Montane Extreme Mitt - AW22

Product Information

If you’re unsure then I’d err on the side of caution and go for a slightly warmer glove than you imagine. There’s nothing worse than a numb pair of hands halfway through your day. Rab have built the Guide Glove in a pre-curved way that fits the natural shape of your hand to ensure your ability to clench or grip isn’t affected too much by the leather reinforcements and insulation. Helly Hansen have designed the Ullr Leather HT Glove as a ski glove, but, like the Columbia option here, that doesn’t mean that it’s unsuited to a winter walking or climbing environment.

A no-fuss beast of a mitt – you know something has been built with durability in mind when the stitching consists of Kevlar (the same material used for bulletproof vests). A tough outer fabric and strong goat leather across the palm both combined with a blend of pile fleece and PrimaLoft Gold for insulation make this built to take on the harshest of Scottish winter belays. Nothing is going to get past it. They have a really comfortable micro-fleece liner, and the Pertext outer fabric, whilst not as tough as the leather palm, certainly held the down well and was completely wind-proof. They are clearly a high quality product and seem well put together. They have really easy to use drawcords, nice and chunky, and a large gauntlet that covers the wrist easily. We had them in size large, and they were roomy for the size, swallowing hands easily. Insulation-wise, Helly Hansen have chosen PrimaLoft Gold fill – 80g of it – which means good insulation even if moisture has managed to creep past the waterproof liner. They’ve coupled this with a very comfortable microfleece lining. Full SpecificationsIn short, gloves tend to offer more dexterity, but less insulation, whilst mitts offer more insulation but less dexterity. We brought this in for the test not for its mountaineering credentials (it’s definitely not a mountaineering glove), but because it creates a brilliant ‘active’ glove for those of us who like to move at high tempos around the mountains in winter. There’s so much information available online when we’re shopping now, that it’s easy to find lots of detail about products like Montane Extreme Glove. This is of course really helpful, but there’s almost too much information available, so it’s important to know exactly what you’re looking for. The material the product is made from is often a sign of the quality for gloves. Take a look at the product details over at Cotswold Outdoor to get a feel for this.

Rab’s own attempt to uphold the reputation of the guide name has the classic shape of the ‘gauntlet’ style glove, with a long cuff to keep any snow and water from leaking into your wrists. It’s been given a little toughening up with reinforcement in the palm and thumb, providing sustained durability and the potential to really abuse it. You can definitely feel this when handling and using the gloves, more so than with something like the Salewa Ortles which is also featured in this round-up. Gloves have individual fingers that allow you to move each finger separately. Mittens usually only have a separate thumb (although there are some on the market with a separate index finger that gives you increased warmth with decreased mobility. The palms are reinforced with a grippy, rubbery material that is fairly robust, but not as tough as leather. We wouldn't want to climb tens of rough Cairngorm routes in these. We imagine that this will begin to soften off over time as we use the glove over a longer period, but still, it might be worth considering sizing up here. In this review we've looked at warmth, dexterity, water resistance, durability and overall design. We've climbed, skied, hiked and camped in these mitts at low temperatures and in terrible weather, and here are our findings.

Blog Archive

PrimaLoft Gold insulation / Pertex Shield / Kevlar stitching / split-finger lining / BDry waterproof insert. Whilst taking part in the Montane Yukon Arctic Ultra, I used the Punk Balaclava for the first time and it didn’t disappoint. As we know, a large proportion of our body heat is lost through our head so, once again, this is another essential piece of cold weather kit for climbing, hiking, running or any adventure where you are battling against the cold elements. “The Punk” as I like to call it, provides durable warmth and insulation, with breathability (nose and mouth) and true comfort is considered in the design. I have used it under both an outer shell hood and a helmet too without any issues to report, an absolute must have! 5. A good baselayer

To give that price some context we then looked at all of the products available from Cotswold Outdoor in the gloves category. We found 37 items in total. What’s the price of gloves? These mitts are fat, very fat. These mitts are warm, very warm. These mitts are not hugely dextrous due to the previous two facts, but you can't have it all! These gloves are definitely ski and snowboard focussed but they should make for a very capable winter hillwalking option.All in all, this will be a great companion to go with one of the mitts lower down in this roundup, or just for use during those adventures at pace. Full Specifications I've only had them out on a couple of day hikes so far but I do know one thing: these puppies are WARM! Really warm. The Primaloft insulation and pile lining mean almost instant warmth when you pull them on. Because they don't have a membrane they also breathe far better than most manufacturers 'Big Dumb Mitts'. My only concern with their design is how the Primaloft insulation handles any moisture build up on longer trips.

The warmth was excellent, easily up to the job in Alpine winter, Scotland and we would love to take them to the Greater Ranges, confident the UKC review budget would take more of a battering than our hands would in these warm, tough and fairly dextrous mitts.The Pamir features a single layer, windproof Polartec construction, with light insulation throughout. This light recipe does come at a trade off, however, with minimal protection around the whole glove – don’t expect this one to be suitable for winter climbing, rather, think trail running or fast hiking. My 'system' comprises of a couple of pairs of liner gloves, the Montane Extreme Mitts and some great big Gore Tex shells that will go over everything if necessary. This gives me loads of potential combinations. Liners, liners & shell, liners & mitts, mitts, mitts & shells or even liners, mitts and shells in serious weather. The idea of carrying two gloves is to keep the warmer pair as dry as possible. When winter climbing, on particularly wet days, I’ll travel with a third pair that I can switch over at belay stances, or when my main gloves become a little too damp to perform.