By: Blonde One
‘Be prepared’ is the motto that Blonde Two and I were brought up with, and we certainly like to stand by it still. We try to be organised by having lists, rehearsals and lots of practice. We have practised lots of things: navigation (obviously), speeches to large and small audiences, and writing, to name a few.
Recently however I’ve been practising with something new. I’ve been trying to get my cold hand situation right ready for my next trip Munro bagging.
- I’ve tried big, big thick waterproof gloves but discovered that they’re far too bulky and don’t allow enough movement.
- I’ve tried my normal thinner waterproof gloves, with and without a disposable handwarmer. This didn’t work as the handwarmer wouldn’t fit and my hands, in particular my fingertips, ended up freezing.
- The attempt at wearing normal woollen ‘girl’ gloves didn’t work as my hands were cold and wet.
- I purchased some silk liners for use with the thinner waterproof gloves. This nearly worked except that my fingertips still got cold. I also managed to ruin the liners on the Velcro of my coat!
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Thanks to my very lovely friend Numbers I have found the solution! When I hit the mountains of Glencoe in a few months I will have warm and toasty hands and fingertips. Here’s how:
I will wear some (new) silk liners, some excellent waterproof mittens (leant to me by Numbers) and I will have a handwarmer in between the two that will go all the way down to my fingertips. When I need to carry out fiddly tasks I can take off the mittens with the handwarmer inside, and still not get frostbite because of the (already warmed) liners. Putting them back on will be easy as there’s no faffing around getting individual fingers in individual places.
It’s perfect don’t you think?
I have struggled for years with that problem and not yet found the perfect answer, BUT one big step forward is to attach elastic wrist loops to your gloves so when you want to “fiddle” you can just slip them off and let them dangle. There are many gloves I have tried which are ok until you hands become damp, or wet, then they are a struggle to get on. On the whole I prefer mittens because they go a fair way to solving that problem.
That difficulty to get damp hands into gloves is aggravated by elasticated cuffs that are far too tight.
Having longer than usual jacket sleeves helps – you can tuck gloved hands out of reach of the wet and cold until you need ’em. I have a pair of fishermen’s mittens with a turn-back end for fingers and thumb, specially for practising the organ in icy churches.
A subject I take interest in because A) I’m old so must presumably have the obligatory poor circulation, and B) I too sometimes engage in an unusual outdoor practice by operating fiddly switches or a Morse key. To keep my digits warm and flexible I have spent a lot of money on gloves/mitts over time. Hilleberg money. If I had to recommend just one glove for everyone as most likely to be useful most of the time, it’d be the one I’ve had with me for several years now, summer or winter – a close-fitting fingerless Windbloc/Windstopper glove with a fold-over mitt covering for the fingers/thumb. The type I use is no longer made, but the Lowe Alpine Turbine Convertible is very similar and keeping the wind off – any wind – is what I reckon to be the first condition for achieving warm hands. The option exists to expose the fingertips only for delicate work, or for cooling in warmer times, or use the mitt-cover and you’ll create a micro-climate after a few minutes as you’ll notice when going to fingerless position again. I actually have two pairs of these, one being bigger to allow a liner glove underneath. I’ve tried lots of liner gloves in all manner of fabrics natural and man-made over many years. The only sort I note as acceptably effective are merino wool blends – silk or man-made fibres let the wind through so fail, but even worse they seem to go into evaporative “chill-mode” when the mitt cover is removed. Mostly, I choose not to use a liner. The one drawback with Windstopper/Windbloc is that it’s not waterproof yet keeps fingers warmest if it’s kept dry so that calls for a waterproof cover – more on that after insulation is dealt with. If it’s anywhere near 5C or less I take insulation for hands every time, but it has to go over the glove/mitt in either configuration so must be mitt-shaped – no bother as I find a mitt warmer than a glove anyway. Insulation layer when it’s COLD is a Montane Extreme Mitt (pile, Pertex and Primaloft) in place of the earlier and long-favoured Buffalo pile-and-pertex mitts because the Montane is much warmer – it can be too warm, so I keep my Buffalo’s… Either the Buffalo or Montane mitts are sized to fit over the base-gloved hand and they’re both fitted with “idiot-loops” so they can be whipped off quickly for dexterity but not lost in a wind (if you ever notice a glove has disappeared, you’ll realise that “idiot-loops” are actually smart loops). Waterproof cover for any glove combination is either Extremities Tuffbags GTX (again with idiot-loops), or if the weather is beyond Dartmoor nuts and I’ll be out for some time I’ll take a pair of ME Pro Shell mitts with matching liner instead of the Tuffbags – that’s because I already had them, but that pairing although 100% effective is not as adaptable as the Montane/Tuff Bags combo. This must be working as I’ve stopped looking at gloves… Is it overkill? Too much money or effort? Some may say so. All I know is I can do what I need to do because I’ll be sure to have warm hands, and that’s reason enough for this choice.
We shall refer to you as ‘The Glove Expert’ from now on Rich. Thanks for the info, very useful to Scotland Blondes and wild swimming Blondes alike. One question, do you have a special room in which you keep all of your gloves? We hope you do 🙂