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By Lou Dawson

Hot tea in a high country storm. No bare hands here.

Keeping your hands warm and dry while working or playing in snow is a difficult task. Add enough bulk for genuine insulation, and you stumble around with flipper hands like those do-nothing tourists who get dropped at the South Pole for hero photos. Find a glove that actually lets you manipulate your camera, and you might find your digits the subject of medical photography.

No glove or mitten will do it all. Thus, I look at hand protection in four categories that are used with different emphasis anywhere in the world:

• Thin "liner" gloves (warm days, short-term cold weather work, or heavy exercise).
• Dry climate moderate temperature gloves (breathable, possibly leather).
• Wet snow gloves (super waterproof, possibly neoprene).
• Arctic hand protection (bulky mittens with liners).

You can blend categories by using liners in oversized gloves, or covering your gloves with mitten shells, but such efforts often result in bulk and complexity. Conversely, if you use the wrong category of glove, you'll either freeze or sweat. Thus, if you do much in the way of snowsports, keeping an arsenal of gloves and picking your day's protection category according to the weather is the best way.

For dry climate, moderate temperature, my favorite glove is a leather shell with minimal insulation. Why leather? Over all man-made fabrics, while not being the superior shell for wet conditions, cow hide still provides the best combination of dexterity and durability. You can get such gloves at most hardware stores (many ski patrollers wear them). But the hardware version lacks a wrist seal, and is usually constructed of porous leather that works well if you keep a few pair drying back at 'troller HQ, but results in soggy hands during a long backcountry day of grabbing snowy ski poles and digging pits. Thus, even for dry days, leather gloves have always been a mixed blessing.

Cloudveil, known for it's crafted shell clothing, offers its Troller glove (named after the 'trollers) as a solution to the leather dilemma. Using high-quality hide with tight pores, combined with high-tech fabric and synthetic insulation, the Troller fits the bill.

I tested a pair of Trollers during my typical Colorado early winter season -- always the busy time for a pair of gloves with everything from hunting, Christmas tree cutting, windshield scraping -- and a bit of skiing just to keep things interesting.

The infamous wet towel test reveals all.

As mentioned above, no hand protection will do it all. The Troller excels in the "dry-climate, moderate protection" category. Due to the thin but efficient layer of Primaloft insulation, they have excellent dexterity while still being quite warm. The quality leather wears well, and when treated with the Nikwax product packaged with the gloves, it performs admirably in all but the wettest conditions. I tested the Troller to sog failure using my "wet towel torture," and was surprised how long they resisted wet-through. (The only gloves that work in ultra-wet are those with major waterproof-breathable liners and water-resistant shells, or else are constructed of neoprene dive-suit material.)

Detailing of the Troller is superb. The top of the thumb is covered with nose friendly fabric so you can swipe away those tickles without rasping your shnoz. The glove liner is attached to the inside of the shell. While this makes the glove harder to dry if it does get soaked, it's a feature I like in this category of glove because it makes them easy to get on and off. My only whine is about the glove's wrist seal. I've got skinny chicken wrists, and after pulling the Trollers on a few times the wrist bagged out and didn't seal. As the glove is, it looks like this is only a problem for us with thin bones, so don't let it scare you away from this fine product. My solution: a few passes with thread and needle tailored the seal for my wrists. Cloudveil says they're aware of the situation and they're changing the wrist seal so it has a wider size range.

In all, if you want a glove with the durability of leather, a clean modern design, and a good combination of dexterity and warmth, consider the Cloudveil Troller as your first choice.

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