notes on mountain hardware absolute zero mitten

By endtime34 Ranked #498 - Mittens March 23, 2009

I don't want to be too abusive on these, but there are a couple issues that stuck with me.

first, the mountain hardware (MH) mitts weren't as warm as the outdoor research (OR) alti mitts I was also "testing." I was trying to decide which pair would work better for my 50 mile roundtrip commute on a scooter in the dead of winter in Chicago; waterproofness (mainly spray from cars) and general warmth were critical.

With the MH mitts, I noticed that the thumb area wasn't as well insulated, and when I alternated mitts (a different one on each hand), the MH mitts simply weren't as warm. Don't get me wrong; I wasn't risking frostbite, but the MH mitts just weren't ~as~ toasty.

I wanted to mention what I was using the mitts for since it's probably ~not~ what the mitt was specifically intended for, hence my hesitance in griping too much (and wanting folks to take this with a grain of salt / full disclosure).

However, the second, and perhaps more important detail, was that the built-in MH wrist cinch / closure area was ~really~ tight...so much so that I had a really difficult time getting my right hand even into the mitt after the left mitt was on. Moreover, my thumb would often miss the thumb space (on either mitt) because I had to really compress my hand unnaturally to get through that uber-elastic cinching band, and wrestling with the inner liner ~through~ the outershell while wearing a mitt on the ~other~ hand... well, it was quite a challenge that sucked in the warmth of my garage, so at 18,000 feet it would probably be aggravating as well.

I can see how that tight cinch helps keep the heat in, but if you are wrestling with it to get your hand in, well, that price of admission was a bit too high for me. (As a side note, I had tried both a medium and large size in the MH, and the cinch factor was just as much a challenge when the mitt itself was a little too large).

...and that's it. this product would probably benefit from a climber's review since it's more closely tied to their intended use, but for what I was doing, it wasn't quite the right choice.

View Details: Mountain Hardwear Absolute Zero Mitten

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