My boyfriend bought these gloves a couple of months ago and I've been eying them ever since. Finally found them here in size small in black. I haven't field tested them yet. The plan is use them as sort of an all-purpose utility glove for things like climbing or not-too-cold-weather trekking. I'm typically a ladies' medium and the men's small fit me nicely -- a snug solid fit that doesn't bind anywhere. The zipper is a bit extraneous for me -- I just don't need to use mine. But my boyfriend likes the zipper, so I guess it's a good feature for some and irrelevant for others. The red is a gorgeous shade of red, but I'm still glad I waited to get these in black.

Tried both and couldn't believe I chose these over the Lowa Tibets after reading all the reviews. These boots fit true to size, managing to fit well both at the beginning of the day and after the inevitable foot swell. Lots of room in the toe so that toes don't make contact with the front of the boot on extreme downhill portions. But this is designated toe space and it doesn't cause the foot to slide fore and aft in the boot. I've never really needed to break in boots, and once again I felt that these were great right out of the box. Excellent support yet light as air. Feel like slippers that I could do anything in. The other boot I fell in love with was the Asolo Sasslong, but the Lowa's have better toe space for the downhill. After backpacking the Pyrenees with a 50+ lb pack (couldn't leave the grappling hook behind!) in inadequate hiking boots I've learned to take the difference between x-train/hiking boots and backpacking boots seriously. I look forward to many happy years with these boots!