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Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 1:08 pm
by Caver John
Hello all. I'm curious what gloves people are using for vertical caving. I usually wear neoprene or lined rubber palm type gloves for muddy wet caving, but I always use leather petzl gloves for rope work. I realize using a rack one can put enough friction on the rope that gloves may not be needed, but I always wear gloves when on rope, and as a stop user, the gloves are usually needed.
So does anyone have gloves that are good in cold wet conditions and can also handle rope friction?
I know black diamond makes some nice mountaineering gloves but at a cost of coarse.

I'd like to hear what people here use...
Thanks for the input!

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 1:28 pm
by gindling
Chilli Grips. Thick and fuzzy on the inside, with good wear resistance. Not the best, but a reasonably priced glove for cold caving vertical work.
http://www.gloveman.net/item178772.ctlg

For very wet near freezing alpine caves I have had great success with NRS wetsuit style gloves underneath a PVC gauntlet style glove.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 1:31 pm
by Scott McCrea
I just use thick rubber gloves with long cuffs from Home Depot.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 1:39 pm
by Caver John
The chilly gripper gloves are similar to what I wear, but not while on rope.

Scott, doesn't the rope burn right through te rubber?

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 1:49 pm
by Scott McCrea
Hasn't burned thru so far. I don't usually go too fast, tho. I get holes else where long before any signs of rope ware. Btw, the chilly grippers and the like are basically rubber gloves with fuzzy guts. They are fairly durable with rope.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 2:02 pm
by Caver John
I think my issue than is not enough friction from the stop. A rack would apply more friction and therefore allow me to lessen my death grip on the rope.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 2:30 pm
by VRcaver
gindling wrote:Chilli Grips. Thick and fuzzy on the inside, with good wear resistance. Not the best, but a reasonably priced glove for cold caving vertical work.
http://www.gloveman.net/item178772.ctlg

For very wet near freezing alpine caves I have had great success with NRS wetsuit style gloves underneath a PVC gauntlet style glove.


I also normally wear something similar to the chilli grips for normal cold, vertical caving without any issues. Then again, I wouldn't use a stop if you paid me and prefer devices with 1-handed use and variable control, so glove wear from rope is a non-issue.

In Croatia (around 1 mile of sometimes wet rope work between 32 and 34F) I wore normal glove liners under heavy PVC gloves. The problem I have is finding the PVC gloves large enough! I normally wear an XL glove, and finding a PVC glove big enough to fit an XL glove liner inside is "tricky". :down:

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 2:44 pm
by LukeM
Some neoprene diving gloves have kevlar woven into the palm/finger area. They typically last longer than regular than neoprene gloves, but not nearly as long as non-neoprene gloves. I'd advise against getting anything expensive. You could always use the dominant hand glove from a large pair of leather gloves and put that over thin neoprene, then take it off at the bottom of a drop.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 10, 2013 4:05 pm
by Extremeophile
Caver John wrote:I think my issue than is not enough friction from the stop. A rack would apply more friction and therefore allow me to lessen my death grip on the rope.

Funny ... most people have the opposite problem with the Stop. Of course this depends heavily on the cleanliness, stiffness, and diameter of the rope. But semi-dirty 11mm PMI is hard to feed through a Stop. Going too fast on a bobbin style device is generally correctable with a braking biner or Freino. If you haven't tried the Freino it might change your whole perspective.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 11, 2013 12:53 am
by Caver John
Extremeophile wrote:
Caver John wrote:I think my issue than is not enough friction from the stop. A rack would apply more friction and therefore allow me to lessen my death grip on the rope.

Funny ... most people have the opposite problem with the Stop. Of course this depends heavily on the cleanliness, stiffness, and diameter of the rope. But semi-dirty 11mm PMI is hard to feed through a Stop. Going too fast on a bobbin style device is generally correctable with a braking biner or Freino. If you haven't tried the Freino it might change your whole perspective.



Good point as I have been using a fairly clean supple rope. The max wear is much slower through the stop even for my 160 lbs. I still think ill have to pick up a rack anyway.

Thanks for the input.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 11, 2013 8:36 am
by chh
Neoprene gloves are great if you really are going to be wet. The trick there is finding the right thickness and fit i think, primarily so you can maintain a good amount of dexterity. But even cheap neoprene gloves might be a little spendy. Liners and PVC gloves are another option, but only if you can keep water out of the glove. Most cheap liners don't really work that well in the wet. I just wear cheap, dipped gloves for almost everything. I might bring the neoprene out for winter stream surveys, but I try and avoid that as much as I can anyway;)

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 11, 2013 12:33 pm
by Caver John
I just fell that the only material truly appropriate for rappelling is leather. Wouldn't a rope burn through neoprene? And PVC wouldn't give much grip?

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 11, 2013 12:49 pm
by Scott McCrea
PVC is cheap. Try it. You'll like it.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 11, 2013 1:25 pm
by jcg5230
Walmart sells leather-like work gloves for $10 or $15 that work well and are cheaper than anything made by Petzl or the like. If the ropes are muddy or wet enough I can get by with a rubber-lined glove, but on dry ropes they start to melt pretty quickly for me.

Re: Gloves of choice for wet vert caving

PostPosted: Jan 11, 2013 4:15 pm
by UnderGroundEarth
We do a lot of wet, vertical caving and I have always used the Atlas Fit Gloves. I never use leather gloves anymore. The more common Atlas gloves you see are are blue but I prefer the black ones so I can stay stylish with my black helmet and other gear :grin:. They do occassionally get wear on my left (rapel) hand in between the thumb and forefinger. When they get a hole in them they are cheap enough that I just buy a new pair.

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