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Reviews > Clothing > Gloves > OR WindStopper Gripper Gloves > Pat Christian > Field Report Pat Christian Male, 62 Height: 5'6" (1.52 m) Weight: 155 lb (70 kg) Contact: pat@patchristian.com City, State, Country: Provo, Utah, U.S. Date: March. 5, 2004 Backpacking/outdoor experience:
Product:
Initial thoughts:
Product overview:
 The gloves are still on, the gauntlet down. So far I'm warm enough...counted five avalanches on Mt. Timpanogos eastern slopes far above me here in Utah, above Sundance, ski touring around 9,500 feet (2,896 m)surrounded by scenery rivaling the Swiss Alps. What other slides loom where? I must be careful. I should stay warm. It is about 18 degrees; please be kind Mr. Fahrenheit (-7.77 C), please be kind. My Outdoor Research Gripper Gloves have a firm grip on my old Leki ski poles-poles that, incidentally, I can-presto-change-o into an avalanche probe. So what; I am alone now. I must be careful. I should stay warm. I've turned around. I'm on my way down. I like the way the gloves fit-well. Like the proverbial glove they fit. I like their color, black black like the color of a wind siren's hair. Point most black clothing toward Mr. Sol and it absorbs that orb's life-sustaining heat like a solar sponge. Is there any other color? I am so elated that I'm finally using the Gripper Gloves in wild alpine territory, not shoveling heavy snow off the sidewalks of home as before. The snow is deep here where I have momentarily left the safety of the packed path to seek a little deep powder...to test glove and mettle. Then it happens. The snow is coming towards me so fast...falling! Something hidden in the steep and deep seems to have grabbed my left ski. I am unbalanced. I am in the middle of an end-over-end and ultimately a frigid face-plant. I am being humbled. Instinctively, I put out my gloved hands to soften any impact and add whatever grace I can to this inadvertent comic or tragic ballet. Thankfully, it turns out to be only comic. Kind of like a song I only vaguely remember I pick myself up, dust myself off and continue skiing upright all over again. I feel just a bit of cold powder inside the cuff of the glove, I take them off and shake the snow off and in them before I put them back on. They continue to warm me the last 30 minutes to my car. In this dry snow, they seem to have stayed dry and friendly the way a good pair of gloves should. Driving home, I think what I might write about a pair of gloves I am testing for readers to read at backpackgear.org. If this pair of gloves was a motor vehicle, I might say these Gripper Gloves are a sports car. I don't know why; it just comes to me this way. Maybe while they don't do it all like the family van almost does, they are nevertheless the pair I most want to wear most the time. My old, bulkier expedition gloves with the long gauntlets seem to be spending more and more time in the drawer. They are toasty and still good for winter skiing, climbing and snow camping, but not as versatile as these Gripper Gloves. Following the metaphor, they must be the family car. "All the glove you will need much of the time," Outdoor Research claimed in printed material they sent with the pair I'm testing. Ill just say they are not the perfect glove. I've been cold in them. But you'll not get argument from me about them being the glove, I at least, need much of the time. They are this winter, my favorite and most used glove. Thank you Outdoor Research for letting me test them. So they are no longer as shiny...less pretentious and used, like a favorite pair of cowboy boots or jeans still without visible flaw but not looking so brand new anymore. They seem to have become part or at least an extension of you. After arriving in December, the Gripper Gloves first shoveled snow off my walks. The gripper surface on palm and two fingers provided a bulletproof grip that I like. I found them light and agile enough for driving and could even actuate most the small dials and buttons on the car's instrument panel. If need be, I could even salute errant and rude drivers in other cars, but that is not me usually. They seem a comfortable driving glove. Some of the first wind testing of the Windstop material was done driving and putting my hand out the window. For neighborhood city driving around 25-30 mph (40kmph) the glove stayed warm. At higher speeds I usually started to get cold and pulled my hand back in. Maybe there being relatively agile and the supple feel of the Windstop material is why I also liked them for three mile (4.8 km) winter jaunts to the grocery store down the street on my mountain bike. There were about three of these jaunts. The Windstop material the glove is cut from seems to protect against the 18 mile an hour (29 kmph) wind I was peddling into, temperatures around 18 degrees Fahrenheit (-7.77 C). Not only do the gloves feel soft enough that I often wipe my running nose comfortably with them, they are so supple and fit well that most the time I hardly know I am wearing them at all. Man do I like that aspect. I like that feel a lot and that is not the case with my other gloves which seem to always remind me I am wearing them, except of course my thin anti-contact gloves. The gloves fine for the short bike trips to the store when my body was working hard...working like a stoked furnace...a body with the thermostat cranked up. But if I was going to ride for trips lasting more than an hour, I think I would wear a water and windproof overmitt, an extra layer of warmth and protection. You see, I have found my favorite Gripper Glove to have a sparse athletic nature about them. They are perfect on my cold weather runs of eight miles or so. Coincidentally, I am wearing an Outdoor Research Windstopper hat on my head for these runs at about 4,200 hundred feet (1,280 m)and between 10 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit (-12.21 and 1.67 C). If it gets much warmer on runs, skiing, bike trips or other thermostat-up, little or no wind chill adventures I go to lighter polypropylene anti-contact gloves and a lighter hat. For most my winter runs I have worn the Gripper Gloves sometimes along the way exchanging them for the lighter ones when morning warms to afternoon during a particular longer run, steep uphill ski or other workout type activity. For me the fact that it is a lighter, sports car like glove and sometimes even seeming a bit cold when I am performing at my lower thermostat range is actually one of the reasons it has become my favorite glove. More and more during this testing, I am coming to view the Gripper Glove as great system glove-just one of three separate glove components that including a pair of thin polypropylene anti-contact gloves, the Gripper Gloves, and finally a water and windproof overmitt. For long, sometimes slower hikes, skis, etc. and lounging in camp where my heart rate is down down nearer its resting rate, I will put on my light polypropylene anti-contact glove inside the Gripper Glove. Then if that doesn't completely do it-perhaps as if in subfreezing temperatures-and my hands continue to get cold, before they actually do get cold, I then put on the overmitt. I've only done this about twice so far. The rest of the time I mostly wear just the Gripper Glove. That trio worked well on the one winter encampment I tested the gloves on and also worked in several ski trip lunch breaks standing or sitting in the snow. The camp was in a tent in the snow near a pass at about 9,000 feet (2,743 m). I don't know the actual temperature, but it was of the cold kind when you can feel the hairs in your nose freeze. I don't carry a thermometer with me...don't trust them much anyway. Never quite understood why that stuff inside isn't negatively affected by my changing altitude thus messing with the accuracy. In my pack, I still had my expedition gloves just in case. I have found that when skiing with one particular friend of mine who ski-climbs so slowly, that when I am courteous and keep his pace and stay with him, I am not working hard enough, and I get cold. One remedy as my hands get cold in these sports car gloves is to take my fingers out of the finger slots and fold them back into my bare palm area and rub a little friction into them. Sometimes my hands warm back up and I put my fingers back in the finger section of the glove. Sometimes I can warm my hands back up by putting on another layer over my core (chest) area or put on warmer head gear. Amazing how this will warm your hands. So does drinking water when you happen to be a bit on the dehydrated side. Of course there is nothing like just picking up your pace to warm you up all over. The gloves have a clip or clasp to hook the gloves together and clip them to a zipper pull or something. The reminded me of being a child with mittens sewn by my mother to my jacket so I wouldn't loose them. They are not really bothersome, but for my taste, I wish they just weren't there. I wish Outdoor Research would sell them with a little bag to put the gloves in. I found myself reaching in my pack for the gloves only to pull out the left or right one. I guess if I used the clip I would pull out both gloves, but I fear that would eventually lead to clip failure. But I also wish the left glove had a button that when pushed would allow me to time travel. A customer is never satisfied. I wore the gloves also as a work glove on several occasions in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival in January when I set up theaters and venues with the stage and motion picture union I occasionally do on-call work for. It was often cold and dirty work. I had to unload heavy metal stage and lighting equipment from big trucks and carry them inside buildings up and down stairs. It was a tough abrasive workout for the Gripper Gloves that would have thrashed cotton work gloves that of course would have been too wet in the snowy conditions to use in the first place, but that's another story. The Gripper Gloves held up well. They now look well used-scuffed a bit-but no tears or misshaping and just as comfortable as ever, perhaps more. Gripper Gloves are even loss resistant. I lost them for a few days, but one of my fellow union roadies yelled out a few days later, "Anybody missing a pair of black gloves? So I got them back. Well maybe loss resistant is just a stretch of the imagination and in reality I was just lucky. And I do have to say I consider myself lucky to have them. Future Testing:
Thank you, Outdoor Research, for allowing
me to test these gloves.
"Outdoor Research products are guaranteed against defects in materials or construction without any time limits. Any items that we determine to be defective will be repaired or replaced depending on what makes the most sense and creates the least waste. Damage due to misuse or improper care is not covered, nor is wear and tear, but we will be happy to repair for minimal cost, any items that are returned to us clean. It is important to keep in mind that materials may wear out rapidly if they are subjected to severe use of uses for which they were not intended." Read more reviews of Outdoor Research gear Read more gear reviews by Pat Christian Reviews > Clothing > Gloves > OR WindStopper Gripper Gloves > Pat Christian > Field Report | |||