Adjustable poles opinions

Okay- see if I can start a mud fight-
Which adjustable poles do folks find work the best? Are the sturdiest. Best
bang for your buck. Is titanal worth the extra cost? Flintlock or twist?
Which is more durable- 3 section or 2 section?

Just had a pair of Leki Vario Vision Carbons, which I loved, which snapped
due to me being impatient on the last .5 miles of the trail on the way out,
and trying a stupid move with my Outtabounds on. (skis pointing one way, I
needed to go the other, too much faith in the fishscales, skis slide out, I
fall forward, pole snaps in two, at the upper alum section- rats!)

Now I'm looking for a new pair or two of poles.

Flip
ADK's

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In article ,
Flip wrote:
Okay- see if I can start a mud fight-
Which adjustable poles do folks find work the best? Are the sturdiest. Best
bang for your buck. Is titanal worth the extra cost? Flintlock or twist?
Which is more durable- 3 section or 2 section?

Just had a pair of Leki Vario Vision Carbons, which I loved, which snapped
due to me being impatient on the last .5 miles of the trail on the way out,
and trying a stupid move with my Outtabounds on. (skis pointing one way, I
needed to go the other, too much faith in the fishscales, skis slide out, I
fall forward, pole snaps in two, at the upper alum section- rats!)

Now I'm looking for a new pair or two of poles.



_ I've had very good luck with Life-Link Composite poles.
The complaints about them[1] are true, they will freeze up
if conditions are right and the twist locks do loosen up
over time. However, for the number of days I ski and the
conditions I use them in they work fine for me. Newer versions
are supposed to be even better. Mine are the 99 model reviewed
below.

_ I would not get a twist lock that did not have ovalized
construction. Lot's of people really like BD's Flicklock
poles, but I'm leary of breaking the flicklock. For better
or worse you can't break a twistlock since you can't put that
much force on it. My experience with other bits of gear leads
me to believe that if there's a plastic lever, I'll force it
and snap it at the most inconvient time.

_ Booker C. Bense



[1]- http://www.telemarktips.com/Poles.html


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In article ,
"Flip" wrote:


Just had a pair of Leki Vario Vision Carbons, which I loved, which snapped
due to me being impatient on the last .5 miles of the trail on the way out,
and trying a stupid move with my Outtabounds on. (skis pointing one way, I
needed to go the other, too much faith in the fishscales, skis slide out, I
fall forward, pole snaps in two, at the upper alum section- rats!)

Now I'm looking for a new pair or two of poles.

The good thing with Leki is one can get the spars. So try to find the
nearest dealer and you can try to buy the broken element only.
Regards
TA

No twist, no fliplock means no icing and no slipping. I use Indigos with
sealed push buttons.

Tommy T.

In buying poles I currently have three criteria in addition to weight
and durability: flicklock, length (at least 145 cm) and possibility of
getting leather baskets.

My old Lekis (~10 years?) were always prone to get unadustable in bad
weather -- hard to loosen, and hard to tighten once I'd loosened and
adjusted them. They also started to be impossible to tighten at longer
lengths. I'm on my second pair Gipron now (broke one last spring when
a tree suddenly stood in my way...), never had any problems with the
flicklock, but then I'm not one of those who always break gear. I like
the open flicklock mechanism, I'm wary of hidden mechanisms like the
twistlock, but that might just be the technology geek in me. :-)


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp

Flip wrote:
Okay- see if I can start a mud fight-
Which adjustable poles do folks find work the best? Are the sturdiest. Best
bang for your buck. Is titanal worth the extra cost? Flintlock or twist?
Which is more durable- 3 section or 2 section?

2 Section should be better than 3, simply as there are fewer joins. The
primary advantage of 3 part is they stow more easily, which is handy for
walkers but if you've got a pair of skis with you it's a moot point!

I like flicklocks because they can be got at from the outside of the
pole, which just means they're a bit more likely to be able to be fixed
or fiddled if something goes amiss.

However, the strongest poles are single section, though of course that
means less flexibility in setting the lengths for different situations.
If I'm on a serious tour, especially multi day where a bodge repair
won't really cut it, I use Swix Mountain single part poles with wide
leather baskets and sharp ice spikes. I used them for the first time
last year and was most impressed, didn't really miss the adjustment as
much as I thought I would. For the pistes and less dramatic tours I use
Flicklocks.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Flip schrieb:

Okay- see if I can start a mud fight-
Which adjustable poles do folks find work the best? Are the sturdiest. Best
bang for your buck. Is titanal worth the extra cost? Flintlock or twist?
Which is more durable- 3 section or 2 section?

Just had a pair of Leki Vario Vision Carbons, which I loved, which snapped
due to me being impatient on the last .5 miles of the trail on the way out,
and trying a stupid move with my Outtabounds on. (skis pointing one way, I
needed to go the other, too much faith in the fishscales, skis slide out, I
fall forward, pole snaps in two, at the upper alum section- rats!)

Now I'm looking for a new pair or two of poles.

Komperdell Powerlock Probe
http://www.komperdell.com/touring/st...49_2313_10.htm

Because of the fantastic grip and the relative leightweight. In older
models the lock mechanism was a bit sensible. This seems to resist ...

Greetings,

Uli

Uli Hausmann wrote:

Komperdell Powerlock Probe

Digressing slightly, but whatever the merits of them as poles, I am
somewhat wary of using poles as a substitute for a proper, purpose
designed probe. "can be converted into an avalanche probe with a
maximum length of 250m [sic] in a few steps only." Well, time is of the
essence in avalanche searches, and that's a few steps more than you need
to take with a real probe which will almost certainly be better for the
job in hand. A carbon probe weighs very little and takes up effectively
no space slid down the side of your pack. It strikes me as just a
better solution for a job which could be a matter of life and death.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch schrieb:

Uli Hausmann wrote:

Komperdell Powerlock Probe


Digressing slightly, but whatever the merits of them as poles, I am
somewhat wary of using poles as a substitute for a proper, purpose
designed probe. "can be converted into an avalanche probe with a
maximum length of 250m [sic] in a few steps only." Well, time is of the
essence in avalanche searches, and that's a few steps more than you need
to take with a real probe which will almost certainly be better for the
job in hand. A carbon probe weighs very little and takes up effectively
no space slid down the side of your pack. It strikes me as just a
better solution for a job which could be a matter of life and death.

I don't use it as a probe. Well, save exercising i never had to use a
probe. But i always have a 350cm Ortovox with me. That idea to use the
pole as a probe it's nothing than commercialising - IMHO. Even if you're
fast, it'll take about 4-5 minutes to make a probe of the pole.

But the mentioned pole as a pole is fantastic. Especially for
telemarking where you use shorter poles in downhill and you have to
change the length for skinning.

Greetings,

Ulrich

Allo,
My first telescopic poles were cheap Lindour (3 section) (?). Too
delicate - I broke them soon. Later on I did use Hagan UltraLight (2
sections, PowerLock). Too delicate, too. But I like its extended foam
grip.
Now I use Leki Super Extreme Probe (again 3 sections, 150cm long,
avalanche probe, photo grip). To me they are almost perfect. Very
robust. Except they are slightly too heavy and as I said before I miss
that foam extended grip (as in Hagans)...

TA