Backpacking Background:

Along with my two sons – ages eleven and thirteen, I am very active with our local Boy Scout troop.  I’ve been involved with Scouting as an adult for the past ten years.  Besides being the Committee Chairman, I’m also the High Adventure Leader.  As such, one of my responsibilities is to teach the young people about the "Great Outdoors".  I especially love to teach them about hiking, backpacking and canoeing.

*ChillBlocker Gloves are designed to be slightly larger than regular SealSkinz gloves to help promote warmth within the glove.  If you prefer a snug fit, we suggest selecting on glove size smaller.

Product Arrival:

The Danalco Sealskinz ChillBlocker Gloves arrived via UPS, in perfect order.  The gloves were folded together and placed in a plastic clamshell package, ready for display in any retail store.  The gloves were easily extracted from the reusable clamshell package.  Also in the clamshell were two pieces of literature, a quad-fold product brochure of the Sealskinz  product line and a foldout brochure on Polartec Power Stretch fleece.

First Impression:

As I unfolded the gloves, I was impressed with their appearance.  The have a rather professional finish that allow me to wear them as dress gloves as well as on the trail.  They are thicker than liner or driving gloves, but not as bulky as my ragg wool gloves or my synthetic-filled ski gloves.  The ChillBlockers are uniformly black in color, both interior and exterior.  Construction appears first rate.

The Outside: The outside covering of the glove is made from a blend of nylon and Lycra spandex.  This offers a tough, as well as flexible exterior.  There are NO discernable seams on the outside glove at all.  The Sealskinz label appears on the outside face of the right glove only, just above wrist area.  The inside face of each glove (the palm side) is covered with small gripper dots.  The dots cover the palm and fingers, but do not extend into the wrist area.  The size of the glove is indicated on each palm by the letter "M", drawn out  in gripper dots, in the lower palm area, opposite the thumb and below the pinky finger.

The Inside: The inside of the glove is lined with a layer of double veloured Polartec Power Stretch Fleece.  The lining is soft to the touch and gentle on the skin.  The fold-out brochure on Polartec fleece found with the ChillBlocker gloves states that Polartec Power Stretch Fabrics not only offer body-hugging 4-way stretch, but  they keep your feet dry and warm as well.  The fleece is constructed with a two-layer system itself.  The soft, inner layer pulls moisture away from your skin, and the outer layer offers protection and provides dissipation surface.  The seam of the interior layer can be found running along the sides of the interior of the glove.  I could not sense the seam at all when wearing the glove.  I found it only by inverting the glove to examine the inside layer.

The In-Between: The layer between the inner fleece layer and outer nylon/spandex layer is where the heart of the MVT technology resides.  Herein lies the waterproof membrane that allows water vapor to pass through yet blocks water droplets.  I can only catch a glimpse of the MVT membrane when studying the outside layer through the outer material.

The Fit: I found the Sealskinz ChillBlocker gloves comfortable right out of the box.  Initially, I received size large gloves to test.  Although the fit was acceptable, it was a little looser than I was hoping for.  I wanted to be able to maintain more finger dexterity wearing the gloves than the larger size permitted.  I contacted Danalco, and they graciously sent me out the smaller size medium gloves to test.   Sealskinz promotes these socks with "seamless" construction.  This is really only of the outer layer, and maybe the membrane, but not the inner layer.  The fleece inner layer has a seam running around the entire perimeter of the glove, although it's found in an unusual location.  If someone were to "dissect" the glove by cutting down the length of the glove to create two symmetrical halves and then reattach them together, they would end up with a seam in the same location found running through the inner fleece layer.  I could not detect the seam when wearing the gloves.

Beginning Tests

In the first week of testing, I've been wearing the Chillblocker gloves every day.  Conditions so far have been fairly moderate, with temperatures running around 32F (0C).  Yesterday, I experienced the harshest conditions yet for testing.  I had my kids downtown for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade.  Temperatures again were right at freezing, but it was extremely windy.  Then, it began to rain.  I consider these to be some of the harshest conditions of all for any gear.  I am happy to report that the gloves performed quite well.  They shed water beautifully, though my hands did begin to get cold.  I attribute this mostly to the fact that overall I was cooling down due to the lack of activity - there's only so much you can do watching a parade!

A Word on Fit

I am in a unique position to comment on the fit of the ChillBlocker gloves, since I have both the medium and large sizes to compare.  Based on my hand measurements, I fit into the large size, which agrees with what I normally buy.  Yet, these are a looser fit.  If dexterity is important, I suggest going for the smaller size.  I fit into the medium sized gloves, yet I find them tight. I would be hard pressed to get a liner glove on under the size medium gloves.   If warmth is more important, I suggest going with the larger size gloves, as I've found the extra space in the large sized gloves dramatically increases the temperature rating of the gloves.

Test Plan

The test period will include winter, spring  and summer conditions.  I plan to test these gloves extensively, with tests running several times a week.  I am anxious to see how the ChillBlocker gloves fare through the cold, wet slush of the spring melt.  It looks like I may have the opportunity to test them while canoeing in Algonquin Park in Canada in June as well.  I plan on monitoring the effects of temperature while hiking.  I will attempt to identify a point where I find them to be too warm to wear.  I will test them while holding trekking poles and hiking free handed.  Their waterproofness will be thoroughly tested along with their durability.  

Comments on the Website:

I found the SealSkinz website easy to negotiate and very informative.  Danalco offers a large variety of Sealskinz products to fit different hikers' needs.  I found that it was easy to find what I was looking for.  The website is laid out logically.  The gloves were pretty much what I expected based on my research on the Danalco website, although I was surprised with the professional outside finish on the gloves. 

Summary of Initial Impressions

These are nice gloves that are comfortable to wear.  If they're as waterpoof and breathable as the claims, as well as durable, they will be awesome.

Tim