Hiking Gloves for Dupuytren’s contracture

[David D]

I’ve been trying to find a 1/2 or 3/4 finger summer weight hiking glove with enough upper palm padding behind the knuckles to provide pain relief from Dupuytren’s while using trekking poles, but without the bulk and long dry times of most cycling gloves.

The usual suspects Glacier Gloves aren’t available in Canada and the Outdoor Research Active Ice don’t have enough padding.

Does anyone have any experience with any of the following gloves, or any other recommendations?

– OR ActiveIce Chroma Sun Glove. Palms seem thin.

– Castelli Entrata cycling gloves

– Sea to Summit Eclipse Paddle Gloves, look to be best option so far

Pickings are slim in Canuckistan, thanks for reading.

[Steve Thompson]

Please post if you find some that work. I got the OR active ice chroma gloves as a Christmas gift and haven’t tried them yet.

[Glen L]

You might look at  Black Diamond Crag Half-Finger Gloves. I’ve used them for decades with hiking poles. They have some very light padding in the palms and the material for the fingers is heavier than the typical sun gloves r that I’ve tried. They last longer and they seem to block more sunlight too. They aren’t expensive but we’ll made.

[David D]

Glen, these look brilliant, the best option, thanks.  Reviews say they breath really well.  I’ve ordered a pair.

Wells Lamont 847 look like a decent backup as well.  Synthetic leather lightly padded palm. Stretch fit spandex back, inexpensive at $11US

 

[David D]

I gave the Black Diamond Crag Half-Finger Gloves a go. Glen, thanks for suggesting.  They’re well made, but I can’t get a solid  grip on the poles: they’re more 3/4 finger resisting knuckle bending, material bunches up in the palm, and they are tight across the base knuckles also resisting gripping (sizing was correct).

I tried two other gloves, cycling gloves Louis Garneau Biogel RX-V2, and my new Kayak gloves, Hyperflex 3/4 FINGER GLOVE.  Both are really 1/2 finger gloves, and provide great freedom of movement.  I think the Garneau’s will be the winner: light and breathable, solid grip, and the gel on heel will protect my hands if (when) I face plant over a root.  They’re 21g/glove vs 35g for the BD’s.   The Hyperflex seem great too, but more heavily padded in the palm.  If after days of use the LGs don’t provide enough protection for the Dupuytren’s, the Hyperflex are a logical next step up.  BD->LG->Hyper below:

The LG’s have a weave material in palm that provides a great grip, and enough synth material around so that its not the wear point:

Snow finally meted today, I have 3 days booked in 2 weeks, we’ll see how they do!

 

 

[Glen L]

Sorry to hear those didn’t work out. I wear mine every day. I put my hands up through the pole straps and then all my weight is carried though my palms to the straps, not the handles. The trigger fingers lightly hold the pole grips so a firm grip isn’t necessary in my case. However I’m glad to see you are finding some that are working.

 

You must be up north a ways. We had snow for two hours here last winter, just enough to get out in it, get some snowy wilderness photos and then it melted and was gone. About 80° here today, got a good photo of a diamondback. They are out now.

[David D]

I’ve been wearing the Crags around the house and they seem to break in quickly.  They’ll provide much better abrasion protection than cycling gloves so I’ll keep them and probably give them a shot during a Sept trip in La Cloche Silhouette.   I’m sure I’ll find use for them, thank again Glen.

I stopped using straps when I read this “as informed by a previous Warden for the West Coast Trail a vast majority of medical evacuations were due to dislocated shoulders from people falling (with heavy pack on) while the strap was around their wrist. Hiker goes down, pole stays up and shoulder dislocation results.”

I’m up in Canada, and enjoyed my last long day hike with micro spikes just 10 days ago, but it was 80F today and I was shoveling snow off the lawn to avoid winter kill.  We have 2 seasons, winter and mosquitos.

 

[Glen L]

When I was a teenager we lived just south of Turtle Mountain Provincial Park. We were on the Turtle Mountain Plateau which is colder than the surrounding terrain. -40° was very common, the air was crystalline and the snow stayed on the front yard for six months of the year. So remembering the three years in the Sonoran desert as a preteen came back and stayed for almost fifty years to date. In the past three weeks we ave photographed over twenty species of wildflowers, a Gila monster and rattlesnake.

 

We do find Canada an amazing place too. One of my favorites is Algonquin. That place up on the Shield blew my mind. Did some fine backpacking up there.

[jscott]

David, that’s interesting about shoulder dislocations. I don’t use pole straps while hiking, partly for the reasons you mentioned. without straps, I can keep a very loose grip on the handles and then palm the tops when needed on downhills. I Nordic skied for many years and used a wonderful set of straps designed for that sport. But Nordic skiing is another thang entirely from backpacking. Skiing, you use your upper body to add momentum to forward motion–a lot of upper body!–and that requires using straps for skating or classic. I don’t use my hiking poles for forward propulsion. Hence, there is no real analogy between the two uses of poles in these sports, I’ve found. Others like straps! Fair enough. I don’t want to go down on a high river crossing with my hands strapped into poles. Of course, I DO use poles in that scenario.

I should add that I use my poles for a bit of lift on steep slopes when stepping up several feet from one rock to another, for example.

[David D]

I bought a pair of the Castrelli cycling gloves and will give them a 3 day run in a couple weeks.  Only 35g a pair.  Very comfortable and conforming, though less palm padding than the LGs and much less than the BDs, but reinforced over the Dupytren’s knot, so hoping it hits a sweet spot.

[David D]

Steve, I tried the Castrelli’s for 3 long days and for my hands they were perfect.  I couldn’t feel the Dupuytrens at all, there was no seam irritation, no bunching in the palms, they breathed really well, and the heel padding was out of the way.  I didn’t really notice that I was wearing gloves.  Since they’re cycle gloves it was nice having a bit of fabric on the thumb to wipe sweat out of the eyes, and to have heel padding in case of a spill.  These are keepers.

They won’t provide sun protection on the wrist but that’s not what they’re for.  I had to size up one size (but YMMV)

[Steve Thompson]

Thanks.  I’ll keep the Castrelli’s in mind.

[Richard N]

Thanks for the updates here. I have Dupuytren’s, recently started trying to wear sun gloves and cycling gloves (Gore), and found that the seams really aren’t designed for staff/pole use. Will try out the Castrelli’s and maybe the Crags.

[David D]

Castrelli’s and Crags are quite different, the Crags feel almost welding gloves in comparison but that makes sense given their mission rock climbing.  I recommend trying the Castrelli’s if low weight, low impediment and maintaining flexibility are paramount, the Crags are more the nuclear option

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