Offering incredible warmth and comfort, Black Diamond Mercury Mitts are a must-have item for any outdoor enthusiast!
Full disclosure – I’m a glove person. I generally place dexterity over warmth. In fact, probably haven’t worn a pair of mitts since I was a kid. But now things have come full circle and I have two active kids of my own. We spend many hours outdoors together and there are times when even my warmest gloves hit their limit. So I was more than happy to test out a pair of Black Diamond Mercury Mitts during an “Extreme Cold” spell in Montreal when temperatures plunged to -25°C and felt even colder.
| Our review of this product | |
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| 9 / 10 | |
The pros are:
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The cons are:
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Design & Features
Mercury Mitts have a two-piece design. The exterior shell is an over the cuff length and features a four-way stretch fabric with a soft goat leather palm. Inside, there is a removable, waterproof fleece liner featuring 340 grams of PrimaLoft Gold Insulation and a split-finger design that separates your index finger from the rest to improve dexterity. In addition, there are two adjustable cinch straps at the top of the wrist and cuff to lock in warmth and further customize the fit. One thing missing is wrist leashes, and it’s a feature that I would really have appreciated.
Warmth & Comfort
These mitts are warm. Very, very warm. Black Diamond rates them to minus-29°C and I don’t doubt that figure for a moment. After over an hour in temperatures that felt like minus-34°C, my hands remained completely warm and protected from the cold. To put that into context – these mitts easily withstood extreme temperatures that were literally among the coldest anywhere on the face of the planet! If that weren’t enough, they’re also outrageously comfortable. The thick fleece liners cradle your hands in luxurious softness. Once you put these mitts on you don’t want to take them off.
Dexterity
All that warmth and comfort does come at a price. The Mercury Mitt is somewhat bulky. Even with the split-fingered liner design, dexterity is at a minimum. While I was able to complete basic tasks like unzipping my coat, anything more complex was a challenge. In fact, once I had the first mitt on, even adjusting the wrist and cuff closures on the second mitt was difficult to accomplish. Given the reduced dexterity, you find yourself taking the mitts off to adjust straps, zippers, laces, etc. which is why I believe that wrist leashes would have been a useful feature.
Conclusions
Whether it’s skiing, skating, tobogganing, hiking or just building a snowman, staying warm is a key to enjoying your wintertime pursuits. So then, the true test for winter mitts is whether they keep your hands warm. Black Diamond’s Mercury Mitts ace that test. In my experience, even conditions of extreme cold were no match for the Mercury Mitts and their 340 grams of soft fleece insulation.
While that warmth does mean sacrificing some dexterity, I was surprised to find that it was a trade-off I was more than happy to make. So much so that I say they’ve converted me to a mitt-person.
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