Project: Vinyl nitrile gloves mod for skiing in coastal/wet conditions

[swissiphic]

Workin' on some d.i.y. high dexterity, durable, grippy rubber ski gloves for those specific conditions where it's raining at the bottom and dumping huge moist rabbitskins higher up above the snowline. Those conditions soak regular gloves and even if the goretex theoretically remains waterproof, gloves get waterlogged, heavy and hands get damp from sweat cause the goretex ain't breathing worth a shit.

Making some inroads into the design and construction but not there yet, so, found a reasonable stop gap measure.

I thermoformed some tough mechanic vinyl nitrile gloves around cheap dollar store fleece liners and used em for a few days of ski touring in +/- 0 degree C temps with liquid drizzle at base and snowing higher up. The worked pretty damn well. The concept revolves around accepting the fact that yer hands are gonna get damp after a certain amount of time, at which time you simply remove the damp liner and replace with another cheap dry one. Repeat throughout the day when required.

I bought a variety of snuggest fitting el cheapo liners I could find so there's zero superfluous material extending from fingertips. I wanted the best fingertip dexterity/feel and figured go really snug. Can't stand sloppy fitting fingers in ski gloves. Varied the liners to ascertain what thickness/warmth is optimal...so far the thin acrylic ones worked fine but the fleece units are probably the preferred items; just a hair warmer for the sub zero temps.

Pros:

- cheap A.F..... Yer wearing about $2.50 - 3 bucks of materials on the hands at any given time.
- Super high dexterity for fiddling around with pack straps, goggles, boot buckles, smokin' cigarettes, etc...
- Hands did get damp after first long grinding uphill but hands never overheated. Stopped to replace liners at first gear changeover spot. Surprisingly, hands stayed dry for the rest of the ski touring day using the second set of liners...maybe the sweat machine stopped or something.
- I was suspicious of durability but they survived a few days of ski touring now. Even if they did get sliced from ski edge or tear, who cares, only 40 odd cents down the drain. Had a coupla sets of spares in the pack just in case of catastrophic failure.
- Better forehead sweat swiping than regular leather or fleece gloves....rubber windshield wiper like performance
- unlike the normal leather/fleece gloves, no exterior soakage from free water so stayed super light on the hand
- grip on ski pole handles was surprisingly good.
- easy to remove liners from shells. Just pinch the tiny bit of 'reservoir tip' extra material at thumb/fingertips and tug and liner slides out easily.
- worked great for shovelling heavy wet snow and general around the yard duties during coastal snowfall turned to rain events in town.


Cons:

- the vinyl nitrile in stock form sticks to skin glue like velcro, so it was pretty important to use that weatherproofing stuff as it didn't stick to skin glue. I'm gonna see if some sort of treatment of the vinyl nitrile prevents the sticking...something like rub with ski wax, apply rainx or jacket dwr? dunno.
- hands got cold on a few occasions during rest stops at the top....temps were down to about minus 3 C, so kinda out of the intended temp window for this system. Maybe good to bring some overmitts to hedge against colder temps.

For drying em out after skiing, removed liners and used forced room temp air dry system.



Materials:

-size XXL vinyl nitrile gloves from canadian tire. They have a bit of an extended wrist gauntlet, so you can seal the wrist area with snug closure of the wrists of your jacket. 50 pair for 21 bucks = 40 some odd cents/pair

-4 pairs varying thickness acrylic liner and fleece gloves from dollar store. About 6 bucks for 4 pair.

-construction weatherproofing stuff i found kicking around the shop. price unknown.


Procedure:

Throw one vinyl nitrile glove in convection oven on a sheet of alu foil and bake em for about a minute at about 300 F...best to watch, smell and monitor. The first glove that was baked at 400 for more than a minute started smoking...girlfriend not impressed with the rubber tire burning in the kitchen.

Remove glove from oven and insert the thickest of the liner/fleece gloves you wanna use. Grip ski pole and let cool. Repeat for other glove.

Using the construction weatherproofing stuff, cut out a palm/finger/forefinger/thumb ski pole contact area patch and stick it on to the glove. Repeat for other glove. Initially thought some sort of palm/finger patch would increase durability but found it redundant...but useful for handling sticky skin glue as the stuff wouldn't stick to skin glue like the nitrile does.

[ill-advised strategy]

https://www.amazon.com/Glacier-Glove...09734352&psc=1

These are sold as “fishing gloves” but I use them for winter surfing.
I’d be shocked if they weren’t just what you’re searching for. ~ $20

[swissiphic]

These are sold as “fishing gloves” but I use them for winter surfing.
I’d be shocked if they weren’t just what you’re searching for. ~ $20

Tried neoprene, insulated rubber gloves, rubber gloves with liners...stuff my commercial fishing buddies use...all are junk.

They all either exhibit lack of dexterity, slippery grip on ski pole handle, bulk in the wrong spots, lack of replaceable liners, finger/thumb sizes too long...and, when damp, difficult to either remove or re insert hand. If they have insulation, the tackiness of hand when damp results in an inner insulation hemeroid when you pull hand out...and then trying to re insert hand and push the material back into fingers is prit near impossible until dry.

That's why i'm gonna make my own.

One of the design features will allow you to drop yer gloves instantaneously like a hockey player getting ready for a brawl on the ice.

[bodywhomper]

If you’ve accepted the reality of damp hands, I suggest latex/nitrile gloves next to skin as vapor barrier regardless of whatever else you do.

[swissiphic]

If you’ve accepted the reality of damp hands, I suggest latex/nitrile gloves next to skin as vapor barrier regardless of whatever else you do.

Like I wrote; I can accept hands that get damp after a certain amount of time. Hands stayed dry after first changeover. I don't accept the reality of all day long damp hands. Hence the project. Vapor barriers suck. Just finished a week of painting a few hours a day wearing latex gloves in an outdoor setting with temps of around 5 degrees C. Hands R still pruned.

Regardless of vapor barrier on hands or not, regular gloves get soaked with liquid water and get heavy and suck for dexterity, which ain't exactly the setup you wanna do brain surgery with...or adjust goggles, buckle boots or smoke a cigarette.

[bodywhomper]

Lol. It’s a personal thing . I wear them with unlined leather gloves a lot all year long.

Personally, I do not have to use as thick of insulated glove to stay warm with vapor barrier, which can allow for use of thinner and more dexterous gloves.

Hands get pruned for “traction,” per current theories.

[nickwm21]

Get fully dipped insulated work gloves like Emperor Penguin’s for the snain.

Get fully dipped work gloves like Superdex for the rain.



Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[ill-advised strategy]

OP: gonna take these rubber gloves and bake them over a fleece liner and have me some fleece lined rubber gloves.
Me: here’s some decent cheap fleece-lined rubber gloves on amazon.
OP: that’s not what I want, I want fleece lined rubber gloves.
Me: smh

[jacob_dbu]

Side topic, but you know what I would like - is an overglove that's designed for use with a nitrile vapor barrier liner. The fleece on the inside of most gloves does not slide well with nitrile gloves or even regular liner gloves. Why can't they make the inside a pertex type material that *must* be used with liners?

[swissiphic]

Update: Day three with the same o.g. pair of gloves. Had success in mitigating the previous glove tackiness to skin glue with a test of liberal application of rain x on one glove and scotchgard on the other. Both seemed to work pretty good. Excessive tackiness gone. Today's tour featured moist snow at car so all the gear handling and skin application and stuff woulda got regular gloves moist/wet.

[Sessiøn]

Side topic, but you know what I would like - is an overglove that's designed for use with a nitrile vapor barrier liner. The fleece on the inside of most gloves does not slide well with nitrile gloves or even regular liner gloves. Why can't they make the inside a pertex type material that *must* be used with liners?

because they like money and don't cater to about 5 people on TGR?

[jacob_dbu]

because they like money and don't cater to about 5 people on TGR?

Exactly. So disrespectful tbh