Best Ski Gloves
Best Ski Gloves – Important Criteria You Should Be Looking For
photo credit: king damus
If you are an regular skier, buying the best ski gloves will add a lot of pleasure to your skiing activities. Buying inferior ones, on the other hand, will result in an unpleasant experience that might have you heading off the slopes much sooner than you planned to. ‘Best’ in this sense does not automatically mean the most expensive.
Probably the biggest challenge that manufacturers of ski gloves face is to make the gloves waterproof while still allowing it to ‘breathe’. It has to keep water out while not trapping sweat inside. Without that you will either end up with wet hands very soon, or the gloves will be so totally waterproof that nothing comes out either. When your body starts cooling down therefore, the sweat trapped inside the gloves will start to cool down as well, creating an unpleasant, chilly experience.
Columbia Women’s Wintertrainer ll Glove
When you buy ski gloves it is highly important that they should be certified as ‘waterproof’. Don’t even consider something that merely says ‘water-resistant’. Then talk to the sales person about the type of material it is made of. Good ski gloves should be made of material that blocks water while allowing vapor to escape. An example of this is the well-known Gore-Tex, but there are other types of material that might even work better.
Secondly the gloves should obviously keep your hands warm. You certainly don’t want to end up with frostbite while wearing an expensive pair of ski gloves. Insulation material should be of a high quality to keep body heat from escaping.
Patagonia Kid’s Synchilla Gloves
Another important aspect to consider is the material they used for the area that covers the inside of your palms and fingers. It’s very important that this should provide you with a good grip, while not constricting movement. It’s no use the material is so thick and protective that it will allow you to grab a bear by its teeth without feeling anything if you can hardly bend your fingers when wearing the gloves. Many manufacturers use leather for this area, but there are also excellent gloves using synthetic material.
Something else to look at is the closure system that is used on the cuffs of the gloves. Some gloves use Velcro. Others use wrist straps. Carefully study this area to make sure the quality is above suspicion. This is a part of the glove that suffers a lot of wear and tear and once the gloves can’t be closed any more they become useless.
Black Diamond Men’s Guide Glove
Style is another consideration when buying ski gloves. Whether you like flashy red gloves with a look that says ‘I want to be seen’ or more subdued two-tone gloves with leather inserts depends on your character and the image you would like to project.
Columbia Women’s Titanium Bugaboo IC Glove
Choosing the best ski gloves is therefore a matter of attention to detail. Make sure the material is rugged and well-stitched. Fit on the gloves to make sure they are warm and comfortable and don’t make your hands sweat. And get your partner’s opinion when it comes to deciding whether the design fits your image.
Columbia Men’s Whirlibird Glove
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s worth noting that this article puts a rather old-school emphasis on waterproofness. Many people participating in high activity sports have found breathable & waterproof are at best partially compatible concepts as far as gloves are concerned & that they would rather a windproof & water resistant glove that might allow then ingress of a some damp, but will dry easily on the hand, than a glove that will get wet from within & remain so until force dried overnight.
I’ve always had aweful ski gloves. I think next winter will be about time to invest in some good ones.
Every-time I see sites as good as this because I should stop browsing and start working on mine