REI Co-op  Switchback GTX Mittens 2.0

The "high wear" fabric wore through after very little use. I skied less than 25 days in these mittens. Some of the days were backcountry ski days but the mittens should hold up for more than 25 days. A hole wore through the fabric on the thumb and other areas are showing substantial wear (like the tips of the mittens which should not be worn at all). It appear some of the coatings on the high wear areas were not applied correctly and is coming off due to flexing. Of course it's out of warranty since REI has cut back it's warranties.

These mittens are great; however, be aware that they're sized for men, not women (even though they're branded as Unisex). I bought the extra small (XS), and they're still too big (I usually buy Small to Medium-sized mittens). In addition, I bought these to wear with my battery-powered liners, which are pretty bulky, and there is still a lot of room in the mittens (mostly at the top). When I curl my fingers (for example, to hold a ski pole), the top of the mitten doesn't move with my hand; it just stays there. The liners, however, are true to size. They fit perfectly. Even so, I'm not sure if I'll be keeping these.

The price-performance ratio is very good, but the stitching finish is lacking in quality.

Excellent. Warm. Able to use cell phone with liners.

I've had these mittens for over a year, but have barely worn them because it was a warm winter last year. I took them out today to use them, only to find that the material at the palm of the hand is cracked and peeling. Pretty poor performance for mittens that are only a year old and have been worn only twice. These were stored flat this entire past year.

I bought these for a snowboard trip in Montana. The rmforecast was colder than the actual temp, but they felt great at Temps as low as 10F with wind chills closer to 0F. I used the liners, but I probably could've done without when Temps were closer to 25F. My hands are somewhere between M and L, and they fit fine for me in M.

I've worn a pair of Black Diamond gloves for nearly 12 years but my hands just get too cold these days so I switched to mittens (I blame it on getting older!). I looked into these, the OR Carbide Sensor mitts and Black Diamond Mercury mitts. Went with these because: - Price: less expensive than the others BUT with similar weatherproofing (these and the OR use Goretex, the BD use BDry). - Long gauntlets: I wanted a lot of gauntlet because I'm a tall, skinny guy and my ski jacket is just a titch too short on my arms to make under-the-cuff gloves/mitts work so I wanted a nice long gauntlet to keep the snow out of the wrists. And these don't disappoint! In fact, they are long enough that they've kept the pow out on a couple of wipe-outs even when I forgot to cinch them down. The OR Carbide Sensors have similar length but the BD Mercury's are shorter. Winner: either OR or this. - Tightening around the wrist: Both the OR and these have an adjustable strap around the wrist you can cinch down. The BD's just have elastic. I have skinny wrists and so being able to tighten them around the wrists as much as I want makes a difference. Plus, elastic always ends up stretching out over time. - The cut: the BD has the best, most dexterous cut. The OR is almost straight. But this is a nice in-between...not as good as the BD but more fitting that the OR. My only area for improvement for the Switchback (and hence only 4 stars) would be to use real leather on the palms. The BD has real leather and I'm sure it would last 10+ years (just like the BD gloves I'm retiring). The Switchbacks only have synthetic leather palms. I'm not sure these will last 10 years but here's hoping!

With the internal glove, these are very warm and provide enough dexterity for most tasks without having to go bare-handed. I've had these for a few weeks now and used them daily, mostly for dog walking and snow clearing here in Alaska, and they have been nicely warm down to -10F. I prefer to have the mitten leashed to the inner glove so I can drop the mitten and then put it back on easily, and while a leash is surprisingly not included I just fixed it with a few inches of elastic cord for each mitten.

Excellent mittens (with) liners. Great for cleaning of snow from your car or driveway . Snow gets on the mittens and does melt...however, neither the water or the cold penetrate the mittens and the hands remain warm and dry. Recommended to a friend of mine who has serious circulation problems. Her hands kept warm when it was in the "teens" and while she was shoveling snow from her car and driveway.

These are full-featured mittens with Gore-Tex performance and layering options at a great price. However the gauntlets are too small and barely have enough room to go over a lightweight jacket. Seems like an obvious design flaw and is a deal-breaker for me. I tried 2 sizes and even the larger size was way too tight for the jacket.