Black Diamond Mercury Mitt - Women's Review

The Mercury Mitt is one of the warmest options we tested in this review. Updated with a removable liner, this insulated mitten will keep your fingers warm and dry all day long. We love how the lofty insulation is soft and effective and that the liner is removable for fast drying. We also appreciate the tall, wide gauntlet, which we cinched down around our forearms to lock out weather on blustery days. This mitten is well constructed, and the leather palm is reinforced in all of the high-use areas. This mitt will keep your fingers warm and dry all season long.

Performance Comparison

Warmth

With 133-170g Primaloft Gold insulation, it's not surprising that this mitt kept our fingers warm all day long. In our experience, products that utilize this specific insulation typically perform extremely well, providing an excellent warmth-to-weight ratio. The fluffy pile provides ample space to amplify the heat of our hands. Additionally, the default design of mittens means that all of your fingers are touching inside the mitten liner, which contributes heavily to this warmth. Black Diamond updated the liner of these gloves to omit the split-finger design and return to a full mitten liner. We found that even on the coldest, iciest days, our fingers didn't feel the slightest chill. Our main tester noted: “I wore these on several mornings where temps were 20 degrees below zero, and my fingers actually occasionally felt too warm! I was impressed with their performance, and on a really really cold day, these are your best bet for staying warm on the chairlift.”

Adding to the warmth of the Mercury Mitt is the breathability of the BD.Dry exterior. We noticed that during downhill ski testing and hiking, our hands stayed dry even though they were working up heat and sweat. As we often emphasize, staying dry is key to all-day warmth. If you do happen to sweat enough to create some moisture in the glove, “Removing the liner to dry for a bit can help these stay as warm as possible,” our tester noted.

Water Resistance

As previously mentioned, a key factor for long-term glove performance is its resistance to precipitation and other weather. The Mercury Mitt excels here. The BD.dry exterior shell is treated with an Empel DWR coating. This material beads water extremely well. The insulated liner is also water-resistant, although unsurprisingly, it is far more susceptible to moisture when used on its own. Throughout heavy use, the leather portions of this glove had to be retreated to boost performance again, as is the case with all leather gloves and mittens.

Upon inspection of the inner part of the shell, we noticed the fully taped seams of the cuff. This helps to keep water from seeping in on even the slushiest and most frozen days. The additional feature of an elastic drawcord on the cuff seals the mitten to your jacket. This feature is key on deep powder days or when performing heavy shoveling and snow removal. We also remarked that these shells have a wind-breaking quality. On ridgeline hikes and windy chairlift rides, we couldn't feel any drafts. These mittens felt nearly impervious to water and weather.

Dexterity

Like most mittens, the Mercury Mitt has one weak point: dexterity. The warm insulation and combined packaging of fingers come at a cost. The rounded and well-insulated fingertip portion of the mittens makes grasping objects considerably more challenging than when wearing gloves. It works well for simple tasks like grasping ski poles, but more complex ones like tying knots are all but impossible.

It was consistently challenging to zip jackets or buckle boots while wearing these mittens; we had a hard time even knowing what we were grabbing. We attribute this to the loft of the insulation. The trade-off in warmth might be worth it if your priority is warmth, and you don't necessarily need finely detailed performance from this mitten.

Construction Quality

We really like how this mitten's materials are reinforced in high-use areas. The palm is made from goat leather treated with a Durable Water Repellent (DWR) finish. The DWR finish helps to maintain the integrity of the leather, as soaking through leather consistently chips away at its strength.

The palm of the mitten is also constructed to increase durability. The leather is reinforced with an additional patch in high-use areas like the meeting of the thumb and palm. This helps the mitten withstand consistent ski pole or rope use. The leather also wraps around the thumb and back of the fingers to protect the seams of the mitten. This treatment and construction lead us to believe these mittens will be quite hardy throughout multiple seasons of use.

Features

The Mercury Mitt is fully equipped with features for any winter adventure. The long wrist gauntlets are comfortable and do a great job of keeping snow and ice away from the sensitive wrist area. We love the new addition of an adjustable cuff on this model, which allows you to truly cinch down and keep snow from collecting inside the gauntlet. These also feature a carabiner loop on the first finger that allows one to hang them opening side down on a harness or backpack.

The one thing about this mitten that we would change is to add an adjustable leash. Due to their poor dexterity, we had to remove these gloves often to use our phone or adjust a piece of gear, and it would be convenient to have them still attached to your body somehow. If you are someone who likes to carry hand warmers, these mittens also do not have a separate pocket for those. However, it's unlikely that you'll need any additional warmth to keep your hands toasty in these mittens. “The removable inner mitten was probably my favorite feature of these mittens,” noted our lead tester. Overall, we find them to be well-equipped.

Should You Buy the Black Diamond Mercury Mitts?

One of the warmest contenders in this review, the Mercury Mitt is our choice for best mittens overall. The warmth competes with the best in our lineup, and the construction has held up day in and day out during our testing. Add to this a great level of water and weather resistance, and you have a superb pair of mittens. If you don't necessarily need much dexterity and your top priority is finger warmth, then this is the pick for you.

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