Metolius Belay Gloves

Great for all-around rock climbing.

MSRP: $39.95

 

Burly. But plush.

The Metolius Belay Glove is all-leather, a nice smooth cowhide. It is thicker and costlier than a leather-palm, nylon-back sport/gym glove (the one from Metolius is $22.95), but the leather will be warmer as temps turn cooler.

The palm, which does all the business of letting out, yarding in and forever lowering, is reinforced with a broad suede swath. The gloves have carabiner holes at the base, always nice for being able to hang them off your harness, and fat Velcro wrist closures for adjustability.

We tried a men’s medium, and some found them snug. The gloves stretched to the right size for this wearer, but if in doubt, size up.

 

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Rock and Ice vigorously tests all gear it reviews for either 50 days or 50 pitches. This is a time-consuming process and limits the amount of new equipment we can present to our readers. Every year hundreds of new products hit store shelves, and most of these aren’t reviewed due to our stringent selection and review process. To better keep you more up to date on what is new, we present First Look. Gear in First Look has not always been field tested, but is gear we think you’d like to know about as soon as it is available. Some of the gear will be reviewed using our 50 days/50 pitches criteria, in future print and online editions of Rock and Ice. We have opted to use affiliate links in our gear reviews. Every time you buy something after clicking on links in our gear articles you’re helping support our magazine.