their own, and rip quite suddenly and with little warning. Great if you have lots of money to throw at them, or have hands which never have hang nails or rough patches of skin which might rip and destroy them. Again, sorry I don't have a pair to take a picture of, they self-destructed on me this year.
Conclusion
So, if you want a decent glove for not too much cash, that is warm, wind resistant and grippy, go for something made of polartec windpro. If you are going to be moving fast, get a thinnie, make sure it dries out fast, but take note that weirdly enough, Powerstretch doesn't.
If you want properly waterproof, go sealskins.
And if you want something to be very very warm and insulated, make sure it has primaloft in it.
For a decent system this year, I'd have a pair of Extremities thinnies for running, Wind Pro for standing around in, and the Sealskinz Lobster Mitts for nasty weather.
Having said that, I think that the longer you are out, and the slower you are moving, the more gloves you should take with you. As one pair gets wet and cold, you can always have another dry and warm pair to whip out and put on.
Be prepared.
Hopefully that should have given you a bit of insight into what I have in terms of gloves. Not to say that there aren't a million and one more ideas out there about what is good. I suspect I shall be buying more gloves this year, as I mentioned, I get cold hands. Below are a few links to the companies mentioned above, be prepared, some of them do a LOT of different ones. Before you buy, make sure they fit. Happy Shopping.
Outdoor Designs
Extremities
Sealskinz
Mountain Hardwear
Icebreaker
I wear a pair of extremities windilites over a pair of wool thinnies/magic gloves. Magic gloves keep my hands warm enough but in rain at the OMM last year got soaked and I got cold, going without water/windproofing was daft but more to do with being a thrifty student than travelling light.
ReplyDeleteI destroyed a pair of silk liner gloves the first day I wore them, and didn't think they made much difference while I was at it. My icebreaker liners are still going strong after two years, and add a good 10 degrees to the efficiency of my ski gloves. Love em. Horses for courses.
ReplyDeleteI was kind of looking forward to trying out my sealskins last week, and it was warm and sunny the whole time. What a shame...
I've actually got 3 pairs of wool thinnies (all in different colours!) - even though there's no windproofness to them I often get too hot running in them.
ReplyDelete