KEEPING YOUR COOL : Getting a Handle on Mittens vs. Gloves

It can mean the difference between peeling the wrapper off that candy bar with hands protected from the icy elements or doing it naked and numb.

Which to buy, gloves or mittens? The debate grips every new snowboarder and skier.

If price is a deciding factor, consider that gloves run $15 to $100, while waterproof mittens go for $60 to $120.

But cost is usually less important to snowbound folk than personal comfort.

It’s got to be gloves for Steve Casimiro, editor of Powder, a ski magazine based in San Juan Capistrano, who offered up the snack example. “I don’t see how any good skier can operate using mittens,” he says. “Between buckling boots, adjusting the length of your poles and eating a power bar, I need to have that dexterity and movement.”

But for many recreational skiers, mittens are the way to go, particularly if they have trouble staying warm. Women in particular tend to prefer the combined warmth of mingling fingers.

“I got gals coming in here with purple hands,” says Terrie Chessmore, merchandise buyer for the Summit Sport Shop at Snow Summit in Big Bear. “So I suggest mittens. You can’t beat the heat of your own body.”

When deciding whether to market gloves or mittens for its new line, the people at Burning Snow, a maker of snowboard apparel in Costa Mesa, argued the merits of both, then took a vote. Mittens won hands down, co-owner Mike Snyder says. “They just make more sense: The thermal air space provided by mittens blocks off the cold.”

He concedes, though, that control is more important than warmth to some snowboarders. “There are guys who hate mittens,” Snyder says. “They feel their hands are bandaged up, that they’ve got less flexibility.”

Still, snowboarders will probably appreciate the super-strength Kevlar reinforcement used by Burning Snow (and by manufacturers of bulletproof vests) in its new mittens.

“It really comes down to personal preference,” says glove man Casimiro, who hasn’t slipped on a pair of mittens since he was a kid. “Anything that will improve your experience out on the slopes is the right choice.”