Ski Mitten
Most people have the misconception that a normal mitten will suffice while skiing, they are designed specifically for the slopes and specifically for dexterity. General mittens are designed for simple movements while going around town, or normal typical actions, they simply aren't designed to keep out the forces of skiing and keep your hands warm very well. Ski mittens are especially designed to keep your hands dry and warm regardless of what you are doing. In fact most use special protectants and Velcro snaps to guarantee that your hands stay dry throughout the whole day.
Mittens are fantastic as they are much easier to put on and take off then gloves. One of the most unknown thing about gloves is that they won't last nearly as long because they have fingers rather then a whole mitten. Since there's less finger movement the overall control and availability to remove and put on your mittens is very easy. If you have children, you'll know what a pain it is to put on gloves and take gloves off. If you do require more dexterity you may want to consider gloves, except, most of the time people that wear gloves have had to deal with a cold finger or several cold fingers all day.
Whatever you do you really need to make sure that you have gloves or mittens on the slope, what is really important is whether or not you your mittens are waterproof. I highly suggest ski mitten that are strictly water proof. I assure you that if you end up purchasing mittens that aren't waterproof you'll be hating yourself the next time you are on the slopes. At the end of the day you'll thank me for purchasing waterproof mittens. Mittens are created from a plethora of materials that provide waterproofing and insulation, try and find mittens that have fantastic stitching and manufactured from high quality synthetics. Some materials include things such as deluge DWR polyester and Cordura Ventia, for those looking for something more classic check out treated leathers. Most synthetic mittens will be far more expensive, but at the end of the day they are extremely worth it if you happen to fall down even once during the day.
After you find a set of water proof mittens you'll want to begin looking at the mittens insulation. You really want to make sure that the type of insulation is decent and of high quality. A lot of the main insulation used in mittens is fleece, and of course with reason. Fleece is a very lightweight material with one of the benefits being that within a few minutes a wet mitten can become dry. Synthetics are the most common type of insulation material, these commonly are polar fleece, microfleece and synthetic thermal insulation materials. If there are some of you that are allergic to synthetic fleece you may want to look into things such as wool. Wool has been used for centuries to trap heat, although wool mittens can take twice if not three times as long to fully dry out after becoming wet.
It doesn't matter what you end up deciding, ski mitten are absolutely essential to your time on the slopes. Skiing or snowboarding without mittens just isn't a possibility, you'll want to make sure that you get some great ski mittens. Be sure to find a great pair of mittens for your next ski trip and look for mittens that are lightweight and waterproof. You'll want to make sure that your slopes are well insulated so that you aren't spending time off the slopes.
