Hello folks,

 Believe it or not, of all the gear I've bought and sold over the years I've never had a proper pair of 'outdoors' gloves to call my own. It's a trivial aspect of the gear world that's sort of passed me by, being far less interesting than tents and ropes and rucksacks and things. So, what gloves should I buy?

Cheap and cheerful is the name of the game, but warm and durable is nice too. I'm off on a few climbing trips before things start freezing up, and I want something to keep my hands warm on the belays, that also won't fall apart from the constant ropework, etc. Is a glove just a glove, or does the discerning gentleman look for certain qualities in his fingerwear?

I know it sounds daft but ahve a look at Snickers workwear web site they do work gloves designed for cold and wet environments.  Swedes working up telegraph poles and poles digging up swedes that sort of thing.  Think it's www.snickersdirect.com or the like. Woh just looked up and that went blue, did I create a link without trying? this interweb thing is mad.

Just tried that link, its not that one.  Gonna try a few and report back.

Ok

It's www.snickersonline.co.uk and look at gloves.

"...................gloves designed for cold and wet environments.  Swedes working up telegraph poles and poles digging up swedes that sort of thing."

LOL. 

Completely stolen from another glove thread on another forum, glove advice here

I've no experience at all of gloves with climbing, but personally, I like a thin powerstretch glove like this and then a waterproof mitt to go on top if it's really wet and/or cold.  I find most gloves you see in the shops too big and bulky to wear comfortably - I just end up feeling like I've got big joke boxing gloves on each hand if I actually want to do anything with them.

Interesting link James, cheers. It confirmed all my suspicions about waterproof shelled gloves not being worth it.

Not sure I like the idea of mitts, can't see it being too easy belaying double ropes properly or picking my nose (!) Might get a pair of the Tyrol gloves t'other James mentioned, they look pretty good in the blurbs and have that cool traditional gnarly look going on.

I know this is a bit off-topic, but I like an excuse to bring in some science. It's not a well known fact, but your hands can become cold-adapted over time & exposure. That's no reason to leave gloves behind - we all now how horrible it can be when your hands are too cold to function... and how dangerous it could be to expose them to frostbite in sub-zero conditions.

But it is certainly worth noting that you can become better at coping with the cold if you allow yourself to be exposed to it regularly. I am not absolutely sure of the details, but I remember the history being something like this :

In the 1950's Canadian Airforce provided operators for the North American nuclear deterent and they had to be able to control the switches of their consoles in very cold conditions (unheated huts in the icy north). It was noted that they couldn't operate effectively with mitts on, but their fingers grew rapidly numb when they took them off. Scientists had observed that fish-filleters in Canadian docks who handled ice-cold fish had apparently developed the ability to work all day with wet cold hands. This kick-started research into cold-adaption and the 'cold induced vasodilation' response that you can develop to be able to resist the cold.

I can personally testify to this effect to some extent. I used to row in winter at sunrise and it was often cold enough for ice crystals to form on the oars between each dip in the river (air temperature below zero whilst the river was slightly above freezing). I never wear gloves for rowing as it is difficult to avoid infections of blisters. Over the course of a winter season, the temperatures would be getting lower but it also became easier to tolerate cold hands.

From other threads, Simon, I get the impression that you work outdoors for much of the year? This might well explain why you haven't given gloves much consideration! I suspect that you have cold-adapted hands already. So as you suggest, something for belays is a great idea, but take advantage of the fact that you can resist the cold to some extent and try not to lose it by always wearing gloves!

Some abstracts:

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4649(19550315)143%3A912%3C392%3ACAAFN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2

http://www.springerlink.com/content/uct5j49cyr5x4j5p/

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r0553281x37k203m/

swedes working up telegraph poles and poles digging up swedes

Thanks Tim, I've just come in from a poxy morning at work, i started at 4.30 and it went down hill from there,but that really made me laugh. cheers!

Gloves,  m&s £5 fleece with fake leather palm. Reversible fleece hat £5

mick

Interesting stuff, John. It makes sense now that you mention it, as I literally can't remember the last time I wore gloves to do anything. I won't be making a habit of it at any rate, but if it's baltic up there I want to keep my hands from turning numb before I need them to work again.

 Thanks everyone else for the suggestions, the collective knowledge of OM comes to the rescue again! I've ordered myself a pair of outdoor designs Tyrol jobbies for 15 quid.

Last winter I took my old full fingered cycling gloves. Its right about that finger acclimatisation business. I normally wear extremities sticky thicky or my M&S windstoppers (£5!), but found that the relatively thins fox cycling gloves worked a treat.

Slip these under my marmot waterproof shell gloves in the rain - super!