New for winter warm and waterproof mountain glove with an interesting mix of insulation materials.
What with winter rushing towards is with icy paws and a nasty case of spindrift breath, the appearance of Montane's new for 2011 Resolute Glove seems like a bit of a result.
It looks like an interesting, thoughtfully-designed mountain glove with some neat and interesting touches. Montane, for what its worth, describe it as 'an expedition gauntlet' but we'll go with a warm, waterproof winter mountain glove.
PrimaLoft And Pile
And it does feel pretty warm. The back of the glove is PrimaLoft lined, but the palm section uses a deep pile. Both fabrics should be insulative and fast drying but the pile feels quite thick and bulky. Montane says that the palm section of the glove crushes down and conforms to the shape of your hand nicely with use, so we'll be keeping an eye on that and how it performs with trekking poles and ice tools.
The liner doesn't detach from the glove, which may slow drying times slightly, even with moisture friendly fabrics in play. Outside, the glove uses a softshell stretch fabric called Granite with a waterproof FREEFLOW Mantle liner.
Leather Palm
The palm is water-resistant leather and there's a snot-wipe on the thumb. Closures and cutt and wrist are single-handed adjustable and there's also an elasticated wrist loop plus tethering point if you want to make your own arrangements for attachment.
The righthand glove has a finger loop so you can clip the glove to your harness with a carabiner leaving it inverted so it won't fill up with loose snow.
Fit?
They're too warm for current November temperatures, but they feel reassuringly warm. Fit seems decent too. Not quite as good as our current stratospherically expensive Arc'teryx gloves or Mountain Hardwear's latest pre-curved designs, but certainly not bad, though as with all gloves, we'd strongly suggest that you try them for personal fit before splashing the cash.
Overall looks like a potentially very decent all-round mountain workhorse that you could wear for general mountaineering and winter walking in cold conditions. Probably a little bulky for icefalls or fiddly climbing, but we'll see.
Price of the Resolute Glove is £60. More details at www.montane.co.uk.
There's also a Resolute Mitt which launched last winter, but that's a quite different beastie, being a two-part affair with removable pile and Pertex lobster inner mitt and a waterproof and breathable eVent outer with a Hypalon palm. Proper cold conditions only we suspect.
