Gloves / mittens

[kcyanks1]

After writing this post in the thread about hand and foot warmers, I figured I'd start this poll. I have mittens with the liner. They don't work to well. My previous pair also had a liner and worked better, but still not warm enough IMO, at least after a few years. I can't remember what they were like at the way beginning. But my new ones right away weren't great.

One other thing about my new ones--the directions (yeah, directions for mittens!) said to warm them up before using them. Am I really supposed to take a hair dryer before I go out skiing to warm up my mittens? Does anyone do that?

 

[riverc0il]

i am a gloves kinda guy. i like being able to manipulate objects while wearing gloves and that is much harder to do with mittens. my hands rarely get cold. when my hands do get cold, it is usually because i started to sweat and then things got cold on the ride up the lift. ball up my fingers inside the glove for a minute or two and i am good to go.

if you ski single, a good way to pre-warm ski items is stick them on the passenger seat of your car and crank the heat up full blast en route to the ski area. i usually do this with my boots so they slide right on. when it gets too hot, i crack the window.

 

[kcyanks1]

if you ski single, a good way to pre-warm ski items is stick them on the passenger seat of your car and crank the heat up full blast en route to the ski area. i usually do this with my boots so they slide right on. when it gets too hot, i crack the window.

For my boots I actually have these dryer/warmer things that I stick into the boot and plug in overnight. But they are not warm at all by the time I get to putting them on; it is really the drying part that I use it for, because generally by the end of the day the insides of my boots are pretty damp. I used to have to wake up the next morning and use a hair dryer to dry them out, but then I found these dryers pretty cheaply and they do the trick.

I actually also try to stick my gloves by the heater overnight--again, more for drying than warming. I wonder if the reason I have trouble with my hands is that they sweat and get wet, as you suggested in the part of your post that I didn't quote.

The car thing is a good idea for the times when a heater is available. I am sure to never stick my boots in the trunk in the morning, because I don't want them to get cold, but haven't necessarily cranked up the heat to get them warm either.

 

[kcyanks1]

Seems like I'm in the minority with mittens so far. For those that use gloves, do your hands ever get cold? Have you ever used mittens before? If so, how do they compare to the gloves you have now?

 

[bvibert]

I voted gloves because thats what I use for the most part. Although I do own a pair of mittens for when it's really cold out. I haven't HAD to use them since I bought them last year, I did try them out a few times and they seemed to work good. I like gloves because I find it easier to do things. The mittens I have don't have any sort of fingers inside, I never saw the point of that either.

 

[John84]

Gloves all the way. Like Riv said, it's much easier to manipulate things when your fingers are free.

 

[RIDEr]

Prior to this last season I had gloves, but found that they didn't keep me as warm as my now mittens. The mittens I purchased were from Burton with an option to replace the inner liner with a warmer liner for colder days. Overall, I see that some people might not be able to handle the mittens and crank down their boots... however, I just used to it and can strap down my bindings when I get off the lift without having to take off my mittens.

 

[kcyanks1]

Prior to this last season I had gloves, but found that they didn't keep me as warm as my now mittens. The mittens I purchased were from Burton with an option to replace the inner liner with a warmer liner for colder days. Overall, I see that some people might not be able to handle the mittens and crank down their boots... however, I just used to it and can strap down my bindings when I get off the lift without having to take off my mittens.

I figured snowboarders might be more likely to use gloves because of the binding issue, but it seems like even the majority of the skiers here use gloves, and now you, a snowboarder, use mittens. I do agree with the point about mittens making it difficult to do things. If I have to get a tissue or get some food from a pocket while on a lift I have to take my mittens off, which is never a good thing on a cold day.