Hand warmers

We are off on Aurora chasing the Borthern Lights in March, and have been looking at chemical hand warmers that apparently give 10 hours of warmth before you ditch them. My question is, is it feasible to use them whilst wearing gloves? My gut feeling is that they would be impractical. Anybody any experience of using them with gloves?

We used them (hand and foot) in Norway, Finland Sweden, and Iceland last March while “chasing” the Northern Lights. I put them in my pockets and would put my hands in my pockets to warm them up. I also put them in my boots. They only lasted about four hours and then weakened. We purchased them at Dick’s Sporting Goods. They are very heavy in your suitcase.

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I found some foot ones that you stick to you sock which were really great for feet. You can get gloves with pockets on the back of your hand which you can put hotties in.

I would recommend glove liners as well

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You can get heat packs like that from the pound shop.

We got some once when we went to Lapland for a holiday. It was so cold that they froze and were a waste of time. I suppose they would be ok if it was warmer !

Hi D,

There are electrically heated gloves.

Try Seirus and Columbia.

Ira

We recently used “ hot hands” hand warmers prchased from Amazon, whilst in Germany at Christmas...they took a little while to warm up but were certainly still pretty wsrm 8 hours later.

Take it from an old goose hunter/ice fisherman. Save your money and buy good gloves.

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Okay, I went to Antarctica in 2008 on a small research vessel used for small passenger numbers. The temp in Norway in March could be far far colder than I had. (I’ve read -18 is not unusual). I used handwarmers that are snapped to activate. I also had warm snow boots for use in zodiacs (plus thermals, layers, etc) and I was often the only one who was never cold.

They do fit into mitt type gloves, but not finger gloves. But I found them more useful in pockets to warm hands when needed. Often too hot when used direct to skin...

I also used them occasionally in my snow boots

You can also buy handwarmers which are reactivated by boiling. Take care and the cabin kettle will do this job ;) these will also last long enough for a tour.

I buy these from Tesco at £1 a pack and put them in my gloves and shoes whilst watching football outside. They do work anything from warm to very hot and yes they work for several hours. Are better in mittens than gloves with fingers. Well worth it in my opinion.

We bought Hot Hands from Poundland too for our Northern Lights cruise last February but we never got round to using them and gave them to the Security staff who had to stand at the bottom of the gangway in sub zero temperatures. I think they were easy enough to use.

When I used to ride my motorbike from Bristol to Wales, the hands got very cold in winter until I disoverd a great trick to keeping them warm. As well as a decent pair of gloves, wear layers and stick a hot water bottle down your front under the layers. If you keep your body core warm, it sends out warm blood to your hands.