Gloves or Mittens?

I am trying to decide what handwear to bring on my Utah backpacking trip. I know mittens in general are warmer, but does that still apply if you have full finger liner gloves and then a mitten shell? It seems like not having contact between the fingers would negate half the benefits of mittens.

I've never really liked mitts because of the loss of dexterity, although I'm not sure I'll be warm enough in gloves with liners. Maybe 2 liners would work, but seems bulky.

What about ski gloves with some sort of overmitt?

Temps will be 10F to 30 daytime, down to negative 10 at night. Very dry environment, although there will be some dry snow.

Any suggestions on which gloves/mitts I should find?

For me, my fingers would still be a little cold if I wore gloves in mittens.

When I do when I want dexterity is to wear convertible mittens. If I want extra warmth, I'll wear a shell over that. A vapor barrier will help that still warm over a longer period.

I'd love to try lobster gloves in a mitten shell. I have the opposite of that for my motorcycle which works okay, but I'd rather than the gloves were lobsters as well.

cold thumbs suck. In real cold, unless you need the thumb, you will most likely pull it into the mitts with your fingers, easier to do with mitts than gloves. The liners will insulate your fingers from each other, but the thinner they are the less of this effect there will be. When using the thumb it will be isolated from the other fingers and will get cold but the insulation of the glove thumb and the mitt thumb will add to each other - moral, wear warm mitts, thin liners, or get a liner with an extra thick thumb. I had really fine expensive BD ice climbing gloves and not only were they really uncomfortable due to their thickness, but my fingers froze in them - sold em on ebay.
My favorite mitts are made by Kombi, relativiely inexpensive and goretex shelled
Jim

I personally layer up a bit. Typically using ragg wool gloves, a ragg wool mitten, and a nylon or goretex overmitt to keep most of the snow off.

*most* often I just end up wearing the gloves under the overmitt, an then layer on the mitten if it gets really cold.

I almost always use gloves under mittens. With rag wool gloves and a poly liners, I like the mittens a little loose. For any other combination, my hands are warmest if the mitten is snug but not tight around the glove. Mittens by themselves tend to be cold for me. I don't know if mittens alone have too much air space, it is just subjective feel, or there is something else in play but I'll stick to gloves inside mittens because it works.

Sounds like a layering system of mittens and gloves is
the way to go. Thanks guys! I'll let ya know what I pick up.

I wear liner gloves-OR PS150s, plus mitts or gloves over them. I also have a shell mitt. My mitts are made by Heat Factory and have a separate thumb. You can put chemical heat packs in a small zippered pocket on the back of them.

Ski gloves may not be waterproof. My REI ski gloves aren't. So, I would bring a waterproof mitt shell of some kind, just in case.

I only use gloves for winter camping that have removable pile liners. I have 3 different thicknesses of pile glove liners and would take the medium and thick ones plus GTX mitten shells.

Personally I consider mittens (or at least mitten shells) to be a safety item on any winter camping trip.