The Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt is Hestra’s most well-known ski glove even though it’s obviously a mitten. The key to its success is warmth and its supple-yet-durable design.
I’m a fan, but is the Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt right for you? It’s a fairly expensive, high-end, high-quality ski mitt, which also begs the question: Is the Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt worth the money? And will it keep your fingers warm during wicked cold and windy days?
Let’s take a closer look:
Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt Review
Warm hands on a cold ski day!Hestra is a glove company that was started in 1936 in Hestra, Sweden. The relatively small company owns its own manufacturing factories and produces more than 2 million high-quality gloves and mittens a year.
Hestra gloves — particularly its gloves that use goat leather — have a reputation for excellent fit, warmth, and quality of construction. While you might pay more for Hestra gloves than what you’ll pay for many competing options, your leather-based Hestras will likely last longer — and maybe even get better with age.
Hestra originally created its Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt for ski guides in western Canada. The most important feature is that it’s made with a durable-yet-supple goat leather on the thumb and palm.
Why is goat leather important for skiing? A good leather ski glove or mitt usually provides a much better grip on your ski poles vs synthetics. Better yet, good leather gets better with age as it breaks in and develops creases around how you grip.
The backhand is made from a waterproof three-layer polyamide fabric, which helps reduce the weight and increase breathability in such a large mitten.
Are the Army Leather Heli Ski Mitts warm?
The full-coverage length helps seal out drafts to keep your hands warm.I bought the Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitts because I wanted a very warm mitt for skiing.
When I’m skiing, my hands tend to run a bit cold, so I usually want a very warm glove. Even if your hands don’t run cold like mine, you might ski or snowboard with a lot of friends and family. For me, that means I’m frequently taking my gloves or mitts off to use my phone: Where you heading? Which lift are you on? Lunch? If you ski with friends and family, you know the drill.
If you’re a parent of young skiers and snowboarders, you’re also likely taking your gloves off to help them with their gear or feed them a treat on the lift to keep them going for another run or two. I previously used a three-finger glove, but on very cold days I was struggling to keep my fingers warm. Because I didn’t want to deal with cold fingers ever again — no matter how often I took off my gloves — I knew it was time for a full mitten design.
The removable insulated liner is soft and warm. The cuff has full-circle Velcro so that it stays secured in place inside the mitt.So, is the Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt a warm mitten? Yes, it’s very warm. You get a windproof shell with removable liner mitts. With all of my previous ski gloves, I usually dropped a hand warmer inside to help keep my hands warm. Now, with a hand warmer in my Hestra mitts, my hands often get too warm — which is an easy problem to fix and one I like to have.
Not Fully Waterproof?
The supple goat-leather palms are durable and grippy — but not, technically, fully waterproof. (The back-of-hand fabric is waterproof.)Leather is very water-resistant, especially if you use a waterproofing leather treatment. But it’s not usually technically waterproof on its own. Waterproof leather boots, for example, tend to have interior liners that provide the actual waterproof layer.
The question you might have is if it’s OK to only use a water-resistant ski glove? For me, it’s not a problem. You’re more likely to get the insides of your gloves wet during most ski days by putting wet hands into your gloves . . . or simply having moisture build up inside from your hands perspiring all day long.
To me, the superior grip and durability provided by great leather is more important to a great ski day. Of course, as you might expect, Hestra also makes a fully-waterproof version — the Army Leather GORE-TEX Mitt. It includes an extra GORE-TEX membrane for full waterproofing and costs a bit more than the regular version.
If your hands do get wet, you can swap out the liner with a dry spare — or even wear thin gloves inside the Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt shell. I haven’t had a personal need to do this, but I appreciate the versatility of the design.
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Key Features
We very much appreciate glove and mitten manufacturers that include wrist tethers. You know the gloves and mittens you see underneath the ski lift? Yeah, the owners weren’t using wrist tethers when they took them off to get to their phones. Hestra includes sturdy and comfortable wrist tethers in many of its snow gloves and mitts.The Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt has a few key design features that make it great for skiing or snowboarding:
- Goat leather palm/thumb for durability and grip
- Removable Bemberg fleece liner with G-loft polyester insulation
- Long over-the-cuff design keeps out snow
- Includes both a drawstring cinch and a Velcro wrist strap
- Backhand is waterproof/breathable 3-layer polyamide fabric
- Removable wrist tether keeps your mitts attached if you remove them while on a ski lift
Because mittens are inherently less grippy than gloves, we very much prefer mittens with leather palms and thumbs. Why? Good leather always seems to provide a better grip compared to most synthetics.
The removable fleece liner is a great feature because it will let you remove the liner to dry the mitts more quickly — which is particularly nice when you’re traveling. In addition, you can wear a thin liner glove inside the mitts to increase your insulation. Or you could even use a thicker liner glove if you wanted a five-finger liner inside the Army Leather Ski Mitt.
Here is another benefit of buying a Hestra glove or mitten: If, in a few years down the road, you manage to wear out the liner, you will likely be able to buy a new perfect-fit replacement liner from Hestra.
How to Choose the Right Size Hestra Mitt
Hestra’s sizing ranges from 5-11 based on your hand circumference measurement where your knuckles meet your palm. I’m a relatively big guy and wear a size 11, shown above.Sizing Hestra mittens and gloves is relatively easy. All you need is a flexible tape measure (or string and a ruler) to measure the distance around your knuckles where your palm meets your fingers. You can then match up this measurement — in millimeters — to the Hestra size guide.
Evo has a handy Hestra Gloves Size Chart page if you want to take a look and/or use measurements in inches or see the information in a handy chart.
I wear a size 11 in gloves and mittens (which is typically an XL or XXL for gloves sized with letters). The Hestra Army Leather Ski Mitt fits spot-on to my experience and expectations.
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Competitive Alternatives & Options
One good thing about the Hestra glove and mitten lineup is that Hestra keeps manufacturing its most popular gloves and mittens year-over-year. As you might expect, Hestra also makes dozens of glove and mitten styles with different materials, colors, and price points. If you’re looking for Hestra alternatives, you might actually benefit from a different Hestra style. For instance, if you like the Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt but don’t want the extra-long gauntlet-style cuff, the shorter Army Leather Patrol Mitt (see below) might be right for you.
Hestra Army Leather Patrol Mitt — The Hestra Army Leather Patrol Gauntlet Mitt is basically a shorter version of the Army Leather Ski Mitt. Aside from the length, the Patrol Mitt gives you a bit more leather in the form of wear patches on the palms. Another big difference is the type of liner — the Patrol version has a five-finger glove-like liner vs the tradition mitten style liner in the Ski Mitt.
Hestra Fall Line Mitt — The Hestra Fall Line Mitt is a full-coverage leather mitt with a cuff that fits underneath your sleeve. We’re big fans of full-leather gloves and appreciate how well full-coverage leather breaks in to fit the curve of your hand. If you don’t want over-the-sleeve coverage — and like the five-finger interior insulation — it’s hard to go wrong with the Hestra Fall Line Mitt.
Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski 3-Finger — If you’re stuck between wanting a glove-like experience but want the warmth of mittens, choose the Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski 3-Finger version. You’ll get most of the warmth of the original but gain dexterity.
Black Diamond Mercury Mitt — The Black Diamond Mercury Mitt delivers a very similar design to the Hestra Army Leather Ski Mitt but it comes in at a lower price point. The most important benefit is the BD.dry waterproof insert. The biggest drawback is the lack of an included tether (to keep you from dropping your mitts off the ski lift if you take them off).
The Bottom Line
All-in-all, the Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt is a warm and durable full-coverage mitten that’s great for skiing and snowboarding. The long length slides easily over ski jacket sleeves and seals out wind and snow. These mitts are very warm and easy to get on and off, making them great for skiers who need to access their phones on the lift or take photos out on the hill. We particularly like the included retention straps, which keep us from losing our mitts off a ski lift or dropping them in the snow. The goat leather palm is supple and grippy. Very highly recommended.
Get the Gear:
- Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt – men’s
- Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski Mitt – women’s
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