Review: Lowe Alpine Talon Gloves

- product provided for the purpose of review -

Here's my review of the Lowe Alpine Talon Gloves, no Gore Tex here, just L.A's own fabric: Triple Point.

Manufacturer's Description: "A tough, mountain glove"

From the web: These gloves look good but I've never tried out L.A's Triple Point material before so I'm interested in seeing how it compares to the big daddy of materials, Gore Tex. These gloves feature a nose wiper though so I've got high hopes!

First impressions: these gloves feels well made, they're not lightweight but tough and sturdy, a good start straight away. A good fit with the insulation helping the gloves wrap around my hand. there's a real stiffness to these gloves, this can make rope work and fiddly bits a real pain when out and about so I'm interested to see if they become any softer. 

Out and about: My test for these gloves was 4 days in the Scottish mountains on a winter skills course. These conditions were perfect for the Talon Gloves: high winds, deep powder snow, sideways rain and heavy snow along with sleet. We covered rope work, ice axe arrests and plenty of other skills on the course and I'm proud to say these gloves were truly tested. 

The Triple Point fabric held its own against the weather, at no point were my hands damp or wet from rain or snow. There were times when we were breaking trail through heavy powder snow that a damp feeling crept through, this was after many plunges of my hand and no gloves can put up with that level of moisture for any amount of time so I was impressed with how long the Talon lasted before it gave in. 

The warmth of the gloves was welcome after swapping from my thin wind proof ones, my fingers had already begun cooling when they were exposed to the wind chill and snow, after getting the Talon Gloves on my hands they quickly warmed up and the smile returned to my face! 

The stiffness of the gloves was nice when handling the ice axe but was an annoyance when trying to adjust my helmet and do some rope work meaning I had to remove the gloves to do any fiddly tasks. I guess this is one of the prices to pay when it comes to warmth and waterproofness. 

Overall I was really impressed with how well the Talon Gloves handled the wet conditions with some heavy winds (55mph+), they were tough and strong, keeping me confident in them out in the mountains.

That's how you put a pair of gloves under pressure!

 Thanks for reading. A massive thanks to outdoorkit.co.uk for providing the gloves for review, if you'd like to keep up to date with what they're up to then check their facebook and twitter.