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Des surmoufles en Event étanche et respirant, avec des gants internes très chauds en primaloft. (in english)

size L, event outside, primaloft inside, total 278 g

Available on Webtog's website next winter

Modular means that you have three gloves in one : warm only, waterproof only, and of course, both.

When I received my Rab Modular Mitts, the first hostile place they met was my sink. Well that's an expedition ! I stayed alive, and I can tell that the outer overmitt's seams were waterproof during ten minutes 32 seconds before I felt lazy to go on. This was for a brand new, unabraded product.

The primaloft insulated inner gloves are quite heavy at first look, with a high density, abrasion resistant, windproof tissue, which will allow you to use them only, when the weather is cold and dry. The silicon padded palm is really sticky, so you can expect keeping your trekking poles or ice axe firmly linked to your hands. I used them with 0° celsius temperatures, with a slight « too warm » feeling, as I was walking around, without big physical effort.

The end of 2011 winter was surprisingly warm and dry, therefore the waterproof overmitts were used only a few times under cold conditions, as an anti-windchill, and just twice under melt snow and serious rain, on my electric bicycle (important detail : water puts more pressure on the tissue, because of the bike's speed). By the way, the goat leather palms just make it possible to use them on a bike, without making holes where your hands push hard, after just a few weeks. To sum up with, at that point, the excellent results in terms of waterproofness and breathability are due to Event fabric, and are not a surprise.

Yet, it means almost nothing when the tissue is still fully coated by factory dwr repellent, and seam tape has undergone no stress. I had to wait until early april to test these mitts in tougher conditions. Here's what you get when you go ski touring. As I wore the mitts something like 6 or 7 times before this test, it's closer to the holy truth !

Inner gloves, 124g (62g x 2)

As we talk about a spring ski touring session, the temperatures where about 0 degrees in the morning, rising to 20° at sun noon ! Of course, the inner gloves are unuseful with 20 degrees. But they are also too warm at 0/5 degrees, when you climb a mountain ! You just sweat and sweat in them, and though these inner gloves have no waterproof shelter, thus are quite breathable, you quickly have a moisty feeling, doing that kind of effort. Modularity, in that case, includes putting the gloves off ! Just remind me next time, not to forget my cheap, « disposable » silk gloves as a sweatless option !

A consequence of moisture is that it becomes harder to put the inner gloves on and off, the porous, soft inside fabric sticks on your skin, which is a little clenching. Using silk gloves instead would help, I guess. It would very probably feel different in full winter conditions. I bet that they will be breathable enough to be worn without the overmitts with satisfying comfort, with, let's say, -5 degrees, during winter ski touring or freezing bike sessions. When I shall sweat less, despite of wearing them.

Good news : once the summit reached at 2800m, with a 5 degrees temperature, it took the primaloft gloves only 25 minutes to dry under a big spring sun, black color being very helpful in this case. It would be slower with a down based insulation.

Outer overmitts, 154 g, (77g x 2)

Overmitts are cool stuff, because you can wear what you want inside : primaloft or other synthetic, down, wool, silk, grass and leaves, etc. These are real tough overmitts. When you go ski touring, weight is the first concern, and they are not as light as they could be. Straps, straps' clamping system, cords and cord locks are, according to me, overdimensionned. For example, cords – shoelaces like - could easily be replaced by ultrathin dyneema, and straps with twice less width would not be a problem.

This being said, I felt very secure with these overmitts, especially because of the goatleather palm. My backup mitts are made of thinner Event and weigh 44g (22g x 2), (the backup insulation being my primaloft bivouac socks). But these Event backups are not reinforced on the palm and I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't last a week, if used with trekking poles.

So, as holes in gloves when it's freezing can be a deadly issue, let's rock with these154 g. When you talk about security, don't forget to wear sunglasses that can't hurt you, when you fall straight ahead in the snow. It's less ridiculous.

In summer, you'll have a 100% thunderstormproof shell, without overwarming thanks to the removable inside. As Event is the most breathable waterproof fabric I've ever seen, even during an effort, your hands can stay dry. « Can » means that you will carefully avoid sweating in them by putting the inner primaloft gloves off, as soon as you feel warm. Other rule : always use something inside, inner primaloft gloves, or thin silk gloves if the weather is warm but rainy, in order to avoid spreading human fat around, which would for sure lower the membrane's breathing functions. Never use the Event overmitts (and any Event cloth) directly on your skin !

In winter, I suppose that when you wear both the inner gloves and the overmitts, you can reach -10° comfortably. Buy a really bigger size than your normal size, add next to skin opossum wool gloves and primaloft socks over the primaloft gloves (down insulated pertex quantum mitts would be definitely cleaner, and warmer if kept dry, but that's a big if), inside the Event overmitts, and here you go: -25°, easy. Question : why primaloft socks as mitts ? Answer : mycos'is in the bag already ! Mo-du-lar, you understand ?!!!

Now, here's a practical example. You find a village of quinzees left by the french army, decide to use one of them as a windproof kitchen, and at the same time, as a fridge for the huge amount of french food and wine that you stupidly climbed with till there. Any cloth that is not waterproof, let's say, over 10.000 schmerbers, touching the snow, instantaneously turns into sponge. Well, girls and boys, these Event overmitts, with 20.000 schmerbers, do the job perfectly, of course ! Home sweet frozen home.

Conclusion

Back from the mountain, the adventure goes on. My sink calls me ! And one more time, nothing happens ten minutes after bravely immersing my used mitts. You might consider that the test is succesfull. Please do, because I wouldn't like to stay here for ages !