UKC

Over recent weeks, I have been revisiting the (these days) much maligned Dachstein Mitt.

Even though I've often carried a pair as a spare, it's been quite a while since I actually wore them.

From walking in the mountains to easy snow and ice routes and even skiing, I'd forgotten just how unfussy, good and toasty warm they are. 

Yes they hark back to an era of bendy leather boots and bendy crampons, barely curved ice axes, molecord breeches and Karrimor canvas sacks, but I reckon they still have their place for less technical stuff in winter. Throw a pair of waterproof overmitts on the top, and you've got a quite wonderful winter mitt system.

And with a modern pair of thin liner gloves costing around £30, at £25 for a new pair, they're an absolute bargain too.

I've recently gone back to mine as a belay mitt sometimes with a goretex shell sometimes on their own.

Is it much maligned?

They are the definitive smell of winter for me - damp Dachstein and that icy rock smell.  Summer is chalk, hot rock and lichen

I also remember that in certain conditions they gripped ice quite well by micro-freezing themselves onto the surface.

I was disappointed to read this thread only to discover that it wasn't about me.

Yeah, I would have gone for "obsessively praised". You mark yourself out as a heretic saying you've never felt the need for a pair and seen lots of people wear through them.

I had a few pairs and concur about the warmth - but mine had an annoying habit of developing a hole at the apex of the finger bit. I did use to appreciate the warmth even when they were covered in a thick layer of rime. Plus that oily woolly smell as mentioned above.

I might get myself a new pair.

I had a couple of pairs but found some similar mitts  ( called Jannu's ? ) that being a bit softer were better fitting.   Soon wore a hole in the finger tip though, this proved advantageous, as any spindrift fell out before it could melt next to my toasty fingers.

Favourite mitt of all time, for me, is the Helly Hansen Polar Mitten.

No, you're right, poor choice of language by me.

I should have said, generally out of favour these days

I remember the Janus brand, Rick.

Didn't they also do sweaters. Scandinavian I think?

I also had a pair of HH Polar Mitts, they were very good. Unfortunately I set mine on fire whilst being drunk in charge of a primus. The other casualty that night, being the front half of a Vange Force Ten

Same here. They made several models, some with snow cuffs, grippy palm etc. Cheap. Still have non-matching pairs. Nearest current equivalent probably Buffalo, but defintely inferior warmth.

Good post, although I don't think they are much-maligned to be honest. Popular, in fact. 

I get very cold hands and it's taken years for me to find a Scottish winter belay glove combo that works, and is robust enough. But for the past couple of seasons I've stashed a Dachstein pre-placed inside a cheap waterproof mitten in each coat chest pocket, for a quick switch-over out of thinner gloves as I arrive at the belay. They stay nice and warm in there and it's a bit like diving each hand under a warm, soft, smelly duvet.  Mmmm...

For me, it's problem solved. 

No need for the overmitts after you'd wiped your nose with them enough times then let them dry out

I'd go with "cult" - not everyone's heard of them these days, but most people who have heard of them own a pair and won't shut up about how good they are.

(I've heard of them and don't own any, but that's because I'm an adherent of a slightly more recent sect, the Devotees of the Buffalo Mitt.)

Yes, nail on head there I think. Did I mention that I love my Dachsteins?

Yes. This is where old kit like dachsteins and tweeds score! Mal Duff sewed beer towels from the Clachaig onto the knees of his salopettes for better grip using that same principle.

I wonder what proportion of active climbers own a pair of Dachsteins? I think I started winter climbing (1996 for Grade I gullies, 1999 for Grade III and up) when they may have started going out of fashion. I personally never owned a pair - I just never fancied them (I never even tried borrowing them) and always felt that I would function better with fingered gloves (especially selecting and placing rock gear).