Properly fitting ski gloves is necessary because without proper fitting ski gloves, you’ll become cold. Your hands can become cold if you wear a glove that is more small for your hands because the glove will restrict the blood flow to your fingertips. Because restricted blood flow to your fingertips will make your fingertips colder then they should be.
Even though people might believe that wearing a smaller glove is better for there skiing experience because it eliminates wasted space within the glove, the smaller glove will choke the blood flow to the hands and cause the hands to become frozen. Therefore, finding the correct size of ski gloves are necessary to both allow for comfort in the gloves as well as to retain the warmth in your hands in cold environments. To find the correct glove size, you must measure the palm of your hand.
How to Choose and Care for Ski Gloves
To do this, you will wrap a tape measure around your hand, but make sure that you do not include your thumb in the measurement of your hand. Many individuals makes the mistake of measuring their hand too loose with the tape measure, but you want to measure the circumference of your hand as accurately as possible. The circumference of your hand is the measurement that you should use to determine the numeric size of ski gloves that you should purchase.
While the length of your hand is a second measurement that can be used to determine the size of ski gloves, the width of your hand is the most importantely measurement because it will determine whether or not you can comfortably close your fist within the glove. If you find that your hand measurement fall between two sizes of ski gloves, you should choose the larger size. Even though it may seem better to choose the smaller glove size that will allow for more precision in your skiing gloves, the larger glove will provide extra room for a thin liner glove that you can wear within the ski gloves.
The thin liner glove will allow you to wear additional layers when the temperatures in the skiing environment drop. If you choose a ski glove that is too small for your hand, you will not be able to wear a liner glove, and you will become cold within the ski gloves when the temperatures around you drop. The materials that people use to make ski gloves are also important to consider.
Many ski gloves are made of leather, and the leather will stretch after wearing the ski gloves for a few days. Many leather ski gloves will expand after wearing the leather ski gloves for a few days of skiing. Therefore, when purchasing leather ski gloves, they should of feel slightly tight when you first put them on your hands.
If the leather ski gloves are too loose when you first acquire the ski gloves, they will not be able to stretch and expand to your hands as efficient as ski gloves that is slightly tight when first put on. You can also choose ski gloves that have five-finger gloves or mittens. Five-finger gloves provide more dexterity to your hand, which is helpful when adjusting the bindings of your ski boots.
Five-finger gloves will allow for better precision in your skiing however they allow for more of your hand to become exposed to the cold temperatures. Mittens will keep your fingers together within a warm pocket that allows your fingers to share in the warmth of your body heat. Mittens are preferable to five-finger gloves when skiing in extreme cold temperatures.
Trigger-style gloves fall somewhere in between five-finger gloves and mittens because they will keep your index finger separate from the rest of your hand, which is helpful when gripping the ski pole with one finger, but will otherwise keep the rest of your hand warm like mittens. Other factors to consider when choosing ski gloves are the insulation weight and the membranes that is within the gloves. Lightweight ski gloves are used for active touring so that the increased body heat that you create while skiing will remain within the gloves.
For individuals who stand still while skiing on ski lifts, however, heavier ski gloves with more insulation will retain more of your body heat. The membrane that is within the gloves will determine whether or not the gloves are waterproof or breathable. If the gloves are waterproof yet not breathable, the hands will become sweaty when skiing in the gloves.
When your hands become sweaty, they will become cold. Therefore, you want ski gloves with a breathable membrane that will prevent your hand from becoming sweaty and cold within the gloves. Once you own a pair of leather ski gloves, there are a few steps that you should take to maintain those gloves to ensure that they remain waterproof.
One step is to ensure that you wash the leather ski gloves with mild soap. Additionally, you should air dry the ski gloves away from a radiator. Never put the leather ski gloves on a heater to dry.
If you do, the leather will crack. When the leather cracks, the wind can enter the gloves and make your hands cold. Additionally, apply a conditioning lotion to the leather gloves once a season so that the leather will remain supple and flexible when skiing.
