Mountain Hardwear Hydra Glove - 2009 BCS

Took a pair of these ice and mixed climbing for four days in temps hovering around 0C. Dexterity wise they are excellent, and the OutDry membrane seems awesome, didn't notice any moisture from sweat or leakage. One thing which has been commented on is the leather palm, Jon Webb has said that the leather comes treated but as with others I definitely found my leather wetting out fairly easily. I imagine that treated them with a leather waterproofing wax or gel would prevent this, but as it was I found my hands getting cold occasionally from the wetted leather.

These are definitely not the warmest gloves around but for the alpine climbing for which they are designed they are great: never had to remove them to fiddle with gear or ropes. One thing that disappointed me a bit was the fact that the fleecy inner layer is not bonded to the outer layers so when taking them off with sweaty hands I sometimes found myself pulling the fingers out a bit, which made them slightly fiddly to get back on again. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but I think it's be nice if all 3 layers were bonded together to maximise dexterity and ease of use.

I have yet to use these for snowboarding but I have tested these for waterproofness. I submerged them for a full minute in a sink of water and not one drop came through. Pretty impressive. I was able to stick the Stoic liner glove under this shell easily. I am not sure how well they will hold up to the cold. Had chance to play with them in ~15 degree weather last week and they were not as warm as the BD Patrol, but they are a whole lot more dexterous (sp) so there is that trade off. I will do another review as soon as I test them on the hills. Cheers.

I'd look elsewhere. Tried these out for warmer (Arizona) winter mountaineering. The leather wets out quickly and the gloves are impossible to turn inside out to dry if moisture becomes an issue. The leather has already started to wear in small spots. Can't imagine what would have ahppened on actual rock. Maybe I was just using them wrong, but I definitely wasn't satisfied. Thanks for Backcountry's awesome return policy. I usually love most of Mountain Hardwear's gear...

I had a chance to test these snowboarding in Breck during a snowstorm and 10-20 weather. I was comparing them to the Backcountry Stoic Inbounds glove as well as the BD Patrol glove. These were the thinnest and least warm. If you are used to using a liner with your gloves then I feel you could get away with these gloves for even colder weather. I was looking for glove that would not need a liner to keep warm though. These will make fine gloves for weather 20 degrees and above. Also, I am used to thicker gloves (Burton, DaKine) when I snowboard, it gives me a bit of security when I have to lay my hand on the ground or push off some tree branches. I did not like the thinness of these gloves and did not feel comfortable when I would touch the ground. They are very much waterproof though. Just not warm enough for what I was looking for. I found the BC Stoic inbounds and BD Patrol met my needs much better.

great glove. i performed the dunk test is both warm and cold water, both times coming out completely dry. very comfortable and soft lining (not removable liner, it does not come with one!). i purchased the MHW powerstretch liner to wear inside the hydras for cold adventures. if you do this as well, size up the gloves and get your normal size liner to get the right fit. the only minr downside is the fact that the cuff is orange and not yellow, as shown in the picture above. but that doesn't really matter to me.

Let me start off by saying that these are decent gloves for snowball fights and light work outside.
For their intended use, alpine climbing they are not durable enough.
I've taken these gloves on one 3 pitch waterfall climb and one 7 pitch alpine route and the leather palms are completely trashed. I've glued several abrasion holes and one of the seams but I won't be taking them to anything serious anymore as I need gloves I can trust.
Let me just clarify that I haven't done anything special to these gloves that I haven't done to previous ones, the leather used simply not durable at all.
The best part is that since I bought them in Canada and I live in Norway I can't do much about it part from writing an honest review.

So far these gloves have worked quite well, I am resisting the urge to give them 5 stars until I see how they perform in wet conditions. I have used them alpine climbing in dry conditions and they have proven to be warm and dry on 2 long days.
They are probably a bit thin for really cold days and lack padding for burly multipitch waterfall ice climbs but thats not what I bought them for. I think these gloves have the potential to be a fine 4 season mountainerring glove in milder temps. We will see if they live up to there promise of being fully waterproof on wet snow days and dripping alpine ice. The dexterity is good, and what you should expect from a thinner glove. Time will tell how these gloves hold up, so far so good.