Mittens for ice climbing

Has anybody come across a mitten they liked for ice climbing? I’ve experimented with a few and the best I’ve found is the Kinco Axeman which is basically a thin glove inside of a larger mitten.. it’s still clumsy operating caribeners and whatnot but after practicing with them a bit they’re only like 10% worse than gloves but still a lot better than frozen fingers. Only problem is that they are all leather so they suck if they get wet.

Just curious if anyone has come across anything better??

I can't imagine climbing in mittens.

Best to stick with thin gloves. You generate a lot of heat while climbing and that should help your hands from getting too cold (they'll still get somewhat cold of course). Thin grippy gloves also keep you from over gripping.

Having 2-3 pairs of climbing gloves helps too. In case they get too wet (externally or internally). Sometimes I bring 2 pairs of very thin climbing gloves and 1 pair of slightly thicker climbing gloves. 

Try having hand warmers in the back of your climbing glove while climbing.
Also keep hand warmers in your belay mitts and keep them inside your jacket while climbing. When you switch to the belay mitts, put the climbing gloves close to your core in your inner layers. 

Make sure you have a very warm belay jacket and put it on right away when you're not climbing. Same with the belay mitts. Keep all that heat you just generated. 

If you're just cragging, it's really easy to bring things like a super warm belay jacket, lots of climbing gloves, super warm belay mitts, full zip puffy belay pants, hand warmers, hot drink of choice in a thermos, lots of food. All those things will keep your core warmer, which will translate to your hands/fingers. Obviously an alpine climb, a very long approach, or a hard multi pitch route means balancing all these with weight/volume. 

Edit: made a few additions

drew A wrote:

I can't imagine climbing in mittens.

Everything drew said. You sometimes suffer with cold fingers and hands until you get warm. But it tends to always work. Finish the pitch and build an anchor with your climbing gloves. Then put on mittens. And when breaking it down, also don it with the gloves. 

Are you looking for mittens to climb in, or just for belays? 

Some folks i know with previous frostbite climb in trigger finger mittens when following pitches. It can be a workable compromise 

I have followed many pitches in OR trigger finger mitten. 

AlpineIce wrote:

Are you looking for mittens to climb in, or just for belays? 

Looking for mittens to climb in… sounds like I’ll have to go the home-made route hahaha

You could use leashes, and leave the mitten in the leash while you set pro with bare hands. That worked.

I think the reason nobody does that anymore is that gloves are much better than they used to be, belay jackets are lighter and regularly brought on lead now, and climbers seem to have much more money these days than in the 90's so they've got three pair of $100+ gloves, multiple weights of belay jackets, etc.

I've been meaning to try my Pearl Izumi Lobster Gloves. But if you think it's too cold for five-finger gloves, it's probably too cold for them, too.

Paul Morrison wrote:

I've been meaning to try my Pearl Izumi Lobster Gloves. But if you think it's too cold for five-finger gloves, it's probably too cold for them, too.

I’ve seen some of the old school guys using lobster gloves I was going to give those a try also

Steve McGee wrote:

You could use leashes, and leave the mitten in the leash while you set pro with bare hands. That worked.

I think the reason nobody does that anymore is that gloves are much better than they used to be, belay jackets are lighter and regularly brought on lead now, and climbers seem to have much more money these days than in the 90's so they've got three pair of $100+ gloves, multiple weights of belay jackets, etc.

Great idea, thanks!

Have used super thick mittens on -40 days using leashes so that I don't really need to grip the tools.  Good enough for top rope but not the most fun setup.  

In Will Gadd's book it says your hands get cold because your core isn't warm enough. I swear, there's a LOT to that.  I've never, ever used any glove/mitten that will warm up your hands once they get cold.  The trick is to not let them get cold in the first place. So, with everything else plenty warm, and not over-gripping my tools, I'm constantly surprised at how warm my hands are even in windy, cold conditions, when the rest of me is warm*.

OK MITTS IF YOU MUST: My ice partner, who has just no fat at all on her and has lots of trouble keeping warm generally, after trying everything, has a pair of Hotmitt’Nz by Camp.  I just used them at 5200m, where my body did not work well, and hands were very warm, but that was only walking with poles.  I can't vouch for gripping tools at all.
NOTE: They are so fluffy, and the insulation has so much "springback" that I swear they will fall out of ANY pocket you stuff them into.  So if you get them, get that leash that goes across your shoulders and out your jacket sleeves and clips to your mitts, so you can just drop them to use your fingers without losing the mitts. So, of practical use for the original poster: before you buy, try whatever system your prospective mitt has for taking them off while clipping/screwing. This can really differ between mitts.

Lastly, apologies for going back to gloves: I think someone had a pair of CampUSA Geko gloves they said were warm.  I tried some on at the Ouray ice fest, and they seemed warm and fit very nicely, had great dexterity (though I didn't climb with them). By the time I got home and decided to get them....my understanding of the situation is, the standard Geko were replaced with the ice pro Geko, and the price was jacked up from like $100 to $150 overnight. I was a bit peeved so I never got around to actually buying them. Anybody see them on sale? 

Best of luck. 

-TPC

*(That doesn't include high altitude where your body works poorly, like over 10,000 ft/3000m, or long periods of inactivity like snow camping, where I suspect that doesn't work.)

I lead with gloves or mittens depending on my hand warmth at the moment and think gloves are maybe 5% less dexterious (aka no problem). I have an old pair of Stoic mittens that are a glove within a mitten with a thin palm with lots of insulation on the outside of the hand. AKA really good design for mitten dexterity.

That being said - I echo what others are saying. Keep the core warmth up to keep the hands warm. Always when I over grip, my hands get cold. A sign to myself to relax. (Wiggle those thumbs) if climbing with gloves - take multiple pairs and swap them out often (reheating them close to your chest under your layers). Thick belay jacket - before you get cold.

Along the lines of the last two replies, I'm considering getting a vest again to help keep my hands warmer.

thepirate1 wrote:

......the standard Geko were replaced with the ice pro Geko, and the price was jacked up from like $100 to $150 overnight. I was a bit peeved so I never got around to actually buying them. Anybody see them on sale? 

^ $87.43 plus shipping, from Oliunid:

https://www.oliunid.com/camp-geko-ice-pro-gloves.html

https://www.ortovox.com/gr-en/shop/men/p214121-gloves-3-finger-glove-pro

These things look rad. If anyone gets some, let me know how it worked out. 

I really like these three finger gloves, though I don't climb in them, just belay. Probably a little too puffy/squishy to climb in, but maybe possible if you swap the three finger liners for glove liners. Definitely would recommend getting some waterproofing wax for them. https://www.freethepowder.com/products/rx3-pro

Elliot K wrote:

I really like these three finger gloves, though I don't climb in them, just belay. Probably a little too puffy/squishy to climb in, but maybe possible if you swap the three finger liners for glove liners. Definitely would recommend getting some waterproofing wax for them. https://www.freethepowder.com/products/rx3-pro

That's a nice lineup of gloves and seems like a cool company. 

Was the size what you expected? I think I'll order a pair but I'm exactly between sizes based on my hand measurement. Will probably size up for the sake of warmth and getting them on/off easily. 

On extremely cold days I followed up to WI4 with Hestra Army Leather GTX. Anything harder seems impossible to me with mittens but, of course, YMMV

I will need to go dig my gloves out of storage if I can remember tomorrow (they're buried in a box somewhere... no ice to climb in Southern California, sad) to check, but I think I was in between sizes, sized up, and then exchanged them for the smaller size. I'm fairly consistently a size 7 in gloves (medium Showa 282-02, small Outdoor Research gloves) and I'm 95% sure I have size small in the RX3s. If you're trying to climb in them, I'd definitely size down, and if not, I'd still consider it - my issue with the larger size was that the fingers were too long and I felt I couldn't belay with them in the way.