October 30, 2009 08:54 PM
Hi Andy,
Sorry to bother you, hope you don’t mind me picking your brain a little bit,
Planning my gear for my first Scottish Winter trip having booked a few days course climbing with Alan Kimber in February. I have bought some Black diamond punishers for my first layer
Looking for my mitt layer, Do you find that the Outdoor Research index mitt got very soggy? Would you recommend a waterproof option or happy with the fleece style mitt to be worn over?
Cheers
Hi
Bottom line is in Scotland always make sure you have a fully waterproof/windproof mitt as a back up/”oh shit” mitt. Personally this tends to be a water’ish-proof synthetic mitt, but a Dachstien would also be fine. This stands apart from tour climbing hand wear (maybe think of climbing hand wear like you would climbing shoes, with these mitts being mountaineering boots for your hand… if that makes sense?). I haven’t seen the BD Pushers but online they look a little heavy duty to wear with the index mitt, and look good enough to wear alone, and maybe you’d be better using the index mitts with some thinner liner gloves instead, and play around with what works best.
The thing to keep in mind is when you can no longer use your fingers you really are in a survival situation, wether that’s high on a frigid run out pitch, or trying to undo a screwgate on a rap station in a storm, so never compromise when it comes to gloves and mitts.
The index mitts (which I think is now defunct) is cheap, simple and robust, but isn’t the answer to the quest to the ultimate winter hand wear - just another step in the right direction.
