OUTDOOR RESEARCH POINT N CHUTE GLOVES - A big thumbs up
As a lover of snow, tour guide at Mt Buller and exuberant skier I needed a pair of gloves to handle as much exposure as I can. Frosty winds, flying falls, snowball fights, texts and phone calls. Would the premium price of the Point N Chute gloves deliver the goods.
This review was written after 6 days of work at Mount Buller and over a week of recreational endeavours. I spend a lot of my workday standing around in the cold or skiing quite gently while my recreational days are often spent buried in a snow drift after some over exuberant carves or attempts through terrain parks.
Materials. While not the flashiest insulation available from Outdoor Research this gear certainly isn’t cutting corners with its insulation, “Enduraloft” is good stuff, just not the best; keeping my hands toasty even buried in snow. The Gore-Tex lining works as well as you would expect keeping my hands dry day after day.
The goat leather shell is soft and conforming while feeling sturdy and robust.
The construction feels quality, like most Outdoor Research equipment, although I haven’t had them long enough to confirm this. The gloves are backed by OR’s “Infinite Guarantee” which guarantees warranty coverage for the life of the product. To be honest though, good luck finding info on the expected lifetime of their products.
So far things are looking good, although for the price I do have to question why aerogel insulation wasn’t used.
Features. The most touted feature of these gloves is what OR call the sensor function, which just means they are touch screen compatible. I have an android S10 and to be honest I wasn’t blown away by their functionality, this may have more to do with the phone than the gloves though. The sensor function works in a pinch, but I found I was often better off just taking the gloves off and…
Hanging them from the elasticated wrist straps! Seems a silly thing to get excited over seeing as most high-end gloves have this feature, but it’s nice to have it and should be appreciated.
My personal favourite feature on the glove is the soft, absorbent patch of leather across the back of the thumb, it is perfect for wiping droplets of rain, or melted snow from goggles. It’s a small thing but it’s comforting to know I won’t be scratching the tint on my goggles every time I’m struggling to see.
Functionality. In terms of doing their job I have no qualms with these leather palms. They keep my hands warm and dry day after day. They just work. My only note would be that the wrists are quite short and the hook and loop straps are occasionally a little difficult to tighten up firmly, a feeling I quite like.
Aesthetics, ergonomics and feel.
After heading up the slopes I picked the brains of clients, coworkers and friends alike, wondering if they liked the design as much as I did. The resounding sentiment was “yeah moite they’re noice” which is high praise from the snowbums and city slickers I live my life between. Obviously, they won’t be to every persons taste but I like the industrial aesthetic.
Ergonomically they fit nicely, they are pre-curved to reduce bunching when gripping poles, bags etc. One thing I found upon first purchasing them was that it felt as though my fingers were being pushed apart from each other by the thick insulation. This has since packed down and moulded to my hands a bit more, but it was disconcerting to open with.
Final Thoughts. Baring in mind these gloves were designed with extended backcountry adventures in mind they are more than suitable for any adventure in the Australian alps, heading somewhere colder you might want to look at something a bit bulkier, but for the Aussie adventurer they will handle any environment short of record-breaking weather.
If I were a once a year skier I’m not convinced I could justify the cost, but being employed on a mountain and an avid skier the cost is more than justified in the extended comfort they’ve brought me thus far.
