Outdoor Research Remote Glove Review
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Outdoor Research touts their Women’s Remote Glove as their warmest glove within the newly created sidecountry product category. Sidecountry gear is designed for those that may stretch the limits of their resort skiing and take an occasional backcountry or out of bounds adventure. The Remote Glove is available in Men’s and Women’s models. As a gal with cold hands all year long, the Remote Gloves have met there match and in this review I hope to provide a first hand account, no pun intended, on the pros and cons of these gloves.
For starters, the Remote Glove features a Gore-Tex insert to keep your hands dry when you find yourself in thick-wet snow. After 6 hours of skiing at Breck (Breckenridge, CO) in Pacific Northwest like conditions, my hands were just about the only thing that remained dry all day long. The outer shell is made of combination of stretch nylon over the back of the hand and all the way up the wrist with a gauntlet cuff. While the finger tips and palms are made from leather. The leather at the tips and palm allow for great control with ski poles, trekking poles, or even a shovel. I was able to zip and unzip my jacket and pack while wearing these gloves. The stretchy nylon helps eliminate bulk that you would otherwise feel with a 100% leather glove.
Next up, the fit. I followed the size guidelines and ordered a size medium. I feel that I could have done with a small and benefited from some increased dexterity of the glove; the fingertips are a tad roomy on me, with greater than average room found in the pinky area. Going a size smaller, I believe I would still be able to slip a liner in if needed. With the side medium, I was able to wear my merino wool liners and even use a glove heaters with some room to spare. SO, from the list of items I was able to fit under the glove, one can gather that these did not keep me 100% warm all of the time. They did do an above average job, however I still had to pull out some of my tricks such as Nytril gloves (like you see in hospitals), liners, and heat packs. With that said, perhaps a mitt model would be more up my alley! Once again, the warmth department is something that is hard for me to judge. I am most comfortable in a down-leather mitt, which obviously sacrifices on dexterity. Enough said.
Other features worth mentioning include the gauntlet cuff, which I really liked because I was able to fit over just about any jacket cuff and seal out the snow. In addition, I found the dual draw cords super handy to tighten and then loosen around the cuff for easy on and off. OR has included what they call an idiot cord, rather a loop for you to place your hand through to prevent mid-lift glove drops; once again a nice feature when you are juggling liners and heat packs on a cool day. The thumb region on each glove is super soft and can be used to rub your goggles or nose clean.
OR’s Women’s Remote Glove pack features and maintain dexterity and most likely warmth, if you aren’t a super cold handed gal. Worth your time and energy to look at, as they are also well made. For more information on the Remote Glove and other OR products, visit www.outdoorresearch.com or www.amazon.com/outdoorresearch.
