I currently looking for a UL waterproof rain mitt or glove for 3 seasons use.

I know the Outdoor Research Rain Claw Mitt, but they are mostly impossible to find today (even on eBay).

I saw some post regarding the eVent Mitt from MLD (Mountain Laurel Designs), but I wonder if they can sustain some years use (Here's Laurel notes regarding his eVent mitts: At less than an ounce for the pair, they won’t last as long as a 5oz mitt. Not warranted against fabric wear out but should last most thru-hikers one full trip.)

Do any of you have any suggestions?

Edited by jpcyr on 04/23/2007 14:31:15 MDT.

ULA has their Mist Overmitts:
http://ula-equipment.com/mist.htm

They might be a little more durable than the MLD's but I wouldn't expect them to last forever either, though I've never actually seen/used them. It is another option though. With proper care I would suspect either the MLD or ULA mitts could last you quite a while, unless you are really hard on your gear or use it almost every day (like a thru-hike).

Adam

I put my MLD eVent Mitt's to their first real test this weekend. Saturday morning it started raining at 9:30 a.m. just as we were headed away from the previous nights campsite onto the trail. I had the mitts on along with my Marmot Precip and my trusty rain hat. I hike with a pair of Black Diamond trekking poles with hard foam grips.

It rained for the next two hours and the mitts kept my hands warm while effectively keeping rain off. At approximately 11:30 a.m. the fabric reached a turning point and I began to feel the moisture from my perspiring hands begin to collect inside. This happened to coincide with the end of the rain so I don't know what the perspiration and rain would have continued to interact within/outside of the mitt.

In terms of durability, yes the fabric is very thin and would not stand up to much more than use only while walking. Any amount of abrasion could easily compromise them. Ron Bell, the proprietor of MLD includes a swatch of repair fabric along with the set of mitts in order to repair the palm in the case of fabric failure.

Something else to consider is a non waterproof/breathable material like silnylon/silcordura.
I have used the old OR lobster claw rain mitts, the current Paclit Latitude shells and some other OR Gore-Tex shell that I can't remember the name of. In serious, prolonged east coats rain, they all eventually leak. Too many seams, or the fabric wets out. In my experience, DWR simply can't last against the constant abrasion of mitt use.
Given that I have poor hand circulation, this has left me with numb, almost imobile fingers in 45 degree rainy weather.
My solution has been two pars of light liner gloves and silnylon stuff sacks. My favorites are Granite Gear's silcordura #3 sacks as the material is less slippery than other silicon coated nylons, yet is very tough and the stuff sacks are easy to seam seal. My hands get slightly damp from persperiation, but it is a warm damp. The fabric does not leak, does not wet out and the sacks are multi-purposeful. I just switch out the liners every day or few hours, drying one pair against my body while hiking.

Anyway, it is something to consider, especially if you already have the stuff sacks. Sorry if this was off topic...

I spent about 14 hours last weekend in intermittant-to-heavy rain wearing my MLD mitts over a liner glove. After several hours I believe they started to leak through the seams (I'm pretty sure it wasn't sweat). This is consistent with Ron Bell's information on the MLD site, and I've just seam sealed the mitts to prevent this happening again (probably added 0.2oz in weight).

Otherwise mitts worked pretty well - they'll be my standard rain/wind mitts on my PCT hike this summer.

I have the Mist overmitts. The weight was pretty much dead on as advertised. I cut off the little connector plastic pieces at the wrists, and in size medium my pair now weighs 31 grams, or 1.1 oz.

The fabric looks and feels a lot like the stuff that the driducks rainsuits are made of (I think both prolite and GG sell these rain suits).

Like the driducks, I think the durability will be low on these. My particular concern is using a trekking pole with them, that they'll wear out at the inside base of the thumb or some other contact point(s) with the pole handles. If you're not using your hands a lot they might be an excellent choice.

I've not yet had a chance to use them in lousy weather --- or in fact, in any weather --- they only recently became available. So apart from weighing them, the above is just direct observation and speculation at this point.

Unless the sizing scheme gets changed, I would size these up from what the measuring chart suggests --- I normally wear a size large glove, according to the original ULA sizing guideline (on the web site) I ended up buying size *small*, as that listed the size small dimensions for hands up to (H) 7.75" x (W) 4.5" --- my hands fits within that. The mediums fit well enough, small is too small for me, though they might change this based on customer feedback (dunno).



Brian Lewis

Looks like the MDL eVent Mitts is probably my best choice for now. The other option I found is a Paclite Mitts (2.2 oz) from TrekMates in UK (http://www.trekmates.co.uk/Products/Gloves/Gore-Tex/Glacier_Paclite_Mitt/)

Do you have any recommendation regarding the size that I should get for the MDL? I usualy wear Small/Medium gloves.

Edited by jpcyr on 04/24/2007 14:21:37 MDT.

I made my own pair of gore tex mitts following a pattern I found at thru-hiker.com. I paid $5 for a half yard of gore tex fabric. It took me about an hour to design and sew them. The pair weighs less than an 1 oz. I do not have much experience sewing but it was a fairly easy project. I know they will not last forever but they cost hardly anything to make and they keep my hands dry.

Edited by sdwhitey on 04/25/2007 03:12:00 MDT.