I'm off to North Russia next week on an assignment for the excellent Wanderlust magazine. In my opinion the best independent travel magazine around here in the UK. I can still remember the exquisite, breath sucking pain I experienced when trying to take shots in minus 15 degree cold in Novgorod writing for the Guardian a few years back. For the first five minutes I was fine, then quite suddenly I realised my hands were so numb I couldn't even hold the camera, let alone focus it or take a shot. I ended up running back to the hotel (thankfully  only 5 minutes away) cradling camera and tripod in my arms - my hands useless blocks of cold. The pain I endured in my hands over the next 20 minutes was just excruciating... and a couple of weeks later all the skin peeled off my fingertips. Never again.

So... the quest for a glove that allows you to still use your camera begins... There's an interesting solution on the Hot Black blog combining fingerless outer gloves with very thin inner ones.. Wonder if it works? Liz Masoner at about.com has similar suggestions...