Black Diamond Helio Touring Glove Review

Ski touring is all about versatility. From the ground up, you’re asking your gear to do more than one thing well. We want to go up, and we want to go down. Bindings, boots, skis, and the whole package of outerwear systems need to work well together to balance aerobic activity with frosty cold turns. Enter the Black Diamond Helio Tour glove, a multi-functional product that wants to solve your problems. This glove is packed with premium materials like Primaloft and goat leather palms for a stellar winter performer.

Black Diamond Helio Touring Glove Features:

• Versatile 3-in-1 design provides multiple options based on conditions
• Primaloft insulation for added warmth
• UL weatherproof and insulated overmitt
• Removable brushed softshell liner
• Touchscreen-compatible with goat leather palm
• Suede nose wipe
• MSRP: $169.95

The Swiss Army knife of touring gloves

Any PNW resident who has survived the ‘winter’ of 2025-26 knows that, oftentimes, the side and backcountry has offered more turns than the resort this year. It has just been so warm and wet. Accordingly, I’ve had more backcountry days than in-bound days this year and they’ve all taken place in the Helio Touring gloves. The Helio has a 3-in-1 design featuring a soft liner and a GORE-TEX hybrid glove/mitt.

The outer glove/mitt hybrid is really nicely built. The over mitt stows in the wrist and deploys to snuggly protect your gloved fingers. Black Diamond chose Primaloft to insulate the back of the mitt, which is excellent. Primaloft is one of the original and highest-performing synthetic insulations, thanks no doubt in part to its military design heritage. It’s light and highly compressible, and like all synthetics it resists moisture. I think it’s a sign of added value when brands like Black Diamond opt to incorporate name brand components into their outerwear rather than using an in-house equivalent. With the in-house or proprietary offerings, it’s just harder to tell how well it will perform. With Primaloft, I don’t need to guess.

The liner is really nicely built and could sell as a stand-alone product in terms of quality. It’s a brushed softshell that’s soft and wind and weather resistant. The palm has silicone dots for grip and there’s a nice fat purple pull tab to help get it out of the outer glove. On their own, the liners are nice and dexterous and are touch screen compatible.

Aside from the weatherproof and insulated overmitt, the rest of the glove is a nice softshell with a snot patch and it does a great job of shedding water and keeping wind from chilling your fingers. The benefit of the softshell is how well it breathes on the skin track, too. I usually have to wear liner gloves when climbing, but with colder temps and these high-performing gloves, I could keep my fingers cozy in the gloves. I really like the goat leather palm on the glove and the touchscreen compatibility is shockingly good. That tech has come so far recently!

So that’s all of the individual parts, but how well do they work together as a system? I am actually so impressed by the design and cut of the Helium gloves. They are so versatile and function well as individual components as a system. The piece that stands out the most to me is how easy it is to slip the mitt off and on your gloved fingers. I like the fact that the mitt flips down, and I rarely bothered to stuff it in the wrist pocket because gravity kept it out of my way. I frequently toured upwards with the mitts off but gloves on, and it kept my fingers so toasty and warm.

I had a nice mix of conditions to test these in. Over my testing days, temps ranged from the high teens to low 30’s Fahrenheit. I didn’t get rained on (thankfully) but there was plenty of snow and some high humidity days that left ice crusting on my shell. The Heliums were able to keep me cool enough to keep the gloves on while the softshell fabric vented heat while blocking wind. For colder weather, transitions or descents I could pop the mitt over my fingers.

I think opting for a larger size if you’re in between will help keep this smooth. I like that there’s a tall gauntlet, but it’s not insulated so it doesn’t contribute to overheating on the climb. This glove thrives across many conditions. A tested a size Large, and they were true to size.

Buy now: Available from Black Diamond