Review: waterproof gloves

Pair weight - 35 g, cost - $15, fabric - silnylon 40d

Silicone tops reliably protect your hands from wind, rain and snow and at the same time weigh extremely little.

Advantages: lightweight, durable, quick-drying

Disadvantages: a little cramped, inconvenient to work with a smartphone

I ordered these tops to protect my hands on rough hikes in Iceland and Norway. In the summer there are often rains with strong winds and in such weather, despite the above-zero temperature, your hands get very cold. The skin on your fingers begins to crack due to constant humidity and hypothermia. When things get really tight, regular fleece gloves can actually save the day. Of course, they get wet quickly, but they still protect from the wind and provide at least a little warmth. This method is normal as a one-time action, but if you constantly travel in those parts, then you would like a little more protection. After all, purely theoretically, rain could give way to frost, and then thoroughly wet mittens will cause a lot of problems. How can we solve this problem? Where can I buy waterproof gloves for hiking in the rain?

It turned out that there weren't many options. Any ski and snowboard mittens with a membrane are not suitable. Firstly, they are not as waterproof as we would like. In particular, the seams there are not taped with anything. Their moisture protection is designed more for snow than for water. Secondly, they have insulation. This means that it will be very difficult to dry such a mitten without a full-fledged heat source (a hot battery).

DexShell membrane gloves are much better suited for our task. They are thinner (easier to dry) and should not have problems with seams. But they are likely quite fragile (the membrane is easy to damage and difficult to repair), cost $25, and are not yet in my wardrobe. I already have silicone tops and now I’ll tell you more about them.

These mittens, like much other my equipment, were sewn from silicone at the KVNtrek travel studio. High density siliconized nylon (40 den) is used for sewing. I sealed the seams myself using classical technology (construction silicone + solvent). I also sewed rubber cord loops to the tops so that the mittens would not get lost when taking them off/on frequently. Pay attention to the cut of the tops - they are made with a bend so that when working with trekking poles your wrist is not exposed.

So far my entire experience with these mittens consists of just a couple of rainstorms in Iceland. This is clearly not enough to give final assessments, but preliminary I am satisfied with almost everything. Among the shortcomings, I would like to note the difficulty of working with the touch interface in such mittens. Yes, the phone screen responds to pressure through the mitten, but the accuracy is low and you won’t be able to perform any complex operations using the gloves. And I probably should have ordered a larger size - if you put a mitten on fleece gloves, your hand won’t fit easily and freely enough. As for the rest, everything is super - the tightening is comfortable, the fabric is good, the tops protect from rain.

By the way, don’t think that the inside will be completely dry. Some moisture will somehow get into the tops (for example, raindrops or sweat on your hands). But this does not spoil the overall picture - the hands feel comfortable inside.

It remains to check the operation of the mittens with snow and the picture will be almost complete.

Kirill Yasko, January 26, 2019