How Much To Spend On Ski Gloves

By Hana Wheeler

April 12, 2024

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Notable for a Tight Budget

Kinco Pigskin Leather

Insulation: HeatKeep Thermal Polyester Liner | Shell Material: Pigskin leather

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The Kinco Pigskin is a marked staple for guides and budget-savvy skiers. This is an inexpensive ski glove alternative and a long-loved favorite for its stellar value. The leather breathes well enough while offering sufficient warmth for aerobic days on the mountain. Because of its bigger fit, you can add a small liner to enhance this warmth. It is essentially a work glove that easily doubles as a mid-weight ski glove for backcountry skiing, warm-ish resort days, or winter tasks around the house.

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Compared to the competition, this model is not as warm, and the leather (and cloth exterior) is susceptible to water absorption. Although it did not perform as well as other contenders we tested, it does get the job done for a fraction of the cost. If you’re looking to spend the absolute minimum on ski gloves, check out the all-leather pigskin Kinco, best for any penny pincher looking for a great deal.

Read more: Kinco Pigskin Leather – Women’s review

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Why You Should Trust Us

This review started with plenty of research into the ski glove and mitten market to decide which models to include in our selection for hands-on testing. After an initial cut of over 80 models was identified, we selected the most compelling group of women’s gloves and mittens to test in the field and lab. We use them in real-world situations for several months, skiing and snowboarding in wet climates, dry ones, hiking, riding lifts, and playing in the backcountry. We employ controlled in-house tests, too, for warmth retention and water resistance, which involves putting the gloves in a freezer with a temperature sensor and submersion in water.

Our testing of women’s ski gloves is divided into five rating metrics:

Warmth (25% of overall score weighting)

Water Resistance (25% weighting)

Dexterity (25% weighting)

Durability (15% weighting)

Features (10% weighting)

This review is brought to you by two experienced testers,Amber King and Jackie Kearney. Originally hailing from the cold north of Canada, Amber moved to the US in 2011 and landed in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. She has a healthy appreciation for warm hands in cold conditions, and you can bet she’s packing a good pair of ski gloves on her backcountry splitboard missions. She gets out for at least 100 days in the winter, playing at Telluride Ski Resort and backcountry splitboarding locally on Red Mountain Pass, just South of Ouray, CO.

Jackie is also no stranger to the challenges of warming hands in the mountains. She has skied all over North America and works professionally as a ski patroller. Her first home in the mountain west was in the San Juan Mountains, but she left for several seasons to gain an appreciation for the wet and windy Sierra Crest, working at Kirkwood Ski Resort. She has since returned to her home in the San Juans to patrol at Telluride Ski Resort. Her experience has familiarized her with skiing in every kind of condition that Mother Nature has to offer.

Analysis and Test Results

A good pair of ski gloves or mittens will help keep your hands warm while you carve your way down powder runs at the resort or while descending sweet couloirs in far off-lands. We’ve tested each glove and mitt across the areas of warmth, water resistance, dexterity, durability, and features to help you find the one that’s the best fit for your needs.

Value

Finding a glove that doesn’t blow your entire gear budget for the season is always nice. With all of the wear and tear we put on these little pieces of equipment, finding a glove or mitten that doesn’t feel precious may be a priority for you. The REI Guide Mitten strikes us as a lower-priced option, just a little more expensive than your standard work glove, with performance adequate for most days out. With diligent water resistance treatment, this model can keep your fingers happy. This said, this mitten isn’t warm enough for absolutely frigid days, and its water resistance is variable. Its price reflects this.

The Burton Gore-Tex Mitten is another favorite. Though slightly pricier than the REI Guide Mitten, it’s a noticeably higher-quality product. We think it’s one of the more versatile mitts out there and is a great value. The Dakine Camino also stands out as one of the most inexpensive options with performance to match most resort days that aren’t too cold or wet. We are also impressed by its breathability, which makes it versatile enough to extend to backcountry use.

One of the warmest ski gloves we tested is the Gordini Gore-Tex Down III, which is loaded with down insulation. It’s about the same price as the Burton Deluxe Gore-Tex Glove, another high-value glove, but not as dexterous. Check out any of these models if you’re trying to keep costs low without sacrificing too much performance.

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Warmth

Exploring at the ski resort or skiing in the backcountry requires a glove or mitt that will keep your hands warm, whether you’re working up a sweat or hanging out on a chairlift. A solid option will not only provide ample amounts of high-quality insulation that stays warm when wet and breathes well to wick away moisture when you sweat. Both these metrics work together to keep you warm when the temperatures plummet.

We skied with each pair of mittens and gloves at resorts and hiked uphill for hours on backcountry tours. Conditions ranged from warm and sunny to cold and blustery. When assessing warmth and breathability, we first looked at the glove’s anatomy, noting insulating features and points of ventilation. We also looked at how well the liners wicked away sweat to keep the skin dry for warmth all day long. We also performed objective tests that involved sticking each pair into the freezer and measuring the temperature change. These tests helped us assess which ski gloves and mittens were the warmest and which simply didn’t perform.

Warmth: Mittens

If your hands run cold and you need something that’ll keep them toasty all day long, a mitten is by far a better option than a glove. The big tradeoff is dexterity, but if you’re simply sitting on a chairlift and just need to be able to hold your ski poles, a mitten will work just fine. Those built with a double construction offer more dexterity than those with a single glove construction, and virtually all of the mittens are warmer than any of the ski gloves tested.

Warmth: Gloves

Gloves aren’t as warm as mittens simply because the fingers are not articulated together. Most people that choose a glove probably do so for increased dexterity with the tradeoff of a slight reduction in warmth. While there are warm gloves out there, don’t expect them to score as high as mittens in this metric.

The warmest ski gloves that we’ve tested so far are the Gordini Gore-Tex Down III, Arc’teryx Fission SV, OR Couloir Sensor, and the Black Diamond Guide. Part of the warmth of a glove comes from your fingers’ ability to move to generate warmth while you sit still. The Gordini Gore-Tex Down III glove is packed with insulation, making our fingers feel more confined than sleeker gloves, but as long as you get the fit right, the Down III offers great warmth. The Fission SV really stands out for its combination of warmth and dexterity. We didn’t expect these gloves would keep our fingers warm when we unboxed them, but we were wrong. The Fission SV does as good a job of keeping fingers warm as any gloves we’ve come across while still remaining dexterous enough for most tasks.

We also like the Black Diamond Guide which has 170 grams of Primaloft Insulation. The insulation is packed around the back of the hand and the cuff, resulting in one of the warmest glove models we’ve had the pleasure of testing.

Even though these gloves offer ample warmth, none of them have a double-glove construction. Most of the other gloves tested feature this construction, which has better versatility and the option for enhanced breathability. For example, the Burton Gore-Tex Deluxe Glove has a thin liner that helps to wick moisture away from the hands, and its nylon construction is surprisingly warm. The Dakine Camino has a removable liner but is not meant for the coldest of days. It has a thinner, more breathable construction that does well in the backcountry, but for sitting still in cold weather, you might find the need for a hand warmer or extra layer of insulation.

Water Resistance

Water resistance goes hand-in-hand with warmth. A product that gets wet and cold after a few hours is useless. It’s important to find a ski glove or mitten that protects from the elements. When testing water resistance, we performed field and at-home tests. We wore each in sub-zero temperatures, made snow angels, and dug snow pits. We skied at the resort and snowboarded down mountains through both wet and dry climates. To verify our subjective field tests, we weighed them, put them in a sink of water, squeezed 100 times, and observed to see which ones absorbed a lot of water and which ones leaked. While you wouldn’t normally put your hand in puddles at the resort, this helps us determine each glove and mitt’s wet-weather limits.

During our tests, the gloves and mitts that do best in our tests are constructed from Gore-Tex fabric or use a Gore-Tex membrane inside. Leather is waterproof but requires constant care. Even when taken care of properly, the leather gloves tested eventually saturated after super wet days in the field. If your hands are going to be in the snow, opt for Gore-Tex instead of leather. Nylon will eventually absorb and stretch, so be sure you know your materials and look at what each is made from.

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Water Resistance: Mittens

The Black Diamond Mercury Mitt provides complete water protection on both the ski hill and in our tests, only absorbing 2.5-oz of water. The Pertex shell and Gore-tex are quite waterproof, offering all the water resistance you’d need on the hill. It’s much more water-resistant than the Hestra Heli-Mitt and only a little more water-resistant than the Burton Gore-tex Mitten.

The Hestra Heli-Mitt also offers provides great water resistance out of the package, but it breaks down after a few seasons of use. It is constructed of a Triton three-layer fabric that does saturate eventually, and during our squeeze tests, it leaked water through the seams. In the field, though, it managed to stay relatively dry and offered great protection at the resort during both wet and dry days. It just needs upkeep.

Water Resistance: Gloves

The Arc’teryx Fission SV and OR Couloir both offer awesome weather protection. The Couloir is constructed mostly of leather and polyester, finished with a Gore-tex insert, while the Fission is lighter, made with Arc’teryx’s proprietary material Fortius 1.0 (nylon and elastane) along with a Gore-tex insert and a leather palm. When digging snow pits with both the Couloir and Fission SV, both provide sufficient protection. Both eventually had nylon materials saturate in the snow after a few months of use, but neither had the moisture penetrate to the interior. Both are great options for wet weather, with the Fission holding a little less water in its fabric than the Couloir.

Usually, synthetic materials treated with DWR resist water saturation better than leather. Generally, we found that all-leather construction gloves like the Hestra Fall-Line Five-finger and Kinco started to absorb water faster than their synthetic counterparts.

The Burton Deluxe Gore-Tex and Gordini Down III also do well in wet weather. Both are constructed with a Nylon shell and Gore-Tex insert, and both offer decent protection. In our water tests, the Burton Deluxe didn’t leak at all. The Gordini Down III had a little more water penetration at the fingertips by the end of the test. This observation was further showcased when we saw the Down III saturate much more quickly than the Deluxe when digging pits and playing in the snow. Of the high-value options out there, we feel the Burton Deluxe offers the best protection for a low price.

Dexterity

Having dexterity in a ski glove or mitten simply means that you can perform simple tasks like zipping up zippers or transitioning to downhill mode on a ski tour without having to take off your gloves. If you’re a professional in the field, this is important, and for all, it means better overall warmth. You don’t risk losing your glove on a chair lift, and you stay warmer by simply keeping your glove on. To test this metric, we slipped each on, evaluated its materials and construction, and tried to perform simple tasks. Typically the higher scorers here were those with a gloved construction and thinner design, which both help offer better mobility.

Dexterity: Gloves

If you care about dexterity, buy a ski glove. The best performers in this category are gloves with a thinner design and flexible materials. The best performer is the Arc’teryx Fission SV as the most dexterous of the bunch. Even though it’s warm, the insulation in the fingers and on the palm is not very bulky, and you can feel what you’re doing. The materials are soft, supple, and flexible, which adds to the mobility of this glove. No other glove we tested comes close to its fluid motion. It’s important to note this glove has a unisex fit, so be sure to consult the fit chart and possibly size down.

The Dakine Camino is a thick glove with less insulation in the fingers, which increases mobility, similar to the Burton Deluxe. These offer suitable mobility for most actions you’ll perform at a resort or in the backcountry. We could easily do backcountry transitions and perform fine tasks with ease. The Kinco Pigskin (if you get the right fit) has thicker construction in the fingers, but the leather is pretty flexible, allowing you to easily grip your pole, open your backpack, and buckle ski boots without too much trouble.

Dexterity: Mittens

Mittens are less dexterous and earn quite low points in this category. This is because, in most designs, the fingers are locked together, and you can’t use your index finger without a swath of material getting in the way.

Thinner mittens like the Burton Gore-Tex Mitten and Hestra Heli-Mitt have a surprising amount of dexterity for a mitten. The Heli Mitt has a very thin leather shell and compressible liner that allows you to grab items. The Burton Gore-Tex Mitt has a similar design but has a gloved liner that allows you to take off the shell when you need to perform fine motor tasks without exposing bare skin to the cold air. As a result of its thinner design and versatility, it’s one of the most dexterous mittens we’ve ever tested.

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Durability

It’s a bummer to go out and spend money on an expensive pair of ski gloves that disintegrates after one season. Each model we tested endured double-digit hours of intense use in warm and dry climates to ensure that our scoring was not only fair but reflected what a glove would look like after a full season. We also washed each liner to see which bounced back and which didn’t — reflecting which would lose warmth after just a few big days out.

The models with goatskin leather outers, such as the Arc’teryx Fission SV, Hestra Fall-Line 5-finger, and Black Diamond Mercury Mitt, have the most durable shells as opposed to those constructed of nylon, like the Gordini GTX Storm Glove. These gloves with leather palms are far more durable over time but require maintenance as wet later can wear out more quickly. Those that incorporate Gore-Tex into the external construction are also quite durable.

Liners are also important when considering durability. A liner that packs out and doesn’t retain warmth isn’t necessarily the best investment. For those with hi-pile liners, you can expect this to happen, though some wear out faster than others. Since we’ve been at this game for the last several years, we have the experience to comment on it. For example, the Hestra Heli-Mitt will eventually pack out, but it took about three years of hard use before we felt the need to replace it finally.

The Arc’teryx Fission glove has proven to be very durable for our testers and has continued to work well even after a few years of use. The light and flexible construction has proven to be surprisingly durable and continues to last us through the years. The more we use it, the more we are sold on the initial investment.

Features

We also consider features that you might be looking for like wrist leashes, nose wipes, mini goggle wipers, and more. Below, we outline the gloves and mittens with the features that you might seek.

Removable Liners

Removable liners make gloves versatile for different conditions. Typically skiers find this feature helpful in the backcountry or for more aerobic skiing. Removable liners can be changed out for thicker or thinner options. The products featuring a removable liner in this review include the Hestra Heli Mitt, Burton Gore-Tex Deluxe, Outdoor Research Gore-tex Arete II, and Burton Gore-Tex Mitten. The Black Diamond Guide Glove, and Black Diamond Mercury Mitt both feature water-resistant liners that can be used on their own as a secondary glove or mitt.

Nose Wipe

This is a softer material on the thumb that some skiers might find helpful to wipe their noses or goggles. Products with a nose wipe include the Burton Gore-Tex Mitten, Burton Gore-Tex Deluxe Glove, the Outdoor Research Gore-tex Arete II , OR Couloir, REI Guide Mitten, Gordini Gore-Tex Down III, Gordini GTX Storm Glove, Black Diamond Guide, Black Diamond Mercury Mitt, and Dakine Camino. The Camino has a nose wipe on one thumb and a goggle wipe on the other, which we appreciate. A nice touch.

Leashes

Leashes attach to your wrist, which helps to prevent that dreaded moment when you drop your ski glove off the chairlift. Most are removable. All gloves in this review featured this option except the Kinco Pigskin Leather Gloves, REI Guide Mitten, Black Diamond Mercury Mitt, and Black Diamond Guide Glove. While it takes a little effort, it isn’t that hard to fashion one’s own leashes if the gloves you buy don’t already have them.

Hand Warmer Pocket

This is a small pouch or zippered pocket to place a handwarmer for extra cold days. Models with a hand warmer pocket include the Gordini Gore-Tex Down III, Gordini GTX Storm Glove, Burton Gore-tex Mitten, Dakine Camino, and the Burton Gore-Tex Deluxe.

Cinch and Release Cuff

A cinch and release cuff with a large enough mechanism that can be used with gloves on. All products we tested have this feature except the Kinco Pigskin Gloves and REI Guide Mittens.

Carabiner Loops

These are located on the finger, so climbers can attach gloves to a harness with the fingers up so snow or ice doesn’t fall inside. The models that have this feature are the Arc’teryx Fission Glove, Black Diamond Guide, Black Diamond Mercury Mitt, OR Couloir Sensor, and Outdoor Research Gore-tex Arete II. These gloves also work well for ice climbing or moving through alpine terrain while wearing a harness.

Touch Screen Compatibility

None of the outer gloves have touchscreen compatibility, which is sad given how technology-driven our society is. However, some products have a touchscreen-compatible liner, so you don’t have to have off the entire glove. Products include the Burton Gore-Tex Deluxe, Burton Gore-Tex Mitten, OR Gore-tex Arete II, and Dakine Camino. Notably, the OR Couloir Sensor’s touchscreen compatibility did not function during our tests.

Of all the products tested, the Dakine Camino and Burton Deluxe gloves have the most features. Stacked with touchscreen compatibility, handwarmer pockets, a double-glove construction, and more, they are meant to keep you prepared and happy on the slopes. The Camino features most of these, with an added goggle wipe as a bonus.

Conclusion

When you’re out in the snow all day long, a great set of gloves or mittens is a key element of your kit. If you’re looking for the top-rated winter gloves for general purpose use, we’ve tested those too. Our reviews include the best options on the market in the name of helping you find exactly what you’re looking for. Now, all that’s left to do is choose a pair that you think will work best for your needs and budget. Happy glove hunting, we’ll see you on the slopes.

Source: https://t-tees.com
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