Keeping Warm with The North Face
(Credit: Matt Asay)I've noted before that when it comes to my hands, I'm a wuss. Last year I found the first pair of gloves that actually kept my hands warm: The North Face Patrol glove.
While I still consider that glove the gold standard (among Mountain Hardwear and other brands I've evaluated), I really liked the North Face Vortex II and North Face S.T.H. gloves that I evaluated this year, as well, though for entirely different reasons.
Skiing last month in Las Lenas, Argentina, the weather was perfectly suited to The North Face S.T.H. glove for the first day: relatively warm, spring-skiing conditions. The North Face S.T.H. glove is the glove you'll want to have when shoveling snow, but also the one for spring skiing or simply when loading up the car at the end of the day.
North Face Vortex II Glove
The North Face S.T.H. glove is water-resistant with a highly breathable Apex ClimateBlock stretch shell. This means it will keep you warm and dry in milder conditions, but not for much of the rest of the season.
The S.T.H. is also a super-supple, contoured glove, which means you can actually do things like dial a number on your mobile while wearing it.
The North Face Vortex II glove, on the other hand, will keep you warm on much harsher conditions, like my second day at Las Lenas where the resort received roughly nine feet of new powder (plus a fair amount of wind to keep things cool). I found that the HyVent two-layer shell kept my hands dry despite swimming through a heck of a lot of powder, and I never felt cold.
Given how wimpy my hands are in the cold, this says a lot.
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North Face Explosivo Jacket
(Credit: North Face)Last week Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth and I hit the slopes of Las Lenas, Argentina. The North Face kept us warm for the trip with The North Face Explosivo and Hetch Stretchy jackets. In seriously rough weather (fierce winds part of the time, around nine feet of new powder the rest of the time), The North Face Explosivo and Hetch Stretchy jackets rocked.
Verdict? Two thumbs way up.
Both the 2008/09 Explosivo and Hetch Stretchy jackets are heavier than The North Face jackets I reviewed last year. You won't need to layer with either the Explosivo or Hetch Stretchy jackets, except perhaps in extreme cold weather conditions. I suspect both jackets would serve particularly well for many reading this blog, i.e., people who hit the slopes once or twice in the season and so don't want to have to buy multiple layers of snow clothes, but want zero chance of getting cold when they do go.
Either the North Face Explosivo or Hetch Stretchy jacket will keep you warm around town, but then outperform on the slopes.
How well? The second day in Las Lenas, it snowed hard all day long, as shown below. I heard some reports that Las Lenas received up to nine feet (!!!). While we only skied in three feet of that, it was more than enough to suggest that both the Explosivo and Hetch Stretchy jackets are excellent ski jackets.
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North Face Patrol Glove
My final ski glove review is also of my favorite. The North Face calls its Patrol Glove "an instant favorite of ski patrollers, because it's the warmest and driest glove around." I can't speak for whether it's ski patrollers' favorite glove, though I've seen plenty wearing it. But I can say that this was the warmest glove that I've ever worn.
Ironically, the North Face Patrol Glove is also the least outwardly "technology-driven" glove we reviewed. The other gloves we reviewed were excellent and made good use of technology. This glove? The technology is all in its materials.
Leather on the outside with padded knuckles (which came in handy when skiing the trees). The shell is made from Gore-Tex XCR. This means it's windproof and waterproof, yet is breathable so your hands stay dry. The insulation is PrimaLoft. It's very soft, lightweight, and water repellent. PrimaLoft synthetic insulation absorbs three times less water, is 15% warmer when dry, and is 24% warmer when wet than other insulation. At least, that's the claim.
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