Category: Ski Poles

Ski poles

Review: BCA’s Scepter ski pole

  Adjustable length backcountry ski poles have become a commodity. Now that everyone has figured out how to make their own Flick-Lock style adjustment mechanism getting a decent adjustable ski pole is as simple as figuring out what your budget is and buying the most conveniently available model. There are certainly differences among the many …

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Review: G3’s Via ski poles

When it comes to ski poles any pole will do, especially if you’ve just broken or lost yours. However, if you’re earning your turns, it is worth it to get yourself a pair with dedicated backcountry features. The most obvious would seem to be a pole with length adjustability, but that is only one of …

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Review: Leki’s trick Tourstick-Vario ski pole

  Leki’s Tourstick has 20cm of Speedlock adjustability, then folds down to < 40cm.[/caption]Leki has a new pole, the micro adjustable, foldable, TourStick Vario, that anyone with traveling on their mind should be taking a closer look at. It combines a lot of nice features into a single ski pole, including Leki's ultra comfortable Aergon® …

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1st Look: Ski Baskets with a lift

  One of the new directions in ski pole development has been a recognition of how limited the function of most baskets are. Yes, they provide a resistance to pole planting in soft snow but when it comes to using that disk for anything that requires a bit of backbone for support they’re next to …

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Review: Swix Sonic ski pole

Swix is joining the adjustable ski pole crowd with a new spin on the twist lock mechanism. Instead of twisting an internal bushing to expand and press against the inner walls of the upper shaft, they use a large diameter nut on the upper shaft to compress a plastic sleeve around the lower shaft. Does …

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Review: BD FlickLock® Pro ski poles

  When it comes to chosing an adjustable ski pole for backcountry skiing, one can hardly go wrong with the Black Diamond’s FlickLock® series, the most popular adjustable pole seen on skin tracks throughout America. In recent years a number of competitors have come up with some worthy alternatives, but the flicklock concept is a …

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Review: Leki’s SpeedLock Pole Series

For those who still equate Leki with twist-lock, and twist-lock with collapsing pole syndrome, Leki’s SpeedLock series renders that perspective to the dust bin of history.