Winter gloves and mitts review / General Outdoors Gloves Review - Montane, Rab, Extremities, Berghaus... Updated 2018

UPDATED January 2018 - To add the Montane Via Trail glove and to add in some more real world experiences. These gloves have all been used in the mountains across the UK regularly.

UPDATED March 2016 - Just a quick update. Been out in some serious winter conditions this year on and off. Found that the Ansell 78-101 work glove is just amazing for such a cheap price. Dries incredibly quickly (esp in Cairngorm winds!) I found the now discontinued Montane Thermostretch glove to be warm but pretty non-dextrous to be honest. For serious winter conditions and needs an under glove. The Outdry gloves were very good - they're dextrous, waterproof but not hugely warm. Finally, the Montane Extreme mitt is an essential bit of kit if you need to warm up your paws quickly and easily.

Instead of doing separate reviews, I thought I'd group together a bunch of gloves and mitts and tell you my experience with them all...

These aren't being compared against one another exactly, I'm just sharing my opinions! And this is by no means an exhaustive list. I realise the gloves listed all have different uses!

Here are the contenders... With a ruler next to the gloves to give some size comparisons... As a note, my hands fall just between medium and large frustratingly. I've got fairly long fingers (good for guitar playing!) Here's my hand next to a ruler if this helps...

1. Work type gloves (these are Toolzone latex fleece lined, Large) - £3-£5 a pair

These are cheap and cheerful. They are fairly close fitting and fairly hard-wearing, although you'll see the holes in them. These may be good as general gloves or climbing gloves as the weather gets a bit colder. The fleece lining doesn't really give that much warmth but these are solid cheap gloves. Everyone should have a pair, if only for gardening and work ;)


2. Rab Power Stretch Gloves (size large) - around £18-£20 a pair

Rab Power Stretch Gloves

Rab Power Strech gloves on the wrist

Powerstretch is a great fabric. It's 'relatively' hard-wearing. Don't go climbing and scrambling in them too often... But Powerstretch excels at being breathable, pretty warm and drying quickly. They also work well as liner gloves inside mitts. The Rab version is a long 'all in one' type of glove (no separate kind of 'wrist' part as some gloves do) which stretches a fair way down your wrist as you can see from the picture. The fingers of the gloves are very long and certainly much longer than the Berghaus equivalent. The cuff is also finished off nicely which is a great touch. These aren't actually my gloves so I haven't used them but I'd be as happy to use them as my Berghaus ones. Everyone should have a pair!

(Just as an aside, having tried on the Rab PowerStrech Contact gloves, the contact gloves' sizing is different - a medium in the Contact gloves is fine for me but the regular Power Stretch ones in medium were too small)


3. Outdoor Designs Outrage Gauntlet - OutDry (Waterproof). Large. Around £35-£45

Outdoor Designs Outrage Gauntlet

Outdoor Designs Outrage Gauntlet - on the wrist

The great thing about OutDry is that it's a bonded breathable membrane and so unlike some other gloves, the waterproof and breathable bit is together. I don't know about you but I also absolutely hate gloves that have detachable inners - they are (a) useless and (b) impossible to get back into the glove. Anyways, these gloves are waterproof and pretty breathable. They have a leather palm, a velcro seal, a detachable leash and drawcord wrist closure. On the back of the hand is high pile lining. These are great gloves when you need manoeuvrability in winter cold conditions with precipitation with a long wrist cuff. They are pre-curved so holding an ice axe is easy. My only 'gripe' is that these have a huge cuff area so they are brilliant if ice climbing (carabiner loop on each glove to hang right way up off your harness) but hard to fit under the waterproof cuffs. But this is more about knowing what to use the gloves for, rather than these specific gloves. I also don't like waterproof gloves as much as say pile gloves in the sense that they're not as breathable, hold water in when wet and take ages to dry out when wet! But that's separate to these excellent gloves. They are pretty warm too. Not really enough room for anything except a silk liner glove etc.


4. Montane Thermostretch Gloves - large - around £40

Montane Thermostretch Gloves - pile lining

Montane Thermostretch glove being worn

These are great gloves and pretty warm. They're fairly close fitting which I found perhaps slightly reduces the warmth (certainly in comparison the Outrage Gauntlets above have a looser fit) but they have Dryactiv 2000 pile lining on the inside. The palm has a leather palm, slightly pre-curved fingers for ice axe (one of its best uses!). There's also a nose wipe, a velcro wrist to lock in the heat and a DWR coating which works well. The gloves themselves aren't very long up the wrist so maybe get some wrist warmers if you're worried about warmth escaping up your wrists. They have a 4 way stretch as well, so these are great for winter / alpine use in my view.  Carabiner loops on each glove for storage. Small Montane logo on the palm of the glove very unobtrusively placed. Easy enough to use with ice axe and certainly warm but not quite so manoeuvrable as my Outdoor Design gloves - but stay warm when wet.


5. Montane Extreme Mitt - large - around £25-£30.

Montane Extreme Mitt and bag

Montane Extreme Mitt on the hand

The Extreme mitts have a Pertex classic outer shell, pile lining on the inside with some Primaloft (Gold - on these new ones, although 'Gold' is just a new name for normal Primaloft I believe) on the back of the hand. The palm is 'hypalon' which is pretty hard-wearing. I did read a review on these saying go one size up to layer but I personally found that going up to size XL was a stretch too far for my paws. Once I down-sized to large I found them much warmer. These are basically Montane's equivalent to the classic Buffalo mitt. They have an adjustable hem and wrist cinch which both help with warmth, keeping spindrift out etc. I have used these all over the place in all kinds of weathers and they have completely warmed my hands up within 5-10mins on a few winter days after fingers have got cold snapping photos. I cannot recommend them highly enough and think everyone should have a pair especially in winter. They can be put in a stuff sac as well which helps. Awesome!


6. Ansell Therm-A-Knit 78-101 gloves. Size 9. Around £6

Ansell Therm-AKnit gloves

Ansell Therm-A-Knit gloves live in action...

Ok so these don't need much explanation. They're a basic 'liner' style work glove with thermal properties. I'll say this about them - they're my go-to gloves. I've even worn these in minus C temperatures in the snow on their own as they dry super quick and are super light. Brilliant. Get a pair or two as you need a bunch of gloves like this when out on the hills, moors and mountains - breathable, quick drying and lightweight. Just get some.


7. Berghaus Power Stretch Gloves. Large / XL size. £15-£20

Berghaus Power Stretch Gloves

Berghaus Power Stretch gloves on the hand

One of the great things about Powerstretch is simply the warmth and lightweight nature of them - plus they dry very quickly. These Berghaus gloves are smaller than their Rab equivalents without a doubt and certainly the fingers are smaller. But they're absolutely fine and have had loads of use with me as part of a glove system of taking a bunch out on the hills in cold weather. I tend to use power stretch gloves a bit less if I'm scrambling - my go-to gloves for that are my Extremities Sticky Thickies. But again, Powerstretch gloves are great. I've read some reviews from people saying these gloves have been a bit inconsistent in terms of wear. But I've had no problems!


8. Extremities (Hi Wick) Sticky Thicky Gloves. Large 

Extremities Sticky Thicky gloves

Extremities Sticky Thicky gloves - on the paws

Initially described as a liner glove, these (if can be found) are more accurately described as hard-wearing multi-use thermal gloves! Chris Townsend wore these one winter while on a walk across Scotland and I can see why. I found that the medium was a bit too small and that the large was a bit too big (my fingers are right between the two sizes). I opted for large. I found that the highly grippy silicone palm means they aren't so easy to use as liner gloves, which is fine as I use them on their own. These are very durable and strong. Perhaps not as quick drying as I'd read about but brilliant for everyday walking, scrambling and hill walking. Having used them loads of times and washed them I can't see any holes or faults which is a testimony too their durability. Probably because these are slightly too big for my hands, I don't find them as warm as the Ansell ones. Great for scrambling though!


9. Montane Via Trail Glove

A recent experience led me to decide to get some hard wearing and lightweight decent touchscreen gloves. While wandering in the mountains during a brutally windy and yet beautiful day being whipped by spindrift, I decided to take a number of photos. This led to extremely cold hands due to removing gloves to take the pictures on a smartphone. The photos became more important than my fingers! Thankfully the Montane Extreme mitts were in the bag and warmed my tingling and slightly numb fingers up quickly. But I thought I needed to get that issue sorted! I'd got a pair of Lowe Alpine 'spiderman' touchscreen gloves which are great for around town but not hard wearing enough. So onto the Montane Via Trail glove...

These again fell between medium and large on my hand so I went for the large. They are quite big and fit up the arm a fair way. Designed for trail running, these are a softshell glove that are wind and rain resistant. There's a 'snot wipe' on the thumb of the gloves and they're touchscreen compatible. Perfect really and highly rated by ultralightoutdoorgear. These fit the job perfectly and will be fairly hard-wearing. The one thing is that you can feel some of the stitching on the inside of the glove so they have the potential to be *slightly* uncomfortable. But have been perfect so far. Just check sizing.

Montane Via Trail glove back of hand

Montane Via Trail glove

I hope this mini gloves review is genuinely helpful. I realise we all have different paw sizes and varied needs in our uses of gloves. But this is my guide - feel free as ever to write any comments etc below.