How Do You Deal With Dry Cracked Skin On Trail

[oleander]

Gloves. Gloves are the magic word. Full-fingered gloves protect you from sun exposure (which, I'm convinced, is much of the reason for the chapping). They also protect your hands from the poles, from falls, or from any hand-over-foot stuff you might do off trail.

I always bring a moisturizer too. But I found I didn't need to use it much, if I'm wearing gloves.

Did an 18-day trip this year as well. With the gloves, my hands acquired not a single crack.

- Oleander

It is hard to cast all day with full fingered gloves, but I understand your point.

I've also used short-fingered cycling gloves. Those worked too (although they don't dry fast, so maybe wouldn't work for fishing, any better than the full-fingered gloves).

[Jimr]

These work well for both.

[freestone]

I wear Glacier sun gloves and they work really well at protecting the hand from the elements but my issue is on the tips of my fingers, specifically the thumb, index and middle fingers. More like fissures, raw and painful but the rest of the hand is ok so I am thinking about something like this on my next trip:

[rlown]

For fishing, I buy a thin pair of Glacier gloves and cut the forefinger and middle finger off at the joint on the left glove only (left handed.) I have some old Berkley gloves (also neoprene) which I still use, but they're delaminating a bit after 20 years.

Lotion still goes in underneath the glove.