Super comfortable, award-winning Polartec PowerShield glove arrives for review.
New this winter, Montane's Sabretooth Glove is soft-shell handwear, designed - it says here - to be ideal for 'high exertion activities in cold conditions' and made from Polartec's PowerShield fabric finished off with durable leather palm and fingers.
APEX Award Winner
The glove is an award winner too, landing one of Polartec's Apex gongs for innovation. Okay, it's a bit of a closed party, but given the number of Polartec items out there, it's still not bad going. Anyway, the gloves rolled up last Friday and we've already used them twice over the weekend, once walking and once on the bike and first impressions are really positive.
They're light and neat with a really nice, close fit for us and a soft, almost luxurious feeling from the brushed tricot lining. The finger ends are 'rolled' for lack of bulk, in other words, there's no seam on the finger tip, which is nice. In addition, Montane has kept the underside of the wrist free of seams for use with leashed ice-tools, though this also works well with trekking pole straps.
PowerShield is still one of our favourite soft shell fabrics, though it's not usually seen in gloves. It's nigh on wind proof and also highly water resistant, but sacrifices ultimate wind proofing for much greater breathability. It's a trade-off we've always thought works well and our two outings with the Sabretooths bore that out.
Out On The Moors...
On a windy, damp, but not soaking weekend with temperatures a few degrees above freezing, they turned out to be spot on. Hands stayed warm and dry and dextrous even in brief showers and while they're not super warm, there's enough protection to cope if you're pumping out a bit of heat yourself. No internal dampness at the end of the day either - most fully wind and water proof gloves we've used end up feeling clammy from condensation.
Grip from the leather palm seems good as well, though a dip in the mud on the bike did cause a little slippiness on the bars. We reckon they'd work well with ice-tools, plenty of dexterity and a very neat fit, though in really cold conditions you might need a liner or a warmer glove depending on personal preference. Good for snow too we think, though not in proper pouring rain.
Other features include a snot wipe on the back of the thumb for those cold-condition sniffles and reflective details on the forefinger of both gloves for night-time visibility - good for turn signals on a bike or giving the finger to your mates maybe.
So Far, So Good...
All in all, a good start. Not super-warm - see Montane's Resolute Glove, which we also have in for review if you need a full mountain gauntlet, so far they've been too warm for winter - but a great fit, really comfortable in use, thoughtfully designed and so far offering a great compromise between weather protection, breathability and insulation if you're moving fast and warm.
More with an extended thrapping. The Montane Sabretooth Glove retails for £50 - it's an expensive fabric, PowerShield - more details at www.montane.co.uk.
