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  • Buying advice gloves

    There are many climbers and mountaineers in the Mountain Equipment team - and they are all crazy about gloves. One reason for this is the importance a glove has for a successful tour. You can't have ice-cold hands in the mountains. That makes it all the more important to take the time to choose the right glove.

    Ben Nevis, Lochaber

Each has its style

Whether climbing, mountaineering or ski touring, a glove needs different properties for each activity in the mountains. The right grip feeling is important for climbers, a mountaineer wants a glove for a variety of uses, and on ski tours the breathability of the material is crucial. The closure at the wrist and the cuff are also different for each glove.

Do you want to wear the glove under or over your jacket or do you need a particularly long cuff? These are personal preferences. Do you prefer finder gloves or mittens? Finder gloves are a bit more flexible, but mittens are warmer. Small details can be decisive, such as the loops to which the gloves are attached to the climbing harness with a carabiner.

  • Ben Nevis, Lochaber. Photo by Hamish Frost

Warmer is not always better

Where are you going? What are you going to do? How warm do the gloves need to be? Of course, thick gloves are usually warmer than thin ones. Mittens are always warmer. But even if it's cold, light gloves are usually sufficient for intense exercise. If you are prone to cold fingers, moderate exercise or severe cold, the glove may of course be thicker. The goal is to reach the right comfortable temperature for your hands without overheating. Sweaty hands are uncomfortable and damp gloves do not insulate as well. The combination of a thin and a thicker pair is the key to success on many tours.

Does it have to be waterproof?

Gloves with a membrane of GORE-TEX or DRILITE® are waterproof. In cold and wet environments, this is quite crucial, even if the material is somewhat less breathable and takes longer to dry if it gets wet from the inside. This cannot always be avoided if you put the glove on with already wet hands or if snow and water penetrate the cuff from above.

Gloves without a membrane get damp more quickly, but dry a little faster. In dry-cold conditions, they have clear advantages over the waterproof models.

Photo by Hamish Frost
  • Ben Nevis, Lochaber. Photo by Hamish Frost.

Glove features

Depending on what you plan to do in the mountains - long mountain tours, climbing or skiing - your gloves should be made for it! We show you the most important features of a glove.

  • Outer material

    The outer material should keep the weather at bay and be as robust as possible to withstand the wear and tear. We use a variety of different outer materials: from the lightweight, windproof and water-repellent DRILITE® Loft to the extremely robust, breathable EXOLITE Softshell and abrasion-resistant nylon variants.

  • Lining & Filling

    Each lining fabric is individually selected for each glove. High pile lining dries quickly and you can slip in even with wet hands. Micro-Fleece offers better grip properties. Highloft-Fleece warms without being bulky. Angerautes Tricot material supports the grip feeling in thin gloves. Our warmest models and the mittens have a synthetic filling of POLARLOFT® or PrimaLoft®. Best 800 goose down is used in the Redline Mitts.

  • Leather

    Leather is particularly robust and yet soft, weatherproof and offers a great feel. We choose from a variety of leathers for each glove and application. Pittards® Armor-Tan® goatskin for maximum grip is amazingly durable, Pittards® Oiltac offers maximum grip. Waterproof goatskin is suitable for year-round use. Goatskin is thinner than other types of leather, so it has more grip and is still extremely durable.

  • Cuffs & Cuffs

    Some gloves have flat, short cuffs, others have long, wide cuffs. Which design you choose is a matter of taste. Gloves with wider cuffs are easy to put on and take off, plus they can be pulled over your jacket sleeve to protect against snow from above (when climbing). Of course, they are also a bit heavier and thicker than gloves with narrower cuffs.

  • Nose zones

    To wipe a runny nose on the glove, you can use quite different materials. Most of them do not last very long. We use suede for our "nose zones". It is particularly soft, comfortable and can withstand quite a bit.

  • Carabiner loops

    The red or blue loops on some of our gloves are designed for hanging. In the upright position, you can attach them to a carabiner and then to the harness without rain or snow getting in from above. Some climbers prefer to tuck their gloves under their jackets, some find the carabiner attachment more practical.

  • Bla Bheinn, Isle of Skye. Photo by Hamish Frost.

The perfect glove system

In demanding conditions, no glove can perform at full capacity all day. Think about what gloves you use on a typical day of touring: For the sweaty approach, you'll need thin gloves. When it gets colder, you'll be glad for your thicker gloves from your backpack. If it rains, those gloves might get wet - in which case it would be great to have spare gloves. If you are climbing hard routes, you need gloves with optimal grip; after climbing, mittens are the best choice - they have less grip, but are much warmer.

On such a climbing day, you have thus ideally used five pairs of gloves. We are aware that you don't usually take that many gloves with you on tour. We want to make it clear with this: You can never have enough gloves. And a single pair is usually too few. Which and how many you need depends on you, the planned activity and the weather.

A good assortment of gloves can be the key to a successful day of touring. Some people wear thin gloves under thick finger or mitten gloves; others put on over-gloves when belaying or put warmth pads in their gloves. Still others stick with one pair of gloves until wind and weather force them to put on another pair. You have to try out what works best for you. We can't recommend THE perfect system for you. From our point of view, it is important to change gloves before you are forced to do so. Therefore, it is better to have one pair too many than one pair too few.

Dave MacLeod's recommendation for winter gloves

Dave MacLeod explains his glove system and presents his three favorite gloves for ice climbing.

Lochaber, Scotland

The best gloves for...

  • Hiking & Trekking

    If you're not doing high-altitude mountaineering, one pair of gloves is usually enough for hiking. If you're doing a lot of I/II terrain, where you sometimes need a hand on the rock, it's best to take gloves with a sturdy leather palm.

  • Ski tour

    Thin, wind-resistant softshell gloves are perfect for ski touring. But when it gets really cold, you need thicker models. Even though they often stay in the backpack for most of the tour, they are an important backup in the cold season.

  • Winter mountaineering

    In winter, it's best to have two or three pairs of gloves with you: on mild days or when you work up a good sweat, take thinner models. If it's raining or snowing, you'll want a thicker, sturdier glove. As a backup, we recommend lightweight mittens.

  • Expedition

    It is difficult to give a glove recommendation for any type of expedition. As a basic rule, the higher the mountain, the thicker the gloves you need. But hardly any expedition moves only in ice-cold areas - it's best to have an assortment of gloves of different thicknesses, from very light to our thickest mittens. It's also important that you test the gloves before the expedition - they have to fit you and you have to feel comfortable in them.

  • Amelie Kühne on 'Säkularis', Großglockner.

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