Gloves on a budget

With regular ski gloves built for lift skiing, my hands get way too hot on the skin track and then I fumble around with them ripping skins, accessing pack, etc. I wanted a really light pair of gloves that were not too hot, but also wearable for the down.

About 2 or 3 months ago I picked up a pair of OR fleece gloves from the sale bin at a ski shop. Great gloves with some tacky rubber on the palm & fingers. Anyway, I have a bunch of bright orange rip-stop nylon left over from when I sewed my kite last year. (What man doesn't like to get down and dirty with a sewing proj every now and again?)I made mittens out of the ripstop and sewed a fleece "pocket" onto the outside cuff of the glove. The mittens pack into the fleece pocket, then when the wind picks up, pull out the rip-stop mittens. Works pretty well. The construction is rough and the stitching on the thumb is on the outside, but who cares, right? I used them today and with wind gusting 20 mph at 9,200 feet and 15 degrees, they worked well enough to keep my fingers from freezing during the transition. These may be my go to glove now!