1:36 p.m. on January 17, 2005 (EST)
As noted, there is a post by me way down at the bottom of this page (something like July 2002) discussing gloves, mittens, and such. The guide service recommendations are generic for their full range of expedition dates - go in early May and you will need much more warmth than in late June. Most of them seem to recommend down pants, with some recommending down pants plus heavy fleece. Most recommend multiple layers of fleece plus expedition down parka. But I do know that the guides usually tell people at the gear check before boarding the air taxi to leave a lot of the overly warm stuff behind. So you are likely to get to Talkeetna and have the guide tell you to leave the down pants and expedition mitten liners behind.
I did use mittens, but with a mid-weight liner and a thin poly glove, rather than the heavy expedition liner, while building and rebuilding wind walls. I never used mittens while climbing, although I did carry the expedition liner for my OR mittens on two of my trips. I understand that some guide services recommend taking 2 pair of the expedition liner. I am not sure what the reason is, since you would never wear 2 liners plus shell at the same time - you couldn't close your hand around your ice ax if you did. Then again, I tend to have warmer hands (and feet) than most people, so I usually get along just fine with glove shells and mid-weight liners plus a thin poly liner (the thin liner is so I can take the gloves off to manipulate the camera without freezing to the metal).
Mittens are significantly warmer than gloves. But, as I said, I use the mid-wt liners. For things like Denali, I prefer removable liners, so I can dry them overnight (warm hands means often sweaty hands and damp liners by the end of the day). I have tried down-filled mittens, but find I can't manipulate things or even hold the ice tools or rope very well with them. Only use I ever found for them was when sitting around camp on BC ski treks in the Tetons at -40F. Even then, my plain shell plus mid-weight liner was plenty warm if the rest of me was warm.
I agree with Brian that a super-thin sili shell with a primaloft liner would be very light and warm, but I also agree that this is way too hi-tec for Denali. Plus, silicone-coated nylon shells are probably too fragile for use on the fixed ropes, and the primaloft liner (for me at least) are likely to be too bulky to use with your ice ax. So I would tend to say, go for the cheaper nylon shell with a mid-weight liner.
I think I would recommend a glove shell with mid-weight liner glove (plus spare to dry overnight) plus a mitten shell plus a mid-weight liner mitten (don't need a backup for this, since you will likely only need it during windwall building and repair), plus several pairs of thin poly liner gloves to wear under the mid-weight liner. By the way, the thin liner gloves have a couple of problems - if you manage to get white gas on them, they wick very well and will make for a spectacular hand-torch (saw this a couple times). Also, if you spill boiling water/hot coffee/hot tea/hot soup on them, they wick it all over your hand (saw this more than once, too - makes for nice scalds). Being synth, they also will melt if you subject them to flames or anything very hot - don't try to use them as hot pads.
Brian's suggestion of the handwarmers is very good. Take a set of them for each of several summit attempts. The iron-oxide ones are not as warm above the 14k camp on Denali, thanks to less oxygen, but if you stick one in each mitten or glove, they are more than adequate, and will make up for not having the expedition liner, while leaving the dexterity. Oh, yeah, I have found that the expedition glove liner cuts off the circulation to my fingers somewhat, even the XL. Another reason I use midweight liners. If your mitten or glove shell is large enough for the expedition liner, it will be sloppy-loose with a mid-weight shell.
If you want, I have an unused (except for trying it on) OR expedition mitten liner that I will send you for half the catalog price plus shipping. Wasn't even carried in my pack on any trip. I might even throw in the ones I carried up to the 17k camp - but they have been worn sitting around camp on BC ski tours.
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