Hi Lawrence,

Well, I do most of my winter testing of gloves and mittens in the Mountain West, although I test them in a full range of conditions, and I find that many of the models I’ve reviewed are suitable for a variety of climates. But you’re asking about very extreme cold and the warmest mittens reviewed here, the Black Diamond Mercury Mitts, may not provide enough insulation for those conditions. You need a very fat pair of mittens like the Marmot Expedition Mitts.

Good luck.

And happy skiing to you, too, Jim.

Good point. I’ll choose a good pair of mittens for your list above for the colder days and windy days, then use my existing gloves for the above 25F days. Thanks for your help/guidance.
Happy skiing,
Jim

Hi Jim,

The Recon are pretty close to the Gordini; the OR Stormbound mitts are not as big and warm as the other two and not what I’d choose for downhill skiing on cold days. But if your main concern is keeping your hands warm in temps below the 20s F, I suggest you get the warmest mittens and consider a lighter pair for 20s and 30s temps. If you try to find one pair that’s ideal for all days of skiing, you might find your hands cold some days.

Michael,
Thank you so much for that reply. I wasn’t aware of the lower quality factor of the 550 down. Good to know. I just read your 12 tips on staying warm. Good info there, especially regarding eating more to get the fuel the body needs to create heat. That and staying hydrated which I am admittedly not the best at while skiing. I do prewarm my gear as you mentioned. I have the hand warmers in the gloves about 45 minutes prior to hitting the slopes and they are stuffed into my helmet for the car ride up . So they are very warm when I put them on. It just fades quickly anytime the temps are below the mid 20’s. Reading over the 8 Best Mittens article above again, I think just switching to a properly sized mitten should be a huge improvement over my current cheapie Burton gloves.
I’d hate to just go to the Gordini and have it possibly be too warm and have my hands sweat. So maybe the Black Diamond Recon or the OR Stormbound Sensor mitts would be good. One has individual finger slots in the mittens and one doesn’t. Any Pros and Cons to either of those two features besides wicking?
Thank you again. This is very helpful.

Thanks, Jim, I’m glad this review is helpful to you; and good question.

First of all, it sounds like you may have bad Raynaud’s, like I do. You should check out my “12 Pro Tips for Staying Warm Outdoors in Winter,” particularly tips 7 and 9 about carrying spare gloves or mittens and pre-warming them.

I have not used the Burton Gore-Tex Warmest Mitten, and while they look thick and warm, 550-fill down is pretty much the lowest-quality down sold and I’m not familiar with Thermacore, which to me suggests it may be a low-cost synthetic insulation. Your wife’s may not have kept your hands very warm simply because of the tight fit cutting off circulation. If the hand-warmer pocket helps you, I think you should prioritize that.

The warmest mittens reviewed here are the Gordini Polar Mitt. My chronically cold hands stay warm in them, even though they don’t have a hand-warmer pocket.

Good luck.

Great article. I am in the market for a set of mittens to replace my ski gloves. I’m 62 years old. I have a basic pair of Burton Gore-tex gloves. My issue is that if the temps are anywhere below 25 F, my fingers get painfully cold within the first 30-40 minutes of skiing. It’s always been this way for me and not because of my age. No color change in the fingertips, just very cold. Probably a blood circulation thing.

I did not see the “Burton Gore-Tex Warmest mitten” on your list. Was it not tested or it just did not make the cut? I’d like something with a wrist leash but that is not a deal breaker. I also noticed that none of the mittens above had hand warmer packet compatibility. At least I did not see that mentioned. The Burton I mentioned above do. Today it was about 15 degrees out and very windy here on the east coast. I borrowed my wifes’s Burton Gore-tex mittens (admittedly way too small/tight for me, but had 2 Hot Hands hand warmers in each back of the palm plus a liner glove. My fingers were just “OK” all except for my thumbs. They were painfully cold. I had to hit the lodge and warm them up about every 90 minutes.

Thoughts??

Best regards,
Jim

Sam,

Keep in mind that the battery is going to be close to your warm body and insulated within the glove, not the same exposure to cold as leaving it outside. Plus, the rechargeable lithium ion batteries used in many of them perform better in cold temps.

You’re welcome. Good luck.

Thanks Mixhael!
Yeah I’ve considered the electric gloves as well as socks as a serious option. Gauntlets are probably a really good idea. The use of a battery sounds great to me but has me worried about how it performs at those kinds of cold temps. I’ve never had the chance to run them though so it’s very interesting to think of how freeing it would be to just have warm hands for hours at a time and avoid the
Screaming barffies when I’m trying to get blood back into my finger tips haha.
I’ll look into these options more and go from there! Do you know much about brands of gauntlets? Or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks again buddy!

Hi Sam,

Those are extremely challenging temperatures and conditions to keeps hands warm. I have two suggestions for you and they involve significantly different costs.

Consider heated gloves or mittens that use a rechargeable battery, like the Outdoor Research Prevail Heated Gore-Tex Gloves or Mittens, which have three levels of heat settings and are constructed for hard use, warmth, and weather protection, boosted by the long gauntlet. Those may be the most effective system for deep cold like you encounter.

The less-expensive option would be a thick mitten with a long gauntlet and that’s reinforced with leather palms, and the warmest such mitten reviewed in this article is the Gordini Polar Mitt, which have kept my chronically-Raynaud’s fingers warm in below-zero wind chills while skiing. You might try sticking a chemical heat pack inside each mitten on the coldest days, too.

I hope that’s helpful and good luck. Thanks for the question.

Thanks buddy

Sam

Hi Grace,

Good question and I can relate to fingers getting cold very quickly. Yes, you can use liners under mittens IF they fit together well; some mittens won’t have the space for another hand layer underneath. I suggest you get the mittens first and try on liners in a store to see whether any model fits in the mittens. See some warm liner gloves in my review of “The Best Gloves for Winter.”

Also, the ski lift is probably the coldest spot to pull a mitten off; plus, you’re sitting and not producing body heat, so your entire body is cooling off, which will affect your hands and feet first. I suggest you stop in a spot protected from wind while skiing downhill to pull off a mitten and check your phone because you’ll be moving and warming up again soon.

You can also tuck a mitten inside your jacket to keep it warm while it’s off your hand. See my “12 Pro Tips for Staying Warm Outdoors in Winter.”

Good luck.