Gloves

Ice climbing gloves

I have a set similar to these by OR (not sure if they are a older version)

https://www.outdoorresearch.com/us/inception-aerogel-gloves-271548

CAMP makes a few pairs that are on the light side. So I cover with a heavy pair of Ski gloves at belays for similar gloves I use.

Showa gloves are vegan but Kinco makes a similar heavier pair. They are orange and sort of annoying.

Finally,

https://veganoutdooradventures.com/vegan-technical-winter-gloves/

OR Arete gloves kinda suck but I cat think of a single good glove without a leather palm besides  the showas. Maybe just size up the showa gloves to fit a liner underneath? My aretes are from 2015 so maybe they’re better now.

Leather is the best grip for leading.  plastic is slippery and bad for the environment.  you have a choice. use natural leather from a critter that is already dead and was going to be dead no matter what your actions are or buy another piece of plastic  that will never  biodegrade.. 

I am not a vegan but I do have the OR Arete gloves and have used them a handful (hah!) of times for ice even on very cold (< 0F) days and I did not get frostbite, drop anyone, or die rappelling.  However, they are IMO not well-suited for that purpose, and I usually choose different gloves for ice.

If it is cow leather in particular that you are opposed to, maybe look into goat/sheep leather gloves?

Aside: if you are going to be using a slippery glove, seriously consider a belay device that provides some assistance.  I have learned the hard way that the combination of frozen hands and slippery gloves and a simple tube-style device creates a downward spiral of terror-inspired over-gripping/poor-circulation even in an otherwise-casual single-pitch setting (since it is a human life at stake and you can't really tell how well you are gripping when you can't feel your hands).

I don't know about the current lineup, but I vaguely recall RAB used to have a nice glove with a sort of vinyl palm.  BD used to have a leather-less glove called the Verglas, though they were never my favorites (if you wear small in BD gloves, PM me and we'll see if maybe you can take these older BD gloves off my hands, so to speak).

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

Leather is the best grip for leading.  plastic is slippery and bad for the environment.  you have a choice. use natural leather from a critter that is already dead and was going to be dead no matter what your actions are or buy another piece of plastic  that will never  biodegrade.. 

also, adding more context; vegan leather is made out of plastic. It is false advertising; attempting to make a negative product sound positive. Using it in mass production is definitely counterproductive to the idea that you’re helping animals by choosing to purchase it over real leather.

The oil industry will forever look for places to dump their waste product for profits.

IMO, the good guy flex is to purchase from people who tanned the leather in an environmentally friendly way. Most leather is not biodegradable because of what we do to it.

I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to solve this for the last few months. I do see a lot of companies making new synthetic leather products which is encouraging, but I’ve yet to find a perfect solution, the really nice gloves are still leather. There are many non-leather ski gloves but they are far too bulky for climbing, like the OR Aretes look too bulky to be good. This is the best I’ve found so far:

1. Gordini Ember gloves - dexterity is great, warmth is okay, the only issue is durability since they don’t have a protective layer to cover the puffy backs. I’m just careful when I use them and haven’t ripped them yet. Could possibly layer these under Temres. 

2. Gordini Aquabloc gloves - I think these have synthetic palms but I’m not completely sure. They look like they might be good, I’d look into these.

3. Manzella makes a few warm gloves that are synthetic. The Goretex Infinium Versatile and Gortex Infinium Adventure 100 are decent. The Everest says synthetic but actually has what appears to be a leather thumb and forefinger tip, same with the Montana gloves.

4. Pearl Izumi AmFIB Gel Glove - I bought these from somewhere I couldn’t return them, and they also have what looks like a leather thumb and forefinger tip which is disappointing because I really like these. They have a gel pad sewn over the palm because it is a bike glove, so I used a seam ripper to carefully remove a few stitches, pull the pad from the outer layer, then glued over the ripped seam after. These are what I’ve been using for ice climbing and they’re very warm and dexterity is great for leading. Probably not 100% vegan (you could email the company to double check) but if you’re desperate, it’s very minimal animal leather and the palm/insulation is all synthetic. 

I also have the OR Inception Aerogels and think they suck. They have bulky insulation on the front of the fingers which makes it hard to grip things. And the tab used to tighten the glove at the wrist is leather anyways.

Sorry that none of these are great suggestions, but it’s the best I’ve found and I’ve spent an embarrassing number of hours trying to find warm vegan gloves for climbing. I bet in a few more years we’ll have better options. Good luck. And lmk if you find anything better.

The logic behind using leather because “oil” is bad is pretty funny considering every other piece of kit in ice climbing is either oil/metal based. Are people really going to pretend they draw the line there?

they are asking for non leather gloves and not your weird justification about how you draw the line at gloves.

Insert name wrote:

The logic behind using leather because “oil” is bad is pretty funny considering every other piece of kit in ice climbing is either oil/metal based. Are people really going to pretend they draw the line there?

they are asking for non leather gloves and not your weird justification about how you draw the line at gloves.

Nobody said oil is bad. Plastic is oil byproduct, not oil, and mentioning metal based gear is totally irrelevant

Nobody said that gloves are where they draw the line.

Nobody asked for your justification about buying knowledgeably harmful products, “because the rest of your kit is oil based” either.

Erik Strand wrote:

Nobody said oil is bad. Plastic is oil byproduct, not oil, and mentioning metal based gear is totally irrelevant

Nobody said that gloves are where they draw the line.

Nobody asked for your justification about buying knowledgeably harmful products, “because the rest of your kit is oil based” either.

Most leather gloves include plastic. So the logic of “just use leather, it’s better than a plastic glove” is just someone trying to justify using leather to someone who clearly has a issue with it. If they asked for Kosher certified food, would you tell them their personal concerns are worthless because you don’t hold the same morals?

It doesn’t change if we are talking religious guidelines, gender identity, sexual preference, moral diet preference, etc. I don’t see how you don’t violate the “don’t be a jerk” principle by telling someone their moral views are silly.

I was the chief inspector of a chemical plant for 5 years and a steel plant for 2. So you are preaching to the choir on what plastic/steel require for manufacturing. 

This persons issue with leather is unclear. We are all honestly assuming what it is. His post is quite vague about the reason for avoiding leather.

My grandfather was a geophysical logger and I also have years of college under my belt for going into the same career. I’m not as uneducated as you’re implying. I grew up and choose to continue to be around this type of information

edit: vegan leather is the name of the product. Asking for an extremely popular type of “fabric” does not mean he is a vegan. I know of multiple people who have vegan leather shoes, yet they are not vegans.

Edit again: post limit. plastic is a textbook perfect example of a byproduct turned useful. I believe that it’s sulfur from mines in Florida that are another great example of such a thing... both were considered useless until it was discovered that they can be used for useful purposes. Plastic and the sulfur from Florida are both now considered high commodity because of the fact that they are byproducts of a business that focuses on acquiring a different material. Thus, this makes both sulfur and plastic extremely affordable. It’s like using all the parts of the dead animal, instead of throwing away the intestines and such. Plastic is comparable to animal intestines. It’s much more lucrative to sell all the parts for profit, instead of needing to spend money to get rid of the waste. That was the original motivation for even discovering plastic. “What can we do with this bullshit instead of throwing it away”. We are not at the point of being petroleum free any time soon 

Erik Strand wrote:

This person doesn’t clearly have an issue with leather. We are all honestly assuming that. His post is quite vague about the reason for avoiding leather.

My grandfather was a geophysical logger and I also have years of college under my belt for going into the same career. I’m not as uneducated as you’re implying. I grew up and choose to continue to be around this type of information

They asked for Vegan gloves. Vegans don’t use leather, which is why he said non leather gloves. (just like a kosher person doesn’t eat non kosher).

Just a side comment - plastic is not "an oil by-product". Petrochemicals, including the plastics we know and love, are arguably the highest value uses for petroleum. When petroleum becomes too expensive to burn (as fuel... a shameful use if ever there was one), it will still be the preferred feedstock for plastics manufacture.

Road tar (technically asphalt)... now that's a by-product.