The Best Ski and Snowboard Gloves for 2024, Tested and Reviewed

Nancy Prichard Bouchard

December 5, 2019 at 5:01 PM·7 min read

Warm, waterproof, reliable gloves are much more than a ski accessory. They're tools that enable you to stay outside all day without frosty fingers. Sure, we all want buttery leather, impregnable waterproofness, toasty insulation, superior dexterity, and serious durability. But we also want a glove with a cuff that effortlessly segues with our jacket, matches our unique style, and sets the bar for the rest of our kits.

Here are some things to consider when you're buying a glove: Are you an innie or outie? That is, do you prefer gloves with the convenience of long storm gaiters that go outside of your jacket cuff, or do you prefer tucking your glove inside your sleeve, for a smooth, streamlined seal? Do you prefer gloves or mittens? If you’re undecided, have you considered a hybrid alternative—like the three-finger, lobster-claw design which provides a thumb and index finger encasement with a three-finger “mitten” for your remaining digits?

While choosing the perfect glove is a personal decision, the difference between a great glove and a not-so-great one is anything but subjective. The following eight pairs are unquestionably superb. As for the best of the best, testers deliberated but ultimately tapped the Hestra Wakayama Glove as their favorite overall for its standout warmth, cowhide durability, performance, and (also important) cool retro look.

Here are the best gloves for 2024 that will be your go-to protection on any kind of conditions. They're all as serious about skiing as you are.

Our Testing Process: Why You Should Trust Us

Our team of nine testers knows how to do our homework out in the field. Collectively, we’ll rack up more than 1,000 on-snow days in a given season just testing out ski gear to see if it lives up to its promise. Most of us have been running ski apparel through the ringer in every type of alpine terrain and weather condition imaginable for over 20 ski seasons.

We’ve run glades, bowls, couloirs, steeps, and remote backcountry in this gear—and we’ve taken copious notes. We’ve skied the slopes of New England and Eastern Canadian hardpack, Whistler powder, Pacific Northwest cement, and everything in between, including months in the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps. We offer a combined ski history of more than 100 years of high-level race and big-mountain experience racked up from Japan to North America to the Alps—and we know exactly what we want and need from the gear we’re relying upon. We also love being dazzled and inspired by the latest, greatest ski gear innovations, which never stop.

We’ve rigorously tested and compared thousands of items, harnessing not only ambition, but wisdom and experience, with testers from their early 20s to seasoned vets. We also tested a lot of this stuff with less experienced skiers to assess their own valuable takes. It's never easy putting so much great ski gear and apparel through its paces before whittling it all down to our favorite performers—but it's always a ton of fun.

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Best Overall Ski Glove: Hestra Wakayama Glove

If you’ve ever visited Hestra, Sweden, you know this brand is as authentic as it gets. Hestra's Wakayama Glove covers all the essential bases and then some, featuring a tough yet supple cowhide base that offers superior insulation and versatility. The look here is retro-stylish, but there’s nothing old-fashioned about this glove's warmth and performance—right down to its handy para-cord to lock down the cuff and removable wool liner that's a cinch to strip out to either dry, wash, wear solo, or stow away and opt for just the leather shell on bluebird days. The glove's “outseams” not only look groovy but enhance grip for better ski pole traction. For next-level warmth in 3-layer mitten form, the most cold-sensitive hands can opt for Hestra's Army Leather Heli Mitten, made with the same grade materials that the brand uses when producing gloves for the Swedish Army.

Best for Impact Protection: Shred All-Mountain Protective Gloves D-Lux

If you’re looking for a burly glove that’s not only warm and dry, but ultra-protective, Shred is your brand. Founded by two-time Olympic gold medalist, Ted Ligety, these gloves offer bomber protection for bitingly cold days on the snow. Special padding shields your thumb, knuckles, and the back of your hand from branches, snow, and rocks. Ligety bashed a lot of gates in his time, and he knows what works! Shred All-Mountain Protective Gloves are insulated with Primaloft for warmth without weight, plus they have excellent grips for when pole plants matter. Perhaps our favorite feature of all is the soft, washable nose wipe. The bomber gloves also come in Mittens for when temps really plummet.

Best for Damaged or Missing Gloves: Vermont Uphill Skier Glove

Available in both glove and mitten, these made-in-Vermont goatskin handwarmers look like work gloves but have all the suppleness, warmth, and performance we could ask for in a ski glove. The Uphill Skier sports a goat leather and waxed canvas shell with a removable merino wool liner that's great for chairlift lunches and sweaty skin laps. On colder days, the Jefflo Mitt ($130) keeps things cozy with a leather exterior, recycled polyester liner, and cinch-down cuff. For those of us who are always misplacing things, Vermont Glove recently launched their Single Glove and Repair Programs. Just order a single glove or send back your beat-up one for quick repair.