It was -15 here this morning. Yesterday it was a balmy 8 while I was clearing the snow off the driveway. I was outside about 7 minutes, wearing what I thought were decent gloves, and my fingers were not just cold, but in pain from the cold.
So I tried my thicker gloves, I think they have down in them, and they were no better. In fact, I put on some thinner gloves, almost driving gloves, on and then put the thicker gloves on over those, and my fingers STILL were freezing cold.
So, I assume we have skiers and hikers and others who know gloves better than I do - could I get a recommendation for gloves that actually will keep my hands and fingers warm and allow me to have some mobility?
I wear mittens to keep my hands warm when skiing or snowboarding. Generally speaking mittens are warmer than gloves because your fingers all stay together and share heat rather than each one having to produce its own heat.
But mittens don’t work well with the mobility angle. When hiking I’ll sometimes do a two pronged approach of base layer gloves and larger gloves. The base layer gloves are usually good for keeping body heat in but have no water or wind protection. It decreases mobility but you can take off the outer gloves as needed and still be okay with manual dexterity.
As others have hinted if you REALLY want to keep your fingers warm, mittens are far more superior to gloves–they seal in your body heat. No reason you can’t use mittens for snow shoveling, operating a snow blower, cleaning off your car, etc.
I wear gloves when skiing/boarding, but on those chairlifts up, I pull my fingers back in from my gloves and make fists.
The problem is one that combines a few factors. It’s really bloody cold out, and you’re impinging your circulation to your fingers by gripping a snow shovel haft or ski poles or whatever. The combination of cold and even slightly, minutely reduced circulation to your fingers causes them to start getting colder.
So…yeah. You’re not going to find real mobility from gloves that aren’t super thick. If it’s a problem, look at some mittens.
I have some awesome gloves, but I forget what kind they are… Let’s see.
I believe they are similar to these.
Mine are definitely Damascus, the only label in them says “hand armor”.
There are some key things that I love about them. They have that outlast phase change material that lets them regulate your hand temperature. So they are very warm, but never too warm.
Also, they are thin and preserve your manual dexterity. I believe they are actually intended as police gloves where you can do body searches and stuff and will protect your hands but you can still feel stuff while wearing them.
