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Outdoor Research Arete glove
Arete glove
Gear Guy

How can I keep the inside of my gloves dry?

I can't find a pair of gloves suitable for winter hiking. They all seem to suffer from the same problem: In the presence of perspiration, the attached linings stick to my fingers as I pull the gloves off. This makes it difficult to re-align the fingers to get them back on. Is there an answer to this dilemma? Rick Littleton, New Hampshire

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Outdoor Research Arete glove

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I agree, that can be a real headache. And I’m not sure there is a perfect solution.

Outdoor Research Arete glove

Outdoor Research Arete glove Arete glove

You could try a couple of things, though. One approach is to attack the problem of sweat building up. Silk glove liners help with this, as they not only absorb some of the moisture, they create a semi-slick surface next to the inside of the glove that helps with the hand-extraction process. As a bonus, the silk liners add warmth, including for those times you need to pull your hands out of the gloves to manipulate something small. Silk glove liners are available from several sources (such as wintersilks.com) and usually cost around $8. Buy two pairs.

The other thing you can do is spray your hands with antiperspirant. I’m not kidding; that really works!

There are so many gloves out there that it’s difficult to sort through them all and say X or Y works. But I really like Marmot’s Randonnee gloves ($100; marmot.com). They have a Gore-Tex XCR membrane, Primaloft insulation, and a wicking liner that seems to keep my hands pretty dry. So I haven’t had many “stuck finger” incidents with them. Outdoor Research’s Arete ($79; outdoorresearch.com) are a good multi-purpose glove with a removable fleece liner. So you can peel off the outer glove, then the inner, and that can help with keeping fingers in the right slots. Plus, you can carry spare insulation—any good fleece or wool mid-weight glove would work—and always have dry liners.

You’ve got your winter gear, now get outside and use it. makes it easy to find nearby slopes just begging for fresh tracks.

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