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today i had a close encounter in the backcountry. id rather not get into the details, but i managed to lose a glove on my way up on a climb at which point i abruptly turned around. it was pretty windy and cold and before i knew it my hand was numb. my hand was exposed for a good 20 minutes trying to climb down before my buddy let me borrow his glove and warm my hand up. didnt have any visible damage on my hand ie blisters/sores but it was very numb. at one point i had two fingers in one finger hole in my buddies glove and couldnt really even tell. i ended up warming my hand up to full sensation in my armpit and made a makeshift glove.

this is about 10 hours later now and my hand feels pretty good, maybe a little sore but not sure if that is related to the cold injury or just general exhaustion.

anyways, i wanted to post this because i have zero experience with this type of injury. any advice/thoughts/recommendations would be much appreciated.

take two pair (or more) of gloves when you head out into cold, wet, weather, like snow. Can't really give you any other advice (but I'm sure it's coming) but if you're fingers aren't turning black . . . you're probably good to go.

yes i know the mistake i made... my concern is more with medical implications, but thank you for your reply.

Yes, always carry extra gloves and have a back up plan. Also, if you can re-warm the extremity soon your good to go. In case of a long evacuation and / or the site / extremity is completely numb and "waxy" looking that probably means its completely frozen and re-warming is not advised until medical attention can be utilized. They theory behind this is the tissue damage will be greater if the site is re-frozen not to mention it will hurt like a mo-fo.