Toasty Mitts?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:11 pm

Only problem today was icy cold fingers. By the end of my second multi, I realized that just keeping my gloves on the whole time wasn't going to work for caching.

How do you stay warm while winter caching? Hand warmers? Some awesome gloves I don't know about?

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

Chopper mittens with thin glove liners.

Allows you to keep the mittens on most of the time but quickly manipulate your GPSr when you need to. That presumes that your GPSr has buttons or a pressure screen rather than one that needs a conductive touch to operate.

Could just be a brown jersey glove or something similar. You're just looking for something that avoids exposing your skin to the air for the brief period of time they are out of the chopper mitt.

If that doesn't work for you, I'd go with just the chopper mitt. Your hand will obviously get colder when you need to pull it out of the mitt, but it will warm back up when you put it back in, unlike a glove.

You can toss hand warmers in your mitt if you want but I try to avoid them because they provide a false sense of warmth and/or generate hot spots. Better to dress for the weather.

Remember that cold fingers (and toes) can also be the result of a cold core. As your core gets cold it pulls blood back from the extremities. So if you have good gloves/mitts but still have icy cold fingers (when you have them in the mitts, that is), reassess your clothing, especially your headgear. As the saying goes, if your feet are cold, put on a hat.

WGA Member Joined: 2006-12-23 Posts: 5961

Never heard the cold feet put on a hat before. I second the chopper mitt. Have a pair my inlaws bought me 10+ years ago, wear them ice fishing, caching, shoveling, plowing on the 4 wheeler, etc.

Warm up nice and quick in them even if wet.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:23 am

I do not know what brand mine are, except that my hands they are warm and my hands are rather clammy when I take them off. I got them at ShopKo and they even have a pocket for a warmer.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:25 am

gotta run wrote:

Chopper mittens with thin glove liners.

Allows you to keep the mittens on most of the time but quickly manipulate your GPSr when you need to. That presumes that your GPSr has buttons or a pressure screen rather than one that needs a conductive touch to operate.

Could just be a brown jersey glove or something similar. . .

If this helps, use 'touchscreen gloves' such as these:

http://home.dailysteals.com/?utm_source=DailySteals.com+-+Deal+of+the+Day&utm_campaign=5a75ef5e62-1_14_13_Monday_5_deals1_13_2013&utm_medium=email

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:44 am

Mittens keep my hands warmer than gloves. The fingers are "sharing the warmth" with each other and are not separated by cloth.

It would also help to change your current avatar, cjaeger! Wink

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:45 am

After Saturday's outing I ordered a pair of touchscreen gloves. Since they didn't look all that warm I didn't think they'd be a huge help. I hadn't thought of wearing mitts over them though. Thanks for the tip!

I didn't really like the idea of hand warmers anyhow. Seems like it would get a little pricy and, if nothing else, be a bit wasteful.

Core temp wasn't a problem. Feet and everything else was pretty toasty. Just handling my phone, trying to get containers open and handling all the trinkets inside really cooled down the hands fast... and with my gloves they stayed cold until we got back to the car.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:59 am

Glittens are what works best for me. Hate fumbling w/ gloves and mittens are warmer but I couldn't use them.

Fingerless gloves that have a mitten cover that folds over fingers to keep you warm in between signing logs

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 9:32 am

Walkingadventure wrote:

Fingerless gloves that have a mitten cover that folds over fingers to keep you warm in between signing logs

Have a pair, and made the mistake of driving with the mitten part flipped up.........it was like magic! Everyone started waving back as we drove down the street. People are so friendly in the Midwest! (It made us look like we were constantly waving......ya had to be there Smile

)

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 9:44 am

huffinpuffin2 wrote:

Walkingadventure wrote:

Fingerless gloves that have a mitten cover that folds over fingers to keep you warm in between signing logs

Have a pair, and made the mistake of driving with the mitten part flipped up.........it was like magic! Everyone started waving back as we drove down the street. People are so friendly in the Midwest! (It made us look like we were constantly waving......ya had to be there Smile

)

Puffins are sooooo friendly Laughing

I have a pair of this style, maybe not high end enough though, since the mitten flap doesn't "seal" around the fingers well enough to be able to dig in the snow without the flap becoming a snow cone holder. Shocked

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:06 am

My mom knitted a pair of these a looooong time ago for Mr. Sandlanders to use when he went bow hunting. Actually, it was only his right mitten that was like this; the left one was a regular mitten.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:25 pm

We like "lobster mitts" coupled with a light-weight glove liner. They allow a little more dexterity than a regular mitten, but you'd still have to take them off to open caches, manipulate the GPSr, etc.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:40 pm

Do EC's and virtuals when it cold. No log to sign or swag to trade!!

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 6:19 pm

I have some thinsulate gloves like the ones the puffins showed that I like for caching. I don't think they'd keep me warm all day but they work for a good while if the weather isn't ridiculously cold. They're great so that you just have to throw back the flap to use fingers for entering coord instead of taking off the whole glove.

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:45 pm

As gotta run said, once you get your core warm, your hands stay warm (except when you are digging in the snow and ice).

I use some wool fingerless gloves. The Mrs uses a muff ( a tube that goes around your waist and you put both hands in from each end). You can put a hand warmer in it if you want to. A muff would prove problematic for the driver though.

It is not very stylish for the ladies, and it was also difficult finding one for her that was not cammo or blaze orange, but it keeps her hands warm and if she is warm and happy...