Ibex Wool Glove Liners
Field Report by André Corterier
Date: 2005-MAY-18
Year of manufacture: 2004
Manufacturer: Ibex Outdoor Clothing LLC
URL: http://www.ibexwear.com/
MSRP: 25.00 USD originally, now 18.75 USD
Colour: Black
Weight Comparisons - scale accurate to 5 g (0.2 oz)
listed weight: 1.3 oz/pair (37 g) -avg.
measured weight: 40 g/pair (1.4 oz) -size XL
Introduction:
These are black, thin gloves of non-scratchy, stretchy "superfine"
Merino wool. You can find a more detailed description in my
Initial Report.
Field Experience:
These gloves have accompanied me literally everywhere I went in the Field Testing period. They commonly reside in the
breast pockets of my jacket - one in each, so that I grab the correct one right away. They've seen a lot of the woods
around where we live, the stretch to work (on my bicycle) almost daily, a few long dayhikes and a walking tour of
Manhattan. They haven't seen snow, but all other forms of precipitation in temperatures from about -3 C (28 F) to
about 15 C (60 F) in strong winds.
Warmth:
The gloves feel nicely warm, but not overly so. This has made me wear them a lot - a lot more than I would have
expected before this test started. The fact that I always had them with me might have had a lot to do with that, but
that, too, is an aspect of these gloves - they are so small and light that I stashed them in my pockets just in case
I might need them - just like the manufacturer's ad suggested. Having them with me all the time may be causing me to go
soft - I've found quite often that in temperatures in which I used to stoically keep walking and not mind that my
hands were getting a little cold, I would now take out these gloves and keep my hands warm. This probably never
became more obvious to me as when crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on a blustery May day, with temps approaching 15 C
(60 F) - who wears gloves in temperatures like that? I was the only one on the bridge that day doing so, but with a
stiff breeze coming in off the Atlantic, I just felt better that way.
Wet Protection:
No, I don't mean "wetness protection". There really isn't much of that. Sure, wool is hydrophobic, and a light
drizzle doesn't penetrate the gloves, neither does heavy fog or things like that. But any actual rain worth
mentioning gets these gloves wet. But, even wet they still offer protection. And, interestingly, when they get wet while
I wear them they never really feel wet until I take them off (at which point I invariably wonder how the squishy,
sodden things I just took off my hands could possibly have gotten so wet without me noticing). They say wool is
"warm when wet", and it's definitely been true for these.
Of course, when I put them back on while they are still this wet, they feel like - well, like cold, wet gloves. Only
this feeling goes away pretty soon. They warm up and stop feeling so decidedly wet at the same time. I've noticed
that for me at least there's a synaesthetic correlation between feeling "wet" and "cold". This means that the
surface of my hammock body, though dry, may at first touch feel wet to me if cold. It's the opposite with these
gloves - once they warmed up (and they do it quickly), they stop feeling wet. And continue to keep my hands warm.
How neat!
Wind Protection:
These gloves don't really protect from the wind, except they kind of do. Yes, I'll explain. Wind goes through them -
I find it easy to tell (even if my head is protected by a hood) how strongly the wind is blowing, because it goes
through the fabric and lets my hands know. Yet, the fabric still does seem to reduce wind*chill*. I can still feel the
wind cooling down my hands - more wind, less warmth. But the fact remains that my hands, inside these gloves, feel
a few degrees C (a few degrees times 1.8 F) warmer than they would without the gloves, no matter what the
circumstances. I've begun to actually like this. To me, the gloves feel more like a skin thickener than a shell I
pull over my hands to insulate me from my environment.
Fit/Comfort:
The Wool Glove Liners still fit snugly and continue to feel soft - they do not scratch. Washing them has not
caused them to shrink, about which I'm very happy - with hands as
large
as mine, any shrinking would have resulted in problems (although this might have been ameliorated by cutting the
overlapping tucked seams on the inside of the gloves). No such problems have arisen.
My hands also have never felt sweaty in these gloves. I haven't done any highly aerobic pursuits in really cold
weather in them, so this may change come the fall (though likely after the Long Term Report). As it was, when I got
warm through exertion, I invariably took off the gloves to allow cooling of my body before my hands started
sweating.
Going back to my earlier remark about the gloves seeming to be less of an insulation from the environment than,
say, other gloves I've worn, I need to add that this is probably the most striking difference to other gloves that
I've noticed. The feel I have for the surfaces I touch is only slightly impaired, everything still feels as though
it's my hands that I'm touching things with, not the gloves. I have even stopped taking them off when getting out
my keys or even - figure that - small change. While the latter exercise is made somewhat more difficult by the
existence of the gloves, the added bother is slight enough not to justify taking the gloves off. They feel so natural
that sometimes I forget I'm wearing them.
While all this is nice, it is not *only* positive. It goes hand in hand with reduced protection from sharpies.
Thorns and brambles seem as blissfully unaware of the existence of the gloves as I am when I've forgotten that I'm
wearing them. This can be painful. So far, I haven't noticed any holes in the gloves after encountering thorns
(though I could detect some in my skin, so I'm sure the gloves were pierced).
Durability:
A thread was sticking out of the seam at the wrist of the left glove. I'm almost certain it did not do this when I
received the gloves, I would have noted that in my
Initial Report.
It also wasn't unraveling, so I guess it must have gotten hung up on a zipper or something (I seem to recall
something like that). I cut the thread to prevent it from being pulled on in the future. They look like new.
Of course, they haven't been through much. When encountering thorns or such, I've managed not to exert lateral pull on
them while a thorn was stuck in them and have managed to avoid barbed sharpies. So they've mostly been worn when
hiking (which I do exclusively on my feet), climbing trees or easy rocks (rarely), pulling on zippers and grabbing
handlebars. They should be up to a lot more of the same.
Drying:
Wool, I've noticed, generally doesn't dry well. These don't seem to be an exception. The solution, as with other
modern wool clothing, seems to be to wear them wet. They then warm up quickly - and dry up, too.
Pros/Cons:
Pro: Light. Packs small. Makes my hands feel a nice bit warmer whenever I want them to.
Con: Get soaked by rain. And I'm still slightly anxious about getting them torn.
Personal Biographical Information:
Name: André Corterier
Gender: M
Age: 33
Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight: 80 kg (175 lb)
Email: andreDOTcorterierATfreenetDOTde
Home: Bonn, Germany
Backpacking Background:
I began backpacking in my late teens using Europe’s "InterRail"-System – weight hardly mattered, as we were on
trains a lot. I recently rediscovered backpacking and have started out slowly – single-day 15 mile (24 km) jaunts
by myself or even shorter hikes in the company of my little daughter. I am getting started on longer
hikes, as a lightweight packer and hammock-camper. I’ve begun upgrading my old gear and am now shooting for a
dry FSO weight (everything carried From the Skin Out except food, fuel and water)
of about 10 kg (22 lb) for three-season camping. Not quite there yet.
Read more reviews of Ibex gear
Read more gear reviews by Andre Corterier
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