Marmot Expedition Mitt Review

Features:

Carefully layered Primaloft One® insulation gives the Marmot Expedition Mitts uncompromising warmth on snow adventures to high, cold places. The Expedition Mitts feature: Marmot MemBrain®, a waterproof/breathable fabric; DriClime® bi-component wicking lining for breathability and excellent moisture transfer; reinforced palm for durability; gauntlet quickdraw with easy to use one-handed drawcords; SuperFabric® brand material external shell; nose wipe, a soft fabric to wipe your runny nose; safety leash to keep glove attached to wrist when removed from hand; wrist strap for adjustability and better fit.

Specifications:

Color: Black
Main Material: 260d 100% Nylon 3.2 oz/yd
Reinforcement Material: 100% Polyester Superfabric 10.2 oz/yd/>
Reinforcement Material: Washable Goatskin Leather 0.6
Lining Material: DriClime® 3-Dimentional Wicking Lining
Insulation Material: Primaloft One®
Weight (L): 8.6 oz. (2463.8 g)
Actual Weight (L): 9.6 oz. (274 g)

Expectations:

I’m impressed with any outdoor gear that uses Primaloft One®. While high-power down fill is the king of warmth to weight (when it can be kept dry), Primaloft One® is an excellent choice for situations where moisture may be involved. This makes it perfect for mittens, which presumably would have a lot of external contact with snow, slush, and wet items like an ice axe, and also may have damp or snow covered hands inside.p>

Though I always wear liner gloves, my fingers often get painfully cold when I’ve kept them out of my gloves for too long capturing the perfect photo or messing with ropes and crampons. Once my fingers become frozen, it takes quite a while and often a lot of physical exertion to get them warm again. Additionally, for winter ascents of the Cascade volcanoes or high on Mt. Rainier, a good mitt is an essential item for one’s hands.

Initial Thoughts (12/29/11):

Off the bat I was impressed with the Marmot Expedition Mitt! Yes they are large with a substantial gauntlet. But overall they are fairly simple. I’m familiar with Marmot’s DriClime wicking liner and think it is an excellent choice for the inside of a mitten. It feels excellent on bare skin and really works as a good wicking material in my experience. Primaloft® compacts easily, so while these mitts definitely look oversized, they bunch down pretty small. At a half pound the weight seems fine, but as with most manufacturers, the weight is under-estimated. The listed weight for a large is the same as my size small (8.6 oz actual weight).

While the entire mitten from the finger tip to the edge of the gauntlet has insulation, there seems to be a larger amount on the top/back of the hand from the fingers to the top of the wrist.

Snot wipe is great, but Marmot, why oh why do you insist on putting your darned embroidered logo right at the tip of the soft-fleecy spot where the most dexterity for nose wiping would be found? Get a clue! Your name is on the cuff of the mitt and the logo is also on the draw cord pull-tab. You basically wasted the top half of the nose wipe, plus put it in a prime location to get lots of mucusy snot all over your logo—was that intended?

Wrist cinch and gauntlet closure are both operable while wearing the mitts, an essential requirement.

Initial Field Test (01/08/12):

I have used the Marmot Expedition mittens twice on Mt. Hood. Both times they were used to warm my fingers after they’d been chilled due to exposure at rest/photography stops. In these two cases the temps were around 17°F to 30°F. They’ve been absolutely great for helping to re-warm my fingers! It is important to note that re-warming one’s fingers without electrical or chemical heating is just done through body heat—so even when my fingers are icy stiff and my hand feels incredibly cold these Marmot mitts are so insulated that the little bit of heat my hand and fingers generate must be entirely trapped within the mitt in order to so quickly get my hand comfortable. I have not yet ‘cracked’ any chemical heating packets open to put into the mittens, but there absolutely is adequate space for this. I believe the temperature would need to be in the single digits or lower to warrant the consideration of putting chemical hand-warmers in the Expedition mitts.

My second use of these Marmot mittens was while digging a bit of a snow cave at 8500ft along the top edge of the Mt. Hood Palmer ski lift building. I ended up putting my hands (with liner gloves on) into the mittens a number of times with bits of snow on them. While I noticed no decrease in performance, when I got home they were definitely wet inside. Turning them inside out wasn’t too hard and they eventually dried. But it will be interesting to see how they perform over extended periods in the field, as getting bits of snow and moisture inside is something that I foresee as a common occurrence.

Available from amazon.com.