Montane Extreme Mitt - AW22

Product Information

The palms of the mitts have a grippy reinforced material that seems fairly hard wearing (so far) but we don't think it has quite the beef of a real leather palm (get it!). 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.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the amount of insulation required depends on the activity you’re buying the glove for. For example, a winter climbing or ski touring glove will need slightly less insulation than that of a walking glove. A glove that will be specifically used when sitting on belay ledges on the north face of the Ben will require a fair bit of insulation. Our test team climbed Scottish grade V in these bad boys, as well as days skiing, and the obligatory wet walk-ins and outs! They have performed excellently throughout and it was actually very hard to tell the difference between these and 'Best in Test' winners from Mountain Equipment. They were very very similar in spec. You can tell these are a well-thought-out product, and the little extras like the red loops to clip them to a harness (upside down of course) and the slight curve to the palm to follow the natural shape of the hard, means they aren't just a big bag full of down.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. 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. We’re really pleased to have scored Montane Extreme Glove so highly, givimg it 9.5 out of 10, making it well above the average for all gloves. 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.

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? 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. Aside from the choice between a mitt or a glove, insulation also has a big influence on how dexterous a glove is. In short, more insulation equals more warmth, but that trade off is a less flexible glove. You’ll have an idea yourself how much insulation you require. 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.Weighing in at (for the size) a fairly light weight of 307g the Ulvetanna mitts are are not waterproof, but are windproof and filled with a hydrophobic down, so do offer some wet weather performance; however they are designed for temperatures where water will be in a white, frozen form, not in the rain type form! They have a leather palm for added grip and durability, and this, combined with a good fit (for a fat down mitt) does add quite a bit of usability to the mitts.

The down insulated Ulvetanna mitts from Berghaus are by far the warmest in this test and are clearly aimed at extremely cold temperatures and high altitudes. They are overkill for Scottish winter, but could be a finger saver in the harshest of Alpine winter conditions. But they are best suited to the Greater Ranges. Price – as you’d expect the price of a product can be an instantly recognisable factor on what sort of quality you can expect. Whoever came up with the phrase “you get what you pay for” pretty much hit the nail on the head. Whilst it’s not always the case and there are many bargains to be had, you can as a general rule, expect the higher priced products to offer better quality than a the cheapest option. We’ll dive into the price of Montane Extreme Glove in more detail in a moment. The leather feels quite soft in comparison to some of the other gloves here, like the Rab Guide – so it’s perhaps a little less durable. However, this makes the glove feel nicely dexterous straight from the get-go with that worn in comfort felt from day one. Full Specifications They were quite big for the size, and we liked the roomy nature of the Crew Mitts, and we found them fairly dextrous too. They didn't win simply because they weighed a bit more than the other mitts. When in use we couldn't tell at all (what's 100g!) but in the specs table it became clear they were tipping the scales at over 300g - well you get durability for your weight with these well built bruisers. Mitts: perhaps not the sexiest of outdoor clothing, but if the weather is at its worst, or you suffer from cold extremities, then these are the things that will make the biggest difference to your hands.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 Specifications