With the ski season getting closer and closer, you may be thinking about replacing some items or rounding out your quiver, be it skis or clothing. Today I am going to yammer about ski gloves. For years I thought I needed the best, most expensive, gloves out there to get the performance I was looking for and the warmth I needed. I spurned anything that didn't shout "Money and prestige." Fucking stupid me. Ever since I joined the patrol, and specifically the pro patrol, my priorities have drastically changed. The really nice gloves are great for just skiing but for working around ropelines, bamboo (especially spintery bamboo), shoveling snow, throwing bombs, and all the assorted abuse that comes with patrolling, work gloves are key.
You don't want to go too cheap otherwise they fall apart way too fast. Some come with goretex inserts but most patrollers will put Snowseal or some other wax based covering on the gloves to make them waterproof. I find putting Snowseal or other stuff like that makes the gloves slick in colder weather and it is harder to grab stuff. I prefer either deerhide or elkhide gloves because they tend to have a snugger fit (I have smaller hands) and they stay soft and don't shrink after drying out. Normal leather gloves are real stiff after drying and also shrink. When a pair of work gloves gets wet, I put them in the ski rack in the patrol room to dry out and grab another pair from my locker. I keep about four pair of gloves and one pair of mittens in my locker, and swap them out as necessary. The most trashed pair I have normally ends up in my duffel when I go to Europe and I just toss them in the trash at the end of the trip so less to pack and carry (I do the same thing with ski poles.) I buy about 2 or 3 pairs of gloves and mittens each season at the hardware store for a total cost of about 50 bucks. Hell of lot cheaper than nice ski gloves. Plus, if you wear work gloves, you get recognized by fellow patrollers at other areas (especially if you are wearing Kinco gloves; Kincos are the unofficial glove of ski patrollers across the country.)
