Very, very nice glove!

By bco2874359 Ranked #432 - Ski Gloves February 2, 2009

First, let me say how impressed I was with backcountry.com I ordered these gloves at 11pm on a Wednesday night and received confirmation the next day that the order was processed and shipped at 12:30am the following morning - they arrived as expected on Friday just in time to test this weekend at a very cold Killington which due to high winds had many lifts shut down all morning.

These gloves are very, very nice and I'm extremely happy with them. Can't speak for how well they do in wet conditions, but in bitter, windy cold, I had no problems.

The details and quality are impeccable. The inner fleece liner is secured at the wrist with a full circumference strip of velcro. A small carabiner connects the two gloves at a brass eyelet - no worries of cheap plastic connectors breaking under cold/duress. For me personally, the school kid-like wrist bands were my favorite feature. I'm constantly taking my gloves off at different points skiing down a trail to snap pictures of my kids, and having the ability to quickly pull off a glove to fish out a camera without fear of dropping and losing a glove is nice peace of mind.

The goat leather is very soft and supple. I think this could be reworked with a tougher leather. Hestra clearly states on the tag that ski/board edges are sharp and be careful handling with the gloves as you can cut the leather - this concerned me every time I picked up the skis, especially when scrambling around to get them secured on a gondola. I didn't get any rips/tears, but I can see it happening.

Lastly, I must advise that when I measured my hand size out, the XL (10) was pretty spot on with measurements coming in ever so slightly below what they called out for size. Having used the gloves for a full day, I think they are a bit too small and have already ordered up the next size up. My hands were comfy, they were warm, but at 3:30pm with the sun starting to dip, my fingers started getting pretty cold on the lift (everyone's were), but I attribute some of that to the fact that my glove was maybe just a bit too snug. I like a little more airspace. Depending on how you like to wear your gloves and the temperature conditions you are going to be in, if you come out nearly on top of the size that fits your hand, you might want to jump up a size.

Bottomline - yes, you can get a similarly functioning (and excellent) glove from Cabellas, but for overall form, function, and sharp, clean design, this glove is very, very, nice.

View Details: Hestra Heli Glove

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes