Pearl Izumi AmFib Lobster mittens

[Erik]

Back in 2000, shortly after we'd moved up here and got back into skiing, a friend suggested to my wife that she invest in a pair of Pearl Izumi lobster gloves. By the end of that first winter, we each had a pair. I tend to heat up pretty quickly when I get moving, but my fingers and toes seem to be the exception to that--hence I eventually wound up wearing the lobster gloves most of the time, even when it wasn't that cold out. Eight years of that was enough to do both our original pairs in. So this past fall I finally bought a pair of Pearl Izumi AmFib lobster gloves http://www.pearlizumi.com/product.php?mode=view&product_id=527528 to replace them--in the intervening years, Pearl Izumi apparently did away with the less-water-resistant model we'd used previously, so AmFib it was.

The current edition AmFib lobster glove is significantly different than my old 2000 glove. For one thing, it has an internal five-fingered liner that separates the fingers inside the lobster-style outer shell [this seems a little contrary to the logic of a lobster glove, but my wife's Swix lobster gloves have the same setup... I guess I'm no expert]. A second difference is that the new glove is substantially bulkier than the old one. It has a big velcro-closure gauntlet that comes way up over the wrist. PI also reduced (but didn't eliminate, thankfully) the snot-wiping zone on the back of the glove.

My impressions are mixed. On the one hand, these gloves kept my fingers pretty warm this winter, even on some pretty cold skis (I don't go out skiing when it's much lower than -5F, however, so don't buy these and head off to Siberia on my recommendation).

On the downside, it was challenging to snake the oversized glove into my pole straps. Also, the wrist of the glove is quite snug--my hands aren't particularly big, nor are my fingers unusually long, but the size L glove that my fingers fit in quite well was tight enough that it was a minor challenge getting my palm in and out. Not a dealbreaker, but a little annoying. The smaller snotzone proved to be a little irritating as well--turns out that I must have relied on that more than I had realized, ahem.

All in all, I don't regret buying these (I wore them about 100 times this winter), but I wouldn't say they were a major step up from Swix lobster gloves, which are distinctly less expensive.