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Dachstein’s are thick, dense wool mittens offering cold protection like no others. Their dense weave and felt-like finish offer water resistance and nearly windproof warmth and comfort. I’ve used durable Dachstein’s for many years. These are among the best work-a-day mittens available anywhere.

Warming qualities of Dachstein’s…

“Warm when wet” is an informal tag line used for nearly all woolens, but not all woolens add up to the sum of rugged functional characteristics found among traditional woolens originating in cottage industries serving local needs of outdoorsmen like herders, hunters, and wood choppers. Hand knit Dachstein’s were developed in the foothills and valleys of the Dachstein massif in Austria’s northern limestone Alps where functional clothing has long been necessary for traditional agrarian and forestry occupations and for winter and mountain travel.

Dachstein’s are truly warm when wet due to very high fiber density and other unique properties of these traditional fulled woolens. Dachstein’s are knitted oversized using large needles, then boiled and rubbed to shrink and felt the wool (fulling). Knitting and fulling processes are probably automated, these days. Nevertheless, these mitts deliver hand-made qualities. The over-sized thumb of the new mittens is the only significant drawback in comparision with the older mitts.

Fulled wool mittens are  impressively functional. Long, resilient crimped wool fibers stand off from each other forming multitudes of tiny air spaces, insulating loft. The wool knit breathes and wicks away moisture from perspiration. The wool fibers absorb up to thirty-five percent of their weight in moisture from water vapor into the natural hollows formed in the cores of fibers. These superior moisture management qualities reduce evaporation heat loss near the skin: hard working hands feel warm and nearly dry even when mittens are wet.

Wearing Dachstein’s, my hands have felt warm in extreme cold even as hinged icy crusts formed on the outsides of my hard working mitts. Moisture moves outward through the knit then freezes as it contacts cold temperatures at the outside surface of the gloves. This helps Dachstein’s stick to cold surfaces when you most need them to. This unique property enhances grasp on snowy and icy surfaces. Even so, Dachstein’s are water resistant. Enough external moisture is shed to prevent spongy water retention even when climbing a dripping ice column or dipping floppy water buckets into holes drilled through ice of frozen lakes. Just take off dripping wet mittens and spin them through the air a few times to throw off excess water. Put them back on and feel the warmth return.

Dachstein mitts became an alpine mountaineering standard during the ascendency of modern alpine technical climbing in the 1970’s and 80’s. Today, new technologies offering light weight high performance hand protection systems have nearly replaced traditional Dachstein’s in alpine regions. You rarely see them unless you thumb through old climbing magazines and catalogs or dusty photo albums and fading slide transparency collections. Look closely at old images and you may see them warming hands of both world class and want-to-be mountaineers, myself included.

A 1975 adventure film, The Eiger Sanction, staring Clint Eastwood attempting the fabled North Face of the Eiger amidst calamitous weather and murderous intrigue featured Dachstein’s in the climbing scenes. This is not a critically acclaimed motion picture but it’s more than worth your your dime and time. The cinematography captures breathtaking climbing scenes. Few motion pictures present the grandeur and the scale of challenge confronted by alpinists. This one offers glimpses of serious alpine efforts that remain difficult to film even today.