As good as it gets short of a mitten. For a glove, that's about as much as you can ask for in terms of warmth—and exactly how one tester described the Heli Insulated after a season of use ice climbing and skiing in the Northeast. "My circulation is like Boston at rush hour," he says, "so whenever I saw the temps plummeting into the teens and single digits, I reached for these." The thicker-than-usual liner dishes out generous warmth (it's removable for quicker drying, but you can't wear it alone), while the water-resistant shell traps heat inside. A longer wrist gauntlet ensures no gapping between glove and jacket.

Because the Heli Insulated stays true to its name, you might expect it to be big and clumsy, but it scored surprisingly well in dexterity. Like most ski gloves, it has precurved fingers and leather palms, but the special sauce is the Hestra-unique numeric glove sizing: Instead of small, medium and large, Hestra gloves are offered in several sizes based on the length and circumference of your hand. If you size right, you should end up with a snug, wrinkle-free fit. (This sizing allows for a single unisex model, rather than men's and women's.) With a precise fit, testers could easily hold a ski pole, adjust buckles and clip carabiners.

Our skiing tester praised the Heli Insulated for its snow-specific features like wrist leashes, which let him remove the gloves on the lift to check his phone (they are not touchscreen compatible) without losing them, and the oversize gauntlets, which made them easy to put back on and kept the powder from creeping inside. Ample leather on the palms and fingers kept them from falling apart after months of handling climbing ropes, sharpening ice tools and grabbing ski edges. Buy here.

After analyzing these North Face mitts on powder days both in Japan and at home in California's Sierra, our impressed Tahoe-area tester was blown away when he peeped the price tag. “They’re half the price of many options on the market, but they definitely offer more than half the performance,” he says.

Following a string of particularly frigid and windy mornings while snowboarding in Japan, our tester rated the Montana on par with pricier mitts in the warmth department. The dual layers of synthetic insulation, which The North Face claims create a warmth-trapping air pocket, functioned as advertised. He gave kudos to the warmth-boosting fleecy lining, too, calling it the "comfiest interior” of four options he tested. On bell-to-bell resort days, he appreciated that The North Face curved the silhouette of the mittens. “By mimicking the natural, relaxed anatomy of the hand, the fit is more ergonomic and comfortable all day long,” he said. 

The North Face lined the DWR-treated, recycled polyester shell with DryVent™ inserts—the brand’s proprietary waterproof and breathable membrane—and we found that the mitts didn't soak through. That said, he worried about materials and construction. “Compared to my go-to genuine leather mitts and gloves, these are certainly less beefy and confidence-inspiring when it comes to long-term durability,” he said.

One note to buyers: While the extra-large cinchable cuffs excel at keeping snow out of the mitts, they’re too bulky to fit easily under slimmer jacket sleeves. Buy the women's and men's.

Warmth is warmth, whether you're in Antarctica or the Lower 48. That's why our testers loved the Black Diamond Mercury, the warmest mitt in our test. A pile of PrimaLoft^® on both the back and palms, plus additional boiled fleece, makes them suited to subzero expeditions—or any adventure where you'd prefer warm hands. "Honestly, I only bring these on the coldest days, otherwise they're too warm," says one Colorado-based tester. "But on below-zero lift ski days, I couldn't get away with anything less."

One of those aforementioned days saw temps get as low as -6° F (plus a sturdy breeze) while skiing Colorado's Arapahoe Basin. Everything else was chilled, said our tester, except his hands. The Mercury Mitts feature a liner that you can pull out of the reinforced goat leather outer mitt to let them dry separately on longer trips, and a massive gaiter to fit over the cuffs of even your beefiest jackets.

Warmth like this is bulky, so expect fine motor skills to suffer in this mitten. While we could pull a zipper with a long tab or hold an ice axe, this mitten wears more like a boxing glove than others in our lineup and we lacked the dexterity to do more detailed work like brushing snow out of our ski bindings. Buy here and here.

The gloves you wear skiing or ice climbing are often designed precisely for those missions and see short periods of intense use. But your everyday gloves—the pair you're wearing for everything from walking the dog to shoveling the driveway to stacking firewood—typically need another level of toughness. For our Ridgway, Colorado, tester, that was the REI Co-op Guide Insulated Gloves, and they remained free of rips and tears after a season of use. "They get more use than almost any other gloves I have, and they've stood up to it," he attests. A tough leather exterior with a reinforced palm withstand constant use or even warm-weather ice climbs near home.

The Guide gloves aren't too heavy on insulation, but kept our tester comfortable walking the dog in temps down to the mid-teens—even lower with more active pursuits. A softshell on the back of the hand is stretchy and breathable, and the rib-knit cuffs (with a reinforced pull tab) make it easy to get them on and off.

The Guide gloves aren't waterproof, but testers didn't have issues with leaking or wetting out. The fingers aren't pre-curved, but like most leather gloves, you break them in, and the Guide start to form to your hand. Buy here.

The first swings and ice-screw placements of the season are always rough, but the Rab Baltoro makes it that much easier and more comfortable. During a full day climbing Gothics Peak’s North Face in the Adirondack Mountains, these gloves allowed our tester to swing tools, tie knots and clip ice screws without ever needing to remove them. And they did it while offering adequate protection against the mid-teen temperatures and windy alpine environment of the 1,000-foot face. By the numbers, they don’t have quite as much insulation as other climbing gloves, but combined with a high-pile fleece across the palm, they were well-suited for all but the coldest days. 

When it was time to pull them off (to rummage around in a backpack or snap a photo), our tester appreciated the over-cuff gaiter, which meant he didn’t need to mess with his jacket’s cuff every time. A softshell stretch outer fabric on the back of the hand kept them from getting too swampy during long pitches or while climbing in the sun at Colorado’s Ouray Ice Park. And the leather palm, which is reinforced in high wear spots, has yet to show any real signs of wear after roughly 50 hours of use. And a generous pre-curved palm and fingers made it comfy to grip ice tools for long stretches without the fabric bunching up. 
Buy here and here.

Simplicity is the name of the game with these liners from REI Co-op. They slide easily under other gloves and mittens and were just enough to take the bite out of single-digit temps when our tester was forced to remove his mittens atop Colorado's Grizzly Peak. On warmer ski tours, they were all he needed to defend against the brisk morning air while wicking sweat from his skin. The liner itself is an even blend of merino wool and polyester for a best-of-both-worlds combination of warmth and moisture management. (The merino also keeps them fresh. Our pair smelled fine after a three-day hut trip near Vail Pass, Colorado.) Cool: The Merino Wool Liner 2.0 is touchscreen-compatible on the thumb and index finger. Buy here.

Gloves or mittens? If the decision has you stumped, maybe the answer is to split the difference. Lobsters like the Hestra Gloves Fall Line separate the thumb and index finger for dexterity, while keeping the middle, ring and pinky fingers contained for warmth. (The liner, which isn't removable, has five fingers.) Our tester liked them specifically for inbounds steeps where the chair-served uphills were chilly, but swinging poles out in front for jump turns was made just a little bit easier with a loose index finger. The Fall Line has a leather outer that has held up to a full season of hard testing and low-profile cuffs that easily slide under jacket sleeves. Buy here.