I need some tough gloves for scrambling but completely waterproof for our PNW rainy trails. I tried using Mountain Hardwear Power stretch with REI taped Mitts on a hike I went yesterday where it involved tons of scrambling and using ropes couple of places this combination failed miserably.

I use these gloves for those conditions.

http://www.outdoordesigns.co.uk/products_gloves_mckinleyglove.html

Thanks Stephen.

Are these golves taped? on PNW it rains all the time and want to make sure its completely waterproof. Figured it as insulation as well which is a bonus. I looked into Rab Latok gloves but it doesn't say the seams are taped.

I think gloves made with OutDry don't require seam taping.

http://www.outdry.com/ENG_guanti_processo.html

Edited by rmjapan on 11/18/2012 20:27:08 MST.

Unheard technology, any idea is some manufacturer makes any gloves using this fabric. I see the market is swamped by Goretex and Event.

Columbia and Mountain Hardwear in the USA I think. Just use OutDry as a search term at your favorite shopping site and see what pops up.

no waterproof glove i know will last that long for scrambling ... they all get wet anyways as there is one huge honking hole in all of em ... the WPB shell inhibits drying as well ... not to mention the fact that yr hands sweat

i use these for everything from belaying to scrambling ... http://www.mechanix.com/ ... or a cheap pair of fleece gloves if its really wet ... you can just wring those out ...

the key is to put yr gloves in yr puffy when not using em to keep em warm ...

Edited by bearbreeder on 11/18/2012 20:59:03 MST.

Eric,
Mechanix has a several models, which one do you use. I want something which works in PNW which has worst weather possible for outdoor people.

i use the basic set ... or a pair of cheap fleece gloves which dry faster ..

if yr scrambling and bushwhacking in the rain your hands WILL get wet and yr gloves WILL get soaked eventually ... its a fact of life

the trick is to deal with it through proper technique ... not fancy $$$$ gloves, which like goretex shoes dont solve the problem for those conditions ... consider that many ski patrollers use basic workers gloves for their job ...

if you want something thats tough, cheap and works ... look at what construction or outdoor workers are using for gloves ... they need dexterity, durability, affordability and enough warmth for an 8+ hour day in poor conditions ... and they dont care about those yuppie labels ;)

Edited by bearbreeder on 11/18/2012 22:18:05 MST.

I was looking at Montbell's basic OutDry rain glove at their store here in Tokyo yesterday. Fairly lightweight but at nearly US$80 it is more than I wanted to pay.

Came home and I found these online at Sunnysports aka Adorama in NYC for a more reasonable ~US$30.

http://www.sunnysports.com/Prod/MHWHGM.html

http://www.sunnysports.com/Prod/MHWEGM.html

The Epic gets good reviews but I would need to check fit before ordering.

Edited by rmjapan on 11/18/2012 22:30:02 MST.

I've always rotated through multiple pairs of thin, light softshell gloves, but in sustained rainy conditions I'd find myself getting the gloves wet faster than I could dry them out. The Outdry stuff intrigued me, but I always balked at the price.

Recently, I had the good fortune to acquire a pair of MH Hydra Pros for a song. The Outdry membrane is bonded directly to the shell fabric, so no seams to leak, and equally important, no sliding of layers and subsequent loss of dexterity. We'll see soon enough if it was money well spent.

I hate to say it, but Eric's is the voice of reason in this one.

You can spend the next couple of years, and a whole bunch of cash chasing the dream of dry hands, or change the way you think about it and start enjoying the conditions now.

When people talk about having dry hands, they almost always mean they want warm hands. Especially if they're just out for the day, or if they're able to dry their hands out properly at night. If we go with this as a basic premise, all the rest changes.

The two simplest ways to do this are fleece with a wind barrier over the top, or wind/vapour barrier with an insulating layer over the top.

Option one is great. Go with a Powerstretch type layer. (I like my BD Midweights) Over the top of this goes an extra heavy duty gardening rubber glove. Conveniently these come in black. It can rain on these babies all day. You can dig in the wet snow. You will have reasonable dexterity. It will cost you about $25 (Because who would buy at full retail). For the total system though, a second pair of liners makes it perfect. These get kept in an inside pocket, and they get swapped out when the ones you are wearing start to get too wet. Because they will get wet, either from your sweat, or from water leaking in through the big hole at the top! Put the dry liners on, put the rubber gloves back on, squeeze out the wet liners, and put them in the inner pocket to dry/warm up. The only problem with this system is that it probably isn't durable enough for scrambling or heavy rope work.

Option two is also pretty good. Pick up some nitrile liners. These are like surgical gloves, but much tougher and not as stretchy. They should be available in your supermarket for about $10-$15 for 100 gloves. These go on first. Over the top of these, go with whichever pair of the Mechanix type gloves match the temps you will be out in. Avoid anything with natural leather, as it is slow to dry, and less durable when wet. Their Winter Armour, Safety Fastfit or Material 4X Original all look pretty good. This combination will be a bit less warm, although the barrier/liner glove makes it pretty good, but a bit more dextrous and much more durable for scrambling. Not great for digging around in the snow though.

Of course much of this was derived from Andy Kirkpatricks rant on gloves
http://www.andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/the_truth_about_gloves
and a couple of years and several hundred dollars worth of gloves used in Victoria, Australia, which is a bit like the PNW except wetter and with much crapppier snow. I now use option one when I'm wet in the snow, and option two when I'm wet in the bush. If I'm going to be mixing it up, I take both systems, without the second set of liners.

This works for me from -15C to about 10C. Any warmer than this, and I generally don't use gloves.

Andy Kirkpatrick with some salient advice on gloves and climbing:

http://www.andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/the_truth_about_gloves

"You can buy 100% waterproof gloves, but no matter how expensive they are, all of them have one major flaw in their drop-lined, seam-sealed and die-cut design… they all have a dammed great dirty hole in them that lets the rain in. Where you may ask? It’s the one into which you’ve got to stick your hand."

I worked for a while as a musher in California. Always handling rusty chains and other
wet/freezing tools. I liked the polyester or polyester/rayon blend white string knit gloves (many have cotton blends, avoid those). They were wet all the time of
course, but durable and CHEAP and more dextrous than other types of gloves. A dozen pair for about $15. They kept my hands warm when active and
avoided the cracked finger tips that came from trying it with no gloves. The coated nitro or latex palmed versions were too cold and not as dextrous.

I had mittens for when behind the dogs.

Something I have used for digging snow caves might work too.Tuck the gauntlet under your shell.

http://www.safetysourceinc.com/GroupInfo/GroupID/3729
or
http://www.safetysourceinc.com/GroupInfo/GroupID/1119494224

David, post a link for the White String glove also so we have an accurate idea of what your are suggesting.

I do like the red gloves

http://www.qcsupply.com/wells-lamont-knit-string-gloves-12-pk.html?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=CPSAlP7m27MCFad_QgodhScAiw

These are $9 per dozen.

I use them for running, as liners in leather or other shell gloves, for dirty jobs,
and in each car for emergencies. Cheap enough you can give them away.

There are versions with gripper dots on the palm that work well for hanging onto
tool handles etc.

They remind me of the old military wool liners, but are more durable and dry faster.

I also play outside in the PNW, but I disagree with the OP. This is not the worst weather for doing things outdoors. 115 degrees would be the worst weather....

I think I've tried pretty much all of the different approaches recommended in this thread, and I've decided that off-season outdoor stuff in the wet part of the world has more in common with paddling than any other sport when it comes to being wet. I've found that far and away my favorite gloves for most of the wet and not-to-cold that we get around here are neoprene paddlers gloves, these in particular.

http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=2406&pdeptid=944

Nothing has ever kept my hands dry. The closest I've come were the rubber gloves used for concrete finishing, but they do fill up with sweat. The beauty of the neoprene gloves is that they do a pretty good job of keeping your hands warm wet or dry, it really doesn't make much difference. They are much more reliable than any other glove I have found in this regard.

The one's listed above are amazingly dexterous, I can make a bic lighter work with them on. I can lead 5.6 trad with them on, tie knots, fiddle with ski bindings, dig in the snow, handle cold metal, and grab something dropped in a creek without chilling my hands all that badly. The palms and fingers have some sticky silicone that works very well, particularly for rock climbing.

The mechanic's gloves and other gloves with that tough synthetic leather all seem to soak up water very badly and need to be wrung out often. Fleece and softshell gloves are similar. I usually don't wring the hydroskin gloves out all day. More waterproof gloves are usually to bulky to do a lot of things with, so they end up getting taken on and off and you get chilled hands from having them off and they get wet inside in the process.

I find that these gloves make all of my cold and wet days outside much better, much like goggles make a blizard so much easier to bear. If I only take one set of gloves these will be the ones, as they don't ever really fail.

The one downside is that your hands get all prunish if you wear them all day. Be sure to dry out and care for your hands, some other handwear for in-the-tent is essential for long trips.

Further experiments with neoprene for PNW mountaineering are ongoing....

QUOTE, "Andy Kirkpatrick with some salient advice on gloves and climbing:

http://www.andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/the_truth_about_gloves

"You can buy 100% waterproof gloves, but no matter how expensive they are, all of them have one major flaw in their drop-lined, seam-sealed and die-cut design… they all have a dammed great dirty hole in them that lets the rain in. Where you may ask? It’s the one into which you’ve got to stick your hand." UNQUOTE

I've hear this about GTX footwear too and for that it makes sense, especially if one steps in deep puddles/rivers of water. You can't easily change/vent footwear on the trail either. Yet we know we must do that to regulate our temps with clothing layers.

All our clothing has big "holes" in it where heads, wrists, belly's, and ankles poke out of. Some folks even demand more holes, e.g. pit zips in raingear. Yet that has not stopped anyone from buying waterproof jackets and pants too. Rain gear can be an essential part of the emergency kit for some hikes.

Kirkpatrick also says at the end of his rant,

"Always carry some kind of mitt, because when the shit hits the fan it’s good to know it’s there. My conclusion is that there are a lot of good gloves out there on the market, including 100% waterproof models, but no great ones...."

Be flexible and know when to put a waterproof on and when you can take it off.

Edited by rmjapan on 11/19/2012 15:02:46 MST.

Synthetic work gloves with rubber gloves underneath?

In colder rain I wear wool gloves. Wool stays pretty warm even when wet.

These Neoprene gloves looks interesting. Can you also state how durable these gloves with scrambling.

I also tried by OR wind stopper gripper gloves for hikes where there is no need for scrambling, while the glove is extremely good to stopping wind, it wets out in our constant drizzle and your hands become hot as you warm up. With PNW there is a risk of hands getting numb due to cold and wind as you gain elevation (at least mine does) so some sort of gloves are always a must hiking in our area during winter.