Sun Gloves?

[Jeff Jeff]

I used the fingerless, although they were different in 2008. They were white. The palm cutout was larger and they didn't have the rubber grips.

[Tony Wong]

I used Sun Precautions Hand Guards on my 2011 JMT trip after my friend, Linda, used them on a short trip we took together.

They are "unique" in that they leave your hands free and not sweaty because it is not a glove.

Only negative is that they can be a bit "floppy" and look strange, but they worked well for me.

Never used sunscreen on my hands the whole 15 days out and I use hiking poles with them no problem.

http://www.sunprecautions.com/product/31300

Might work for you too.

-Tony

[Anonymous]

I'd also recommend Glacier Gloves. They're pretty durable, inexpensive and offer all kinds of options(also known as Dr. Shade).

[Michael K]

I use the regular Glacier gloves sun gloves (Dr. Shades) for hiking the most. The reason why I picked these over the other brands is exactly what you are complaining about. The other gloves don't go far enough down. These are more like 3/4 length fingerless and they cover my thumb up to the tip. They are not hot and they dry very fast. You can also pick these up at fly fishing shops and Bass Pro etc.

When I fish or paddle I like the Glacier glove version with a plastic palm called "Ascension Bay Sun Glove" for a better grip on the paddle or fish. These are also 3/4 length and will cover your thumbs. They will last longer with trekking pole use, but are a bit warmer then the 1st gloves that I mentioned.

If I'm doing some scrambling, rope work, and climbing I use the "Warmers" brand sun gloves because they have a synthetic palm that deal with the abrasion better. You probably won't like these b/c they are half length and the top half of your thumb is exposed.

[backpackerchick]

Too big. (They only come in 2 sizes.) And I don't like the rough seams. Cover the thumbs though. Quality not up to OR and Patagonia offerings (which are short in the thumb and do not provide sufficient coverage for me when using sticks). And they are totally me! Bummer.

Stylish, none the less.

[John S.]

Go to home depot and try these on. You may not like them, but they are light. I wore them on a hot hike and didn't mind them.

http://gossamergear.com/wp/tips/3505

[backpackerchick]

Re: http://gossamergear.com/wp/tips/3505

Thanks John!

Those might be a good find. Price is good too.

[david kosins]

Since it has been six years since the last post, I thought I’d ask:
Any suggestions for basic sun gloves?

Priorities: ultralight, breathable, able to grip hiking poles.

[john hansford]

Outdoor Research Active ice Spectrum Sun Gloves

[Anonymous]

On the CT I used some generic, inexpensive thin, white, nylon gloves. Towards the end, they had some minor damage. They weren’t grippy, but I didn’t have a problem with my poles since those are grippy.

I’m fairly light skinned being of all Celtic and Germanic blend descent (have definitely reddish facial hair, reddish highlights in head hair, freckles, etc), and there was a couple times where I did get a light sun burn while wearing the gloves.

I’ll look around for a pic of my trail dorky self.

If you want something more tough and durable (and probably more sun protective as well), I would go with those gloves sold for work protection/cut resistance gear that have Dyneema or Spectra fibers in it. And if they contain a high content of same (and are light colored), not only will they tend to be rather durable, but also more cooling than other materials, as Dyneema and Spectra fibers have a thermal conductivity higher than stainless steel, interestingly.

So type into a search, cut resistant, dyneema, spectra, gloves. Should get plenty of options. Just be aware, there are some products that are falsely advertised.  I recently bought a pair of cut protection gloves, supposedly made of high content of Spectra and stainless steel, and yeah, no, bunch of b.s.. If it had been the case, they would have been much cooler to the touch.  But, as each glove was 2 dollars (lol, not sold as a pair), not such a big deal.  It was some small, no name brand.  If you stick with the more well known brands, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Don’t go with the backpacking specific brands. They tend to be WAY overpriced imo, and they will not hold up near as well as cut resistant gloves that have high Dyneema or Spectra content in them. Why pay 25 or more for a pair a gloves that a 10 to 15 dollar pair will beat the pants off of?  There is nothing “fashionable” about wearing gloves on the trail to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Fashionably sensitive, but too cool to care…  Actually more so, the huge majority of the time, I don’t like my pic being taken nor even really taking pictures so much, and get a bit annoyed when my spouse is constantly like, “let me take a pic of you.” or, “take a pic of me”.  Hence, frumpy Justin.

You may be able to tell by looking at the thumb (or not), but the EVA grips of the poles, discolored the bottom of the gloves. Didn’t matter to me, but I imagine there is probably somebody out there that cares about such things.  I think those gloves cost me like 7 dollars at the time. They worked well enough.  But I would probably go with cut resistant, Dyneema or Spectra content gloves next time for great durability.  These gloves would not handle a 2nd, month long trip, and I don’t like throwaway items.

[Bruce Tolley]

I use Coolibar sun gloves. They hold up well when using poles and when bicycling. They also have have grippiness. I prefer the model with a cut out for the palm but this season they are not offering them.

I am not following the logic of the recommendation for gloves with dyneema fibers since cuben fiber is famous for not being abrasion resistant.

[Anonymous]

“I am not following the logic of the recommendation for gloves with dyneema fibers since cuben fiber is famous for not being abrasion resistant.”

I’m not recommending DCF. The weakness of DCF is not the highly oriented UHMWPE fibers in same, but the thin mylar films these are sandwiched in between.  That mylar film does not hold up well to abrasion at all. DCF is about the worst material to use for conditions where it will be subjected to abrasion, rubbing, etc.

Woven or knitted, thick, all Dyneema or Spectra fibers and fabrics made out of same, is some of the most abrasion resistant and durable stuff around, which is why it’s commonly found in cut protective and ballistic’s armor tech.  Or why Ursack’s are now made predominantly out of this kind of material (I think the older stuff had more kevlar in it?).

I have a pair of all Dyneema, cut protective arm sleeves that I have converted into sun protective, cooling leg sleeves to be used with shorts (about 22 dollars for the pair btw).  Besides being tougher and more durable than nails, and most likely will far outlive me, no matter how much abuse it is put through, it is cooling on the skin, because the thermal conductivity, at least along the fiber axis is 20.

To put that into perspective, from the same metric measurement system, water is about .6 and stainless steel is 20.  The higher the number, the more thermally conductive the material. Metals are notoriously high in thermal conduction because of the crystallinity and order/regularity of their molecular chains/bonds.  While stainless steel isn’t all that thermally conductive compared to copper, or even aluminum, it is many orders of times higher than most polymers that are used for clothing, such as cellulose based, nylon, polyester, acrylic, polypropylene.  These range from about .1 from the least, to about .25 or so, for the most.

If one could make it: a very breathable, full body suit made out of all Dyneema or Spectra fabric, using large fibers and yarns (which are usually white colored), it would be the most cooling clothing system around that is reasonably light weight, whilst being able to protect you (at least initially/temporarily) from Samurai Katana slashes (well not the bruising and/or breaking part of the force).

A note: because of it’s slipperyness/low friction nature, it’s hard to weave and knit, and needs to be stabilized in different ways. And since it’s expensive, it’s often blended with other, more common and inexpensive fibers, which also helps the former issue too. Most cut protective gloves with Dyneema or Spectra fibers seem to be a combo of nylon, stainless steel, and the Dyneema or Spectra. Sometimes also with some polyester.

Edited to correct error of Dyneema fiber’s thermal conductivity, it’s actually 20, not 33.

 

[Diane Pinkers]

If I’m hiking in a long sleeve shirt, this has worked for me:

https://www.litesmith.com/palmfree-sun-gloves/

Ultralight and won’t rub on my trekking poles.

For full sunsleeves with a short sleeve shirt:

https://www.garagegrowngear.com/products/eclipse-sun-sleeves-by-eclipse-sun-products

For me, finding sleeves that aren’t white (too grubby) or black (too hot) was welcome. A nice dust brown, to go with the trail, that’s the ticket.

[Alexander S]

I buy my shirt long enough to uncuff and let cover the hands when exposed in open areas for longer periods.

[Patrick Canterbury]

I pretty much agree with what Justin W is saying on the topic.  (Only minor quibble is that abrasion resistance is going to be a function of both hardness and tensile strength, which are fairly independent properties of a material.  Whereas dyneema/spectra has 15 times greater tensile strength per weight than steel, it is nowhere near as hard, only about as hard as most other plastics.)

I’d personally recommend Ansell Hyflex dyneema gloves.

https://www.amazon.com/Ansell-Dyneema-Technology-Abrasion-Resistant/dp/B00EW6O3FQ/ref=sr_1_11?crid=2HJF489MCF0GP&keywords=ansell+hyflex+gloves&qid=1560459120&s=industrial&sprefix=ansell+%2Cindustrial%2C208&sr=1-11

I use these for trail running whilst training with a titanium fighting staff.  The backs of these gloves are  super cool and breath completely while the palm is urethane-coated and super grippy.  As the urethane wears off they get even more breathable.

A pair of Ansell Hyflex gloves used only for gripping trekking poles would probably last decades.

Mine wear out more quickly because I use them for capoeira and street workout, doing full body weight rotations on brushed concrete, which tends to wear out the finger tips.

 

 

 

 

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Patrick, nice recommendation. I think I have purchased those gloves before, to combine with perforated leather gloves for motorcycle and scooter riding.

That is an aspect of abrasion resistance for sure, but so isn’t friction coefficient/surface energy.  UHMWPE plastics have a rather low friction potential and pretty low surface energy, 2nd only to Teflon/PTFE.  It’s almost like, you can’t easily abrade that which you can’t easily create friction with.

This helps up the abrasion resistance some despite it’s relatively low hardness. That’s why Zing It cord (made out of Dyneema) is so popular for bear bagging, because it doesn’t snag or catch as easily as other cord, because it’s so slippery/low friction in nature (though they might increase that with a thin coating as well?).

I’m fairly sure that UHMWPE hard plastic parts, are often used in heavy duty industrial applications where low friction, abrasion resistance, and general toughness are needed, but where the part doesn’t need a high temp resistance (because this material loses strength and melts at fairly low temps, even compared to many other plastics).

I could be off about all the above, not 100% certain.

Regarding your work out.  Sounds hard core.  Wish I had that kind of physical energy and drive. I’m a marshmallow in comparison.

[Paul McLaughlin]

I have used inexpensive work gloves, of the nylon knit/coated palm type, in a couple colors. I have some all-white ones I found in the paint section at some hardware store; they worked very well, nice grip on the single Lightrek pole that I was using, and nice protection when scrambling off-trail on the granite,but they get so dirty so fast that it is a little annoying. Also have tried some fluorescent green ones I found at Home depot,     https://www.homedepot.com/p/West-Chester-Protective-Gear-Touch-Screen-Hi-Vis-Yellow-PU-Palm-Coated-Nylon-Gloves-3-Pack-HVY37165-L3P/301059326

They were also good on a ski trip, nice grip, pretty breathable even on the plams, don’t show the dirt nearly as much. I tried the white because I figure lighter color would absorb less heat from the sun, which is clearly the case as I have used various colors at work on construction sites and I feel the difference between lighter gray  ones and black ones. But the fluorescent green seem to be effectively as cool as the white.

Having used various brands of these sorts of gloves for work, I find wide variations in both durability and breathability. the knit backs all feel about the same in terms of breathability, it’s the palms that vary a lot. The Atlas brand gloves with a nitrile palm are very durable but not very breathable; I use them in the winter for work, as the lack of breathability makes them slightly warmer, and the palms are more water resistant than some others. Most of the various off brand, cheap on sale gloves I have tried have more breathable palms, better for sun gloves – but not as tough.

So for the moment, those green ones are my go-to for sun gloves. But I will give them a meh rating on the supposed touch-screen compatibility – sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t.

[Roger Caffin]

Our local manufacturer of thermal undewear and thermal gloves has solved the touch screen problem. They include some fine silver or silver-coated thread at the finger tips. They claim the threads work wonders.

Cheers

[Geoff Caplan]

If you’re using poles, another option is using pogies such as these by Yama:

Full protection, and perhaps a little more ventilation that you’d get with gloves. Plus you can extract your hand quickly for operating phones, cameras etc.

I haven’t actually tried this yet, but plan to experiment with it this summer, if we ever get any real sun…

Plus you get double use with their main function, which is keeping your gloves dry in the cold.

Feedback from anyone with actual experience would be welcome.

[Lachlan Fysh]

I’ll add my two cents – I started the PCT with the Outdoor Research sun gloves and one of the thumbs / palm was shredded writhin 500 miles. They remained functional but like some of the comments here they never really covered enough of my fingers / thumbs or up my wrist.

In the Sierra I finally replaced them with some glacier gloves. I got the ones with the full synth leath palms because that’s what the shop had. There’s a post above saying the fit and finish doesn’t match OR or Patagonia, and that might be true but not in a way that will make them fall apart and the materials used are much more substantial.. my pair lasted me until somewhere in Washington without any appreciable wear.. and then I sadly left them on a rock at a lunch spot..

I haven’t replaced them as I can’t remember if I had a medium or large and I wouldn’t mind eyeballing the other styles. Haven’t seen them in Australia so this hasn’t happened, but I’m in the States next month and they’re on my shopping list.

I did recently pick up some of the Patagonia ones at an outlet – haven’t used them yet. The palm-less style might avoid some of the OR issues but they’re still super thin Lycra so I’m not that hopeful.

[M B]

I used glacier gloves on jmt…..2 days.

I used nothing on CT….got blistered before got sunscreen.  Based on not  needing sunscreen on the JMT thought I could do without it…..wrong.

[Bruce Tolley]

In my experience the Coolibar sun gloves are much more durable than the OR sun gloves. I tend to lose them before they wear out.

[Anonymous]

Geoff, those pogies look interesting and worth trying out, but by the pic, you can tell that it’s at least a semi tightly woven (if not definitely tightly woven) fabric, whereas many gloves being recommended here, are knit and with larger yarns (vs the smaller, more densely packed threads of the woven fabric), and thus will likely be much more breathable than the pogies.

If somebody with them can do the “coffee filter” breath suck test, that would be helpful to report.

Some of that will be offset if you leave them somewhat open on the bottom–certainly that will improve the over all air porosity by venting.  However, I suspect it will still be sweatier than a pair of more breathable, knitted gloves.  Reason being that heat(and with it moisture initially) tends to rise upwards.

That’s why if you stick your hand in a plastic jar, with the jar above your hand, it will feel a lot warmer and more stuffy, a lot quicker than if the jar is below your hand, while you’re putting your hand in it.  So even if the pogie is open on the bottom, it will still tend to feel a bit more “clammy” vs a much more breathable, knit glove.

Where I would see a pogie like design working better, would be for rain/snow protection rather than sun, while using WPB pogie material vs WPB glove material.  You could use a lighter/thinner WPB fabric, and it would likely last longer since it’s not directly gripping the pole, unlike a traditional glove.

[Kenneth Keating]

I use Glacier Gloves and really like them.  I grew out on a farm and was out in the sun a lot, so my hands and arms were exposed constantly,  so when hiking now arms, head and hands are always covered.   The gloves last about 300-400 miles before they have to get replaced.  I use poles, and that’s what wears them out.

[Author]

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