Hestra Heli Mittens Overview | CleverHiker

Bottom Line

From renowned Swedish glove maker Hestra, the Heli Mitten (men’s / women’s) is a high-quality mitten perfect for snowsports or cold winter hikes. We loved using these mits on subzero days hiking and ice skating in Alaska’s backcountry. The removable fleece liner provides excellent warmth. A leather and polyamide outer provide reasonable weather resistance for most winter activities.

With well-thought-out features like a carabiner to attach the gloves and comfortable elastic leashes, the Heli is best suited for snowsports. The hand of the glove is roomy, allowing plenty of dead air to keep you warm. The internal liner is roomy enough for another glove liner or hand warmers if you require extra warmth.

The Heli Mitts are not fully waterproof and are not our glove of choice on wet days. In our submersion test, the elastic wrists leaked water after two minutes and water entered the fingertips at four minutes. While these don’t make sense for rainy weather, they provide more than enough weather resistance and warmth for cold winter days in the ice and snow.

To see how the Hestra Heli Mittens stack up against our other top-ranking options, see our guide to this year’s best winter gloves.

How We Tested

CleverHiker’s Alaska-based gear analyst, Miles Knotek, tested the Hestra Heli Mittens both in the field and the lab. To lab-test the weather resistance, we submerged the gloves in water for four minutes and noted how long it took for water to penetrate. All field tests took place on Alaskan trails, peaks, and forests for three months to test their real-world performance in harsh conditions.

Comfort & Dexterity

The Hestra Heli Mittens are extremely comfortable against the skin. The wool liner is soft and lacks any of the scratchiness of traditional wool. The leather of the palms and thumbs is immediately supple and requires no break-in period. 

It’s soft to the touch and lacks any awkward stiffness commonly found in other leather gloves. However, as with most mittens, they prioritize warmth over dexterity. Performing easier tasks like opening/closing doors and grabbing large zipper pulls were easy, but you will not be using your phone or working with your hands easily while wearing these. 

While other gloves have leashes, they are often a thin piece of material that can be uncomfortable around the list. The Heli Mittens use a broad band of elastic that is snug and secure around the wrist and is easy to forget that you are wearing it.

Warmth

These mittens are most at home in temperatures between zero and twenty degrees during moderate activities. The hand of the gloves is very roomy even with the internal liner in. While this is great for creating dead air space, we did encounter some cold fingertips when temperatures dropped below zero. Adding another thin glove liner beneath helped to fix the problem.

While too warm for most aerobic activities, the Heli Mitten is perfect for downhill skiing or for a warm mitt to throw on during a break on your next winter hike. We quickly became too warm wearing these while hiking in temperatures above twenty degrees and found that they worked best in the single digits and teens. 

The large gauntlet helps keep the cold out and is tightened with a cinch at the wrists and opening. The Heli Mitten is a great choice for most winter temperatures, but may not be enough for stationary activities below zero.

Moisture Control

While hiking at a pace high enough to sweat, we frequently felt clammy and damp in the Hestra Heli Mittens. While the wool liner does a reasonable job of wicking moisture away, moisture did not escape the shell as easily as others during testing.

After hiking up a local peak wearing these mittens,  we removed the liner and felt the inside of the shell to find them damp with sweat. For that reason, these mittens are not our top choice for aerobic activities or those where you anticipate sweating heavily.

Weather Resistance

If you’re looking for a jacket that can handle the ice and snow of winter, then the Hestra Heli Mit is a great choice. It repelled all ice and snow effectively without any penetration. However, this mitten met its match in soggy conditions. 

While skiing in wet snow in above-freezing temperatures, these mittens dampened in the palms and fingertips. During our immersion test, the first place to wet through after two minutes was around the wrist. There is an elastic stitching around the wrist that was an obvious weak point for moisture to enter. After three and a half minutes, water started to enter around the fingertips.

Upon further examination, water seeped through the seam at the end of the mitten. This didn’t surprise us because Hestra designed these for dry and cold conditions of deep winter, not for rain.

Durability

During our testing, we took the Heli Mitts skiing and hiking and even used them for a little cold weather yard work. We were impressed with their durability and the gloves. Testing revealed no signs of wear in the leather palms, polyamide shell, or stitching. However, the leather used in these mittens feels thinner than others tested. While this has no obvious effects on the mitten’s durability, we do wonder how they will hold up over many seasons compared to others built with thicker leather. 

The biggest thing we noticed during testing was discoloration of the leather in high-contact areas of the hands. After gripping trekking poles and handling firewood, the white leather shows dirty areas of brown and black through high contact places.

Should You Buy the Hestra Heli Mittens?

If you’re someone who gets cold hands easily and is a big fan of the warmth provided by mittens, then the Hestra Heli is an excellent option. 

The removable, synthetic insulation liner provides excellent warmth and a large amount of dead air space to keep your hands toasty warm. The leather construction is tough and durable and requires no break-in period. If you’re looking for a mitten to use in extremely wet conditions, these are probably not the best choice. 

However, the Heli Mitt excels as a pure winter glove, most at home in the snow and cold temperatures. We recommend these for cold winter hiking, backcountry skiing, or snowshoeing.

What Other Winter Gloves Should You Consider?

Check out our full guide to winter gloves.

Hestra Fall Line Review: If you love Hestra’s leather construction, the Fall Line provides the dexterity of gloves with a durable leather outer.

Black Diamond Guide Review: The warmest glove in our lineup, the Guide provides extreme warmth for the coldest days.

Dakine Titan Review: If you prefer full synthetic construction, the Titan is fully waterproof and has a similar weight to the Heli Mittens.