For all the advances in gear, one clear, “last great problem” remains for the serious winter climber: gloves. What does everyone want? The holy grail, of course: Warmth, waterproofness, and dexterity. Just like we want gear that’s lightweight and durable, low-fat ice cream that tastes like real ice cream, and parties without hangovers.

Climbing gloves present a perplexing problem, as they’re in constant contact with the cold and wet, be it groveling through snow mushrooms, clearing powder off holds, or pressing against dripping ice. Thick, bulky insulation and so-called waterproof/breathable (w/b) inserts make handling gear cumbersome and pumpy, and they don’t always work. No matter what a company’s lab tests show, or those indoor demos where you dip your gloved hands in a bucket and stay dry, anyone who’s spent long days climbing in full-on conditions has wondered, If they’re so waterproof, why are my hands soaked?

About 15 years ago I asked an older friend, Gray Thompson, who’d been climbing ice and alpine routes for longer than I’d been alive, about the glove problem. “Oh, I have the perfect solution,” he said. My ears perked and I moved closer – the holy grail was upon me. “I buy five pairs of cheap gloves at K-Mart and climb with a fanny pack. I pull out a dry pair of gloves for each pitch.”

These days I often head out with a mere three pairs of gloves – same as most climbers I know. Warm ones for belaying and easy terrain, and several pairs of thin, dexterous ones for the harder pitches, since there’s no such thing as a truly dexterous waterproof glove. As the thin ones get soaked, I wring them out at the belay, put them deep inside my layers where they’ll more-or-less dry, and swap out for new ones for the next pitch.

So why don’t gloves labeled “waterproof” always work? Gloves have too many tight seams to be sealed, so in nasty conditions water leaks through like a sieve (plus, sealant adds stiffness and will wear off under the constant bending use of the glove). Also, the w/b insert, or bladder, “floats” inside the shell, typically tacked down only at the fingertips and cuffs. Thus, water can get trapped in the space between the shell and bladder, and the shell fabric often stays saturated – the outward-drying heat from your hands can’t keep up, especially with a floating liner between them and the damp shells. With a saturated shell, you have no effective water vapor pressure differential between it and your hands, thus no real-world breathability, resulting in: your sweaty hands soak the liners, and the gloves won’t dry until you get home and put them on the heater.

To be sure, though, many companies have significantly improved their w/b insert-style gloves, using their own proprietary insert (versus Gore-Tex inserts), cut to more closely match the sizes of their shells and liners. Gore seems to have taken the hint, as their recent X-Trafit™ system uses a more reasonably-sized bladder, bonded to the liner, and with grip tape inside the shell to minimize slippage. But space still exists between the insert/bladder and the shell.

The Italian company Nextec has developed and patented a new technology called OutDry, which takes a thin (0.03-millimeter), seamless, waterproof/breathable membrane and, using heat, pressure, and some microadhesive, laminates the membrane directly onto the inside of a glove shell, creating a unified waterproof/breathable shell layer. This should greatly improve dexterity, waterproofing, and breathability. But has it been tested in the real world?

In an email, Matteo Morlacchi, Nextec company co-founder, said that while new to the outdoor market, OutDry has been used in work applications in Europe, such as with firefighters, since 2006. Dan Ramos, product manager for accessories at Mountain Hardwear, told me that they’ve tested the gloves extensively with their athletes, with phenomenal results – enough that Hardwear is using OutDry in all of their premier waterproof/breathable gloves for this fall/winter, the first U.S. outdoor company to do so.

Will it be the holy grail, with all companies soon to follow suit? We’ll see. I’ve got a test pair I’m taking out soon – but I’m still bringing two other pairs, just in case. And then there’s always the old fanny pack solution.

I asked some friends, all more savvy and all better climbers than me, about their glove systems. Click here to read the replies from Duncan Ferguson, Will Gadd, Colin Haley, Kevin Mahoney, Raphael Slawinski, and Freddie Wilkinson.

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