The Best Ski Gloves & Mittens in Canada

If you want a truly warm pair of gloves for those cold days on the hill, Black Diamond has a bevy of options, but the Black Diamond Guide glove is our pick for the best.  These toasty gloves are an ideal solution for keeping your fingers warm in the mountains.

The Black Diamond Guide glove is designed with a woven nylon shell with 4-way stretch, these gloves are incredibly resistant to wear and abrasion. The palms are reinforced with genuine goatskin, even further improving their durability, although the goatskin does constrict the stretchiness of the shell where it is placed. With an extremely waterproof and breathable GORE-TEX insert, these gloves provide strong protection against water and wind.

When it comes to gloves designed for all weather performance, it is important that the gloves have a strong removable liner. The Black Diamond Guide Glove offers an immensely warm removable liner that combines 170g PrimaLoft Gold synthetic insulation with up to 100g of boiled wool, providing some of the best qualities of both materials.

There are a couple nice features that the Guide Gloves include. A suede nose wipe help keeps nosicles from developing.  Molded padding in the knuckles helps keep your hands safe from impact. However, no zippered hand pocket for hand warmers, and no cinch strap, are some exclusions we think Black Diamond should eventually include.

Users report the Guide Glove as being extremely warm, keeping their fingers warm no matter the temperature on the hill. However, these gloves are quite bulky, limiting dexterity. As you break them in, they will definitely become more flexible, however if dexterity is a serious consideration for your purchases, you should look at different gloves. One downside for skiing is the lack of a wrist cinch strap, which attaches your gloves to your wrists, so they stay attached to you, no matter what happens. Another thing to consider is the limited washing and drying options Black Diamond gloves require. However, if you are looking for gloves that are both very warm and resistant to the elements, we think you cannot go wrong with these.

Skiing in the Rocky Mountains or another alpine destination can be cold. Very cold, even. If you never want to miss a day’s skiing because the conditions are too frosty, a pair of heated gloves like the Solano from Black Diamond might be the choice for you. While these gloves are expensive, they provide all day warmth thanks to their rechargeable battery-powered heater that are built into the glove.

The shell of these gloves is made from goat leather, with a two-layer Pertex Shield nylon gauntlet, and backed with a GORE-TEX insert, making these gloves supremely waterproof and breathable. Inside, the Solano gloves are lined with PrimaLoft Gold insulation, providing exceptional insulating properties to these gloves.

Now let’s get to the most unique aspect of these gloves: the battery-powered heater. With a heating element that wraps around the inside of the wrist, your hands stay warmer for longer. Three-different heating levels are accessible via an integrated LED switch, letting you adjust your desired level of warmth on the fly. The battery these gloves pack is rechargeable and long lasting. The compartment where the battery sits features a waterproof zippered battery to protect the electronics from the element.

Spending this much on a pair of gloves might not be everyone’s jam, but we appreciate that Black Diamond includes a zippered carrying case with outlet adaptors, making this a strong choice for travelling.

Overall, users find these gloves supremely warm, even with the heat off. Featuring GORE-TEX, these gloves offer the features the material is most known for: the water protection, wind protection, and breathability. When the heat is on, these gloves keep your whole hand warm with solidly long battery life, although Black Diamond states heavy use of the lithium-ion battery might reduce the lifespan to one season. These gloves are heavy and bulky too. One last thing you will need to keep in mind is these gloves require a washing process that feels time consuming and specific.

If you are looking for strong performance on the hill without breaking the bank, the Gordini GTX Storm gloves are an excellent budget pick. Waterproof, windproof and warm enough, these gloves check all of the boxes you need.

The shell of these gloves is designed with synthetic stretch-woven fabric and genuine goatskin and leather reinforcements make these gloves supremely durable, while adding some aesthetic accents. With GORE-TEX material, these gloves are highly waterproof, windproof, and breathable, making it an excellent choice for all-day warmth. In terms of insulation, the GTX Storms are packed with Megaloft synthetic insulation, which provides strong insulation, even when wet. While these will not be the warmest gloves, they should suffice for most skiing conditions.

The GTX Storm features a moisture-wicking lining to help keep your hands warm and dry, although unfortunately the liner is not removable, making washing and drying not as simple.

Included is a number of additional features that can be used to improve the use of these gloves. A leash to attach to your wrists ensure you do not lose these gloves higher up the hill. A zippered handwarmer pocket is included, letting users slip a handwarmer inside to boost the warmth.

Overall, users are huge fans of these gloves from Gordini. GORE-TEX is a highly respected material by all types of alpinists and other winter sports enthusiasts yet is known for its high price tag. The budget price makes these solid gloves so much more attractive to skiers who want a strong pair of gloves. Users found these gloves kept their hands warm and dry all day and had very little negative to say. However, these gloves are on the bulkier side of things, so they take a hit in their dexterity. This bulkiness is why we opted for the GTX Storm Gloves over the GTX Storm Mittens, but both are strong budget options for what they offer. Overall, there does not seem to be a better “bang for your buck” when it comes to ski gloves.

These gloves from Hestra are sleek looking and very functionable. While they are not the warmest gloves, they provide great protection from the elements, making these a strong choice for skiing in all sorts of ski locales.

The shell material is made from goat leather, providing impressive durability, and Hestra’s Triton polyamide fabric, which provides impressive waterproofing and windproofing. Hestra includes a leather balm to improve the performance of the leather, which users highly recommend using.

Filled with G-Loft insulation made from thin polyester fibres with a high insulating capacity even in wet conditions, while being breathable. The inside of the glove is lined with a comfortable polyester fleece, with the liner being removable, making cleaning and drying these gloves easier.

There are a number of features that we like that are included with these gloves. Long cuffs keep your hands warmer. An elastic wrist strap prevents snow creeping into your gloves, a Velcro wrist strap makes keeping these gloves on your hands comfortable. Each glove includes a reinforced hole which can clip into a carabiner.

Users find these gloves supremely durable, handling all conditions users threw at them. The majority of users found these gloves warm enough, although some suggested that these gloves might not be well suited for colder conditions. While warmth may vary between users, many of the other features make these a strong choice for users when the weather is not bitingly cold. These gloves are popular for their strong durability and protection from the elements.

Getting one pair of gloves for all conditions is one way you might try to keep your hands warm, but it is not the only way. Getting different gloves for different conditions, can provide exactly what you need in terms of warmth, weatherproofing, and dexterity each day.

If you need a more dexterous pair of gloves for warm days, or something to layer under mittens, the Apex eTip gloves from The North Face are a strong yet thin pair of gloves that can add a lot of versatility to your ski kit.

The North Face gloves are a soft-shell glove, constructed from a WindWall fabric consisting of 86% polyester and 14% elastane, complete with a durable water-repellent finish. Insulated with post-consumer recycled polyester. The result is gloves that break the wind and resist water yet are neither truly windproof nor waterproof.

What these gloves lack in regard to protection from the elements, these gloves make up for in terms of dexterity and versatility. Featuring touchscreen capability across all five fingers, you can take a mountaintop picture or turn on your ski playlist without your fingers getting cold. Silicone grips on the palm also improve your grip on your ski poles.

In terms of sizing, you should consider if you are using these gloves with another, more insulated pair of gloves or mitts (mitts would be preferable in this situation). Users reported these may shrink if they are put in the dryer, so some users recommend sizing up, or just air drying them instead.

Overall, users found these gloves good for wind breaking and keeping their hands decently dry. Users who thought they were getting cold-weather gloves were disappointed, but we cannot fault North Face for their dissatisfaction since they did not know what they were buying. Where The North Face could improve is their sizing, which is not super intuitive and runs on the small side of things while having some bulk to them.

These gloves are bulky for the amount of warmth they produce, so they may be less ideal for layering, but with the right pair of mittens overtop, it should work out for you.

If you want a versatile pair of mittens, the Burton GORE-TEX Mittens provide warmth, weather protection, and versatility. With an inner glove liner with touchscreen compatible fingers, this mitten offers both the benefits of mittens and gloves, with little downside.

The shell is constructed with Burton’s DRYRIDE two-layer fabric, which combined with its Gore-Tex insert, provides excellent waterproofing, wind proofing, and breathability. Inside, Burton’s Thermacore insulation, a synthetic material made with 50% recycled materials, providing decent warmth, although. The longer cuff, combined with a wrist strap, ensures snow does not get inside these gloves.

These mittens feature a removable glove liner, with four-way stretch, allowing for unrestricted movement when the mitten is removed. The removable lining is a brushed microfibre, which provides exceptional comfort and moisture wicking simultaneously, making the mittens even better at keeping your hands warm and dry. With fingers and palms lined with Screen Grab® Touchgrip material, you can use your phone with the liner, keeping your hands from freezing if you need to quickly snap a pic.

The Burton GORE-TEX mittens offer a number of nifty features. A zippered pocket allows you to add a heater on colder days or to ventilate on warmer ones. A polyester flock nose wipe keeps your nose clean when it might drip. A removable wrist leash prevents you losing these mitts in the case of wipeouts.

Overall, users find these mittens very warm, with the liner and the mittens themselves both providing excellent warmth and versatility. However, these mittens do not have the bomb-proof durability that some of the other gloves and mittens that we included in this list.