Personal biographical information:
Name: Kelli Wise
Age: 43
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 0" (152 cm)
Weight: 140 lb (64 kg)
Palm width: 3.25" (8.3 cm)
Hand length (wrist to tip of longest finger): 7" (17.8 cm)
Email: ciyd@comcast.net
Location: Western Washington, USA
Date: February 3, 2004

Backpacking background: I've been car camping and hiking for 20 years and sport climbing for 10 years, but am new to backpacking. My backpacking style is not ultralight but lightweight and I am striving for a suitable compromise between safety and comfort. I have started going for overnight and short trips with the goal of doing an extended trip next year. The majority of my hiking experience is in Western Washington so I get a lot of wet weather experience.

Field information: Western Washington, coastal, lowlands and winter snowshoeing below 6000' (1829 m).

Product Information:
Manufacturer: Integral Designs
Model: Down Mitts
Year of manufacture: 2003
URL: www.integraldesigns.com
Size: Small
Color: Red
This product is available in 3 different sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. All weights and measurements are for the size small.

Listed weight: 3 oz (85 g)
Measured weight: 3.7 oz (105 g) with stuff sack, 3.4 oz (97 g) alone
Note: My postal scale is only accurate to the tenths of an ounce, so I measured this product in both ounces and grams. The metric weights are measured, not converted from empirical numbers. I felt that this would provide a much more accurate weight measurement.
Listed packed size: 3" x 5" (7.6 cm x 12.7 cm)
Measured packed size: 3" x 5.5" (7.6 cm x 14 cm)
MSRP: $50 USMP

Features: The Down Mitts are designed to be used in camp to keep your hands warm. The shell material is Pertex Endurance, a waterproof breathable fabric, and the insulation is 750+ European goose down. The Down Mitts are baffled to keep the down in place and the wrist closures are shock cord and drawcord closures to keep in warmth.

Field Report
I've had a chance to use the Down Mitts at home and in the field. One of my first experiments with the mitts came after an afternoon of working out in my yard. I had spent a couple of hours cutting back plants and pulling weeds in cold, wet soil and my work gloves were completely soaked by the time I was finished. Needless to say, my fingers were numb from the cold. After washing the garden soil off of my hands and towel drying them, I put the down mitts on. In just a couple of minutes, my very cold fingers started to warm up and in short order, I had to remove the mitts as my hands were too warm.

I also used the Down Mitts while sleeping outside in a bivy sack. I put down a RidgeRest and Therm-a-Rest on top of that, placed the bivy on top of the pads and put my 15 F (-9 C) down sleeping bag into the bivy. Since no precipitation was expected, I didn't pitch a tarp and just slept under the stars. I slept in a microfleece top and bottom, wore a Thermax balaclava, Hot Socks, and the Down Mitts. The Down Mitts were used to warm my hands up after I finished setting everything up as my fingers had gotten quite cold. After I climbed into the sleeping bag, I slipped the Down Mitts on and settled in for a nice sleep. I sleep cold and the expected low temperature was predicted at 19 F (-7C), well below my comfort level in a 15 F (-9 C) rated sleeping bag. I left the hood of the bivy completely unzipped for ventilation. The low recorded temperature for the night was 20 F (-7C) and the winds were light. In the morning, everything around me was coated in frost, including the bivy sack and the exposed parts of my sleeping pads! I had to unzip the side zip of the South Col during the night since it kept touching my face. I noticed that frost had formed on that portion of the bivy fabric and it brushed off onto my bag when I got up in the morning. I expected to get cold during the night and have to add clothing layers, but I actually ended up taking off the Down Mitts after about 30 minutes as they were just too warm. I did slide one of the Down Mitts up onto my shoulder when I slept on my side and that provided plenty of extra insulation to keep that shoulder warm where it was compressing the bag. It was nice to see that the Down Mitts could be used as extra insulation for those little cold spots that develop around shoulders and knees. I managed to use the zippers and drawcords of the sleeping bag while wearing the Down Mitts but it was more awkward than using bare hands.

On a recent snowshoeing trip, I brought along the Down Mitts to wear during breaks. The Down Mitts pack down very small and were stored in a resealable plastic bag with my other spare, dry clothing. We started at 4800' (1463 m) and hiked up to 5200' (1585 m) elevation. When we arrived at the trailhead, it was snowing and it snowed throughout the entire trip. We estimated that we received approximately 6" (15 cm) of snow during the 5 hours we were on the trail. This is Cascades snow – wet and icy – and it was also very windy all day. The high temperature that day was 23 F (-5 C). At the lunch break, I removed my spare clothes bag and dug out my Down Mitts and liner gloves. I used the liner gloves for tasks requiring fine control, like setting up a stove, and wore the Down Mitts otherwise. The bright red color of the Down Mitts made them easy to spot in the bag. I ate with bare hands which left my fingers very cold and stiff but they warmed up very quickly after I put the Down Mitts back on. After our break, I stuffed the Down Mitts back into the spare clothes bag, compressed everything and stored it in my pack. It continued to snow during the break, but the Down Mitts did not get damp.

As I noted in my Initial Report , the drawcord closure on the left mitt is broken and will not tighten around the shock cord. Unfortunately, it is attached to the mitt and is not easily replaced. In addition, the left mitt had 3 stitches on the side seam that had a piece of down/feather in the stitch causing the seam to miss the lower piece of fabric. In use, I have not found the broken drawcord to be an issue, yet. I have not had a problem with the mitts falling off and I haven't even had a need to tighten the shock cord on the right mitt. The skipped stitches don't seem to be causing much down leakage, either. Despite these two flaws in the left mitt, it continues to be very functional.

I'm still amazed at the loft of these mitts. I've compressed them, leaving them stored like this for 3 weeks, and they loft up instantly. They compress to a ridiculously small size which makes them more likely to go on day trips.

There are 3 down chambers in each mitt and the baffles, which Integral Designs says are 0.5" (1.3 cm), are sewn to the outer shell using a tuck stitch. The tuck stitch keeps the threads from being exposed and reduces wear to increase product life. It also means that there are no stitches rubbing against my skin. The baffles have kept the down in place and I haven't noticed that the down is migrating within the baffles. I'll be watching for this over the coming months.

The fit of these Down Mitts is excellent. I have very long hands and don't like tight fitting gloves so I normally buy gloves and mitts in a size Men's medium. However, I didn't want a lot of extra air space to heat in the Down Mitts and decided to order the size small Down Mitts and they fit my bare hands perfectly. My thumb and fingers just reach the end of the inner shell fabric. Width wise, they are just a bit loose. They are just loose enough to not be constricting and yet don't leave me with lots of extra airspace to heat up. The mitts are a gauntlet fit, which means that the top of the Down Mitts is long enough to come up well past the wrist. There was plenty of overlap between my jacket sleeves and mitts to keep out cold wind.

Summary:
I'm very pleased at how quickly my hands warm up just by putting the Down Mitts on. Even when the outside temperature is very cold, snowy and windy, my hands were warm and dry. For someone with perpetually cold hands, these are a great piece of clothing. Their compressibility and ability to loft back up make them easy to pack.

Over the coming months, I'll continue to watch for down leakage in the left mitt. I'll also keep looking for how much of their loft is lost over the season and for migration of down within the chambers.

I would like to thank Integral Designs and BGT for the opportunity to test the Down Mitts.

Read more reviews of Integral Designs gear
Read more gear reviews by Kelli Wise

Field Report

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