Meet the Montane Supercell: The £75 winter gloves that punch well above their weight

The Montane Supercell glove is an excellent all-rounder, but it's not perfect. The question is, does it do enough right to earn a place in our list of the best winter gloves? Let's find out...

Summary

Let's start with the positives. The Supercell gloves are warm, weatherproof, comfortable, grippy, dexterous and fully-featured.

And, better still, they come in at a bargain price of just £75 ($85), which is very competitive and difficult to beat.

You get a long gauntlet for full coverage, goat leather palms for enhanced grip and durability, pre-curved and rollover fingers for dexterous finger-nimbleness, and a high pile fleece lining for warmth.

Useful features include stretchy wrist leashes and single-hand adjustment of the gauntlet opening.

There are a few flaws, however. You don’t get nose wipes, there's no way to adjust the fit at the wrist (you can only do so at the gauntlet base) and there’s no clip for attaching the gloves together.

More importantly, there’s zero PrimaLoft in these gloves. Instead, all of the warmth comes from the pile fleece lining, meaning they aren’t quite as warm or plush as some others.

And, finally, the all-round build quality is more mid-range than top-tier – of particular concern is the risk of the liner and outer separating – and thus the Supercell can’t quite compete with more expensive pairs in the £100+ ($100+) price bracket.

But, having said all of this, you really can’t complain at this price point, and I've probably been overly pernickety above.

The Montane Supercell is the best bargain our recent group test, and for just £75 you get a whole heap of functionality and performance.

For most hillwalkers it’s an excellent choice, and almost impossible to beat in terms of value for money.

Design, materials and construction

The Montane Supercell is made from a number of different materials. The outer shell is constructed from a 500-denier nylon and Montane’s Granite Stretch softshell material.

The main body of the glove features supple goat leather across the palm, the underside of all fingers and to the side of each thumb, and an extra overlay is included over the high-wear area where your hand grips (at the centre of the palm and the join of the thumb and forefinger).

Internally the glove features a pile fleece lining and a Freeflow Mantle inner waterproof lining.

The outer of the glove is mostly 100% nylon, with the back of the hand and fingers featuring stretchier panels of 90.5% nylon blended with 9.5% elastane.

The palm and fingers feature 100% goat leather, and the DryActiv 2000 liner inner features both 100% polyurethane and 100% polyester.

The only complaint we have with the design is that, when removing the gloves, it feels worryingly like the inner and the outer might separate. You can almost feel the inner sliding away from the outer.

By taking care and being gentle, you can easily avoid any issues, but over time we wonder whether this might prove a durability concern.

Waterproofing and breathability

Montane describes the Supercell gloves as “fully waterproof”, explaining that “this glove is designed to lock out the elements, keeping hands comfortable and protected on the inside”.

There's no Gore-Tex here, however, which in part helps to keep the price so competitive. Instead waterproofing is via a Freeflow Mantle inner waterproof lining.

This seemed to do the job during a few test hikes in drizzly conditions, but more time is needed to truly judge their performance levels in extremely inclement weather.

Breathability, however, appears to be pretty impressive. The Supercells don’t feel excessively thick or hot in use, and the pile fleece lining is a DryActiv 2000 fabric designed specifically to be quick-drying and good at wicking away sweat.

Warmth and insulation

While there's no PrimaLoft insulation in the Montane Supercell, it's far from a cold glove.

You get tons of the high-loft fleece pile lining, which feels lovely against the skin, and while it’s not as toasty as some winter gloves, for most weather conditions hovering around freezing point, or a few degrees above or below, the Supercell is more than warm enough.

It’s perhaps an iota less warm than some others, but this isn’t particularly noticeable.

Fit, grip and dexterity

The Montane Supercell is a glove, not a mitt, with a 'normal' five-fingered shape and design.

The fit is relatively standard, but arguably marginally on the narrow side, with slightly longer-than-average digits and a slightly slender hand profile.

As such, it might not be best suited to anyone with particularly wide or large hands. But, ultimately, this fit profile is only really noticeable if you’re really studying multiple pairs of gloves side-by-side in microscopic detail (like I am!).

Honestly, any differences between other regular fit gloves are probably minimal. Indeed, I have typically average-sized hands and the Supercell gloves worked fine for me.

On your hands, the gloves feel warm and fully-featured, with reasonable thickness, but simultaneously they don’t give you a sensation of excessive bulk. Instead, they feel quite streamlined on your hands, with good movement and suppleness.

Adjustment closure and opening of the base of the glove gauntlet (located further down the forearm) is excellent, via a drawcord that can easily be operated with a single hand. This works very well and is easy enough to do, even when wearing the gloves.

However, while the glove is elasticated and stretchy around the wrist (at the top of the gauntlet), there is no mechanism for adjusting the fit at the wrist.

Some other pairs feature straps or toggles for this purpose, but this option is omitted with the Supercell.

For some this may prove a problem, resulting in a less-than-ideal fit. But I'd suggest that for most users the elastication will suffice. I certainly found the existing cut fine for my wrist and hand shape.

In terms of dexterity and grip, I’d suggest the Montane Supercell performs pretty solidly – nothing exceptional, but no complaints, either.

The pre-curved fingers and rollover tips mimic the natural shape of the hand nicely, making the Supercells feel more nimble-fingered, while the goat leather inserts across the palm add good levels of grip.

However, this leather has a smoother finish, compared to the textured, almost grid-like finish of the Pittards leather on the Rab Guide 2 GTX. The latter definitely enhances grip, with a tackier, more secure feel.

Weight and sizes

The Montane Supercell weighs 96g per glove (men’s medium) on my scales. This is at the lighter end of the spectrum for a fully-featured winter glove.

This makes the Supercell 25g lighter per glove than the Rab Guide 2 GTX and 12g lighter per glove than the Extremities Torres Peak, for example.

But it's heavier than some more streamlined, lower-profile gloves such as the Sealskinz Swaffham, which is 10g lighter per glove.

Overall this relatively lightweight build strikes a pretty excellent happy medium – neither so heavy and thick that they feel like overkill, nor too light that they’re cold and flimsy. Instead they strike a nice balance between warmth, features and weight.

Unlike some pairs, which are only available in unisex options, the Montane Supercell is available in specific men’s and women’s versions. The men’s is available in size options from S to XL, while the women’s version is available in XS to L.

Montane’s useful size guide describes the men’s small glove, for example, as suitable for a hand circumference (excluding thumb) of 18.5-20cm and a hand length of 18.5cm. Similar measurements are quoted for all sizes.

Features

Each of the middle fingers on the gloves features a small loop of fabric – a 'hanging loop' – enabling you to hang the gloves on a hook when not using them. This places the wrist opening downwards, and thus enables you to dry out and air the gloves conveniently after a wet outing in the mountains.

Each glove also has a long wrist leash, with a super-stretchy band to go around your wrist.

Wrist leashes are a very useful feature, enabling you to totally remove your gloves on occasion, without risking dropping them and losing them somewhere on the side of the mountain. Instead the gloves remain connected to your body at all times and thus can’t be misplaced.

You also get a small, looped tab of fabric at the internal base of each gauntlet. These loops – which feature the Montane brand name and logo – are pull-on tabs, enabling you to get the gloves on easier.

A few features are notable in their absence. You don’t get nose wipes on the thumbs and there's no toggle or clip for attaching the two gloves together, as you see on some other pairs. Furthermore, while the wrist cuff is elasticated, there's no strap or drawcord for adjusting its fit.

Verdict

The Montane Supercell is a solid all-rounder of a glove (warm, weatherproof, comfy, grippy and dexterous) at a bargain price point – but a few features are missing.

About the author

James Forrest is a prolific peak bagger and long-distance walker who’s one of the most high-profile outdoor writers in the UK. He writes regular features and route guides for Trail and has been one of our main gear testers for the last few years.

James is based on the edge of the Lake District so when he isn’t off on his latest crazy adventure or challenge, he’s walking in his local fells. James reviews every type of outdoor kit for Trail and is a real authority on everything you need for wild camping and packing light for a multi-day walk.

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