Cannonball
New member
So some of you may remember this thread from exactly one year ago All-Mountain.....Poles? . In it, a rep from www.orbitalskiing.com introduced a new product – a pole with adjustable baskets capable of switching on the fly from ‘frontside’ to ‘backside’ sized baskets. The next few pages consisted of most of us criticizing the need for this new 'technology' (largely from me), concerns about performance, and some good technical questions. The OP/rep kept it light and answered the questions sincerely. After some back and forth, he agreed to send me a pair for testing and I agreed to report back objectively.
The snow just kept coming after that and I got tons and tons of frontside, backside, side-side, BC, and XC powder days. Unfortunately Orbital had some snags and wasn’t able to get the poles to me for all that. If we only knew!! The poles showed up at my house in November of this season. Needless to say there hasn’t been a powder day to speak of since then. The BC and even XC options have been pretty limited. On top of that, I ruptured my bicep around the same time. While I’ve been able to snowboard, skiing has been off the table. So the poles have sat in the corner.
This weekend I felt that I really owed them a test. But of course conditions everywhere are bulletproof – hardly a test for this concept. Plus I’m still on light duty for skiing. But hiking with poles is good PT for my arm and a good BC pole should be tested on the up as much as the down. So I took for a hike up Mt Liberty on Franconia Ridge on Sunday. So here’s Chapter 1 of a gear review. When the Valentine’s Day storm hits I’ll be able to test and write Chapter 2.
Out of the box: Orbital sent me their 3-section Discovery pole. This model is marketed as their more backcountry version with a few extra features such as the 3rd section and extended grips for the ascent. Basket technology aside – these are some nice, high end poles. Carbon fiber weighing in at 468g. That’s nearly 100g less than BD’s comparable carbon pole. Very comfortable foam grips. Reinforced straps. tunsten/titanium tip. The finish is a very sharp looking, but hard to describe, graphite gray. Although the ultra-smooth finish could present grip problems if trying to adjust and secure a solid twist-lock with gloves on. The twist-lock itself was one of the major concern point raised in the original thread. But more about that later. These poles lack the ‘hooking point’ that BD’s offer which is a nice feature for AT bindings but not a deal breaker. All in all a very nice looking, light, comfortable pole. Of course the main feature is the convertible basket. The contracted basket looks like a little pyramid sitting at the end of the pole with a small, race like surface area. With a light press on top of the basket the 3 petals of the expanded basket SNAP into place. It’s a little scary how hard the spring fires these things out. It definitely makes you jump the first time and you wouldn’t want your eye anywhere near the thing. It goes without saying that I did this about 100 times in a row for the fun of it. And everyone I’ve showed them too has gone through the same fun. The independent and very stiff nature of the 3 petals made me wonder about durability. I could see snapping one off. Although the company does claim some high strength specs and they seem to be replaceable.
On the trail: I was skeptical of my ability to actually test this pole concept on a hike, but the opportunity presented itself pretty quickly. Liberty Springs Trail on Sunday was about as perfect as a winter trail can get. Base depths are only 1-2’ and we’d picked up 2-3” 36 hours earlier. The trail was perfectly packed out by snowshoers making for a smooth, soft boardwalk to the summit. Light tracking was plenty for the few bits of ice. The packed out trail was narrow though, so you had to choose: pole within the packed out channel, or shorten the poles and keep them on the outside. I opted for the inside the channel and having the pole baskets contracted kept them small enough to avoid catching each other or my boots while moving along. As the trail got steeper, the channel got a little narrower and it made sense to pole outside the channel. The small baskets easily punctured the ¾” crust making for annoying poling. So click-POW and I’ve got a powder basket. I shortened up the poles a bit and the baskets did their job keeping on top of the crust. Adjusting the length with the twist-lock in the field was pretty easy even with gloves on. Although I was wearing very light, very grippy gloves. A ski glove might be a bigger challenge. Twice on the 4 mile hike up the twist-lock slipped. Once near the beginning and once after I adjusted them. That’s not terrible but it is a recurring problem with any twist-lock and compared to flip-lock. Also, I was putting relatively light pressure on them as compared to ascending on skis. For the down I extended them out longer and kept the baskets extended. The twist-lock didn’t slip at all on the down despite much more pressure. So maybe I just needed to dial in the strength of locking them. I got more comfortable putting serious pressure on the baskets and they showed no signs off breaking. Over the course of 8 miles these poles were very comfortable. The extended grip made for a great option on steeper sections.
So far I thought they were some pretty sweet poles…for hiking anyway. The technologies and cost are certainly way overkill for a simple hike, but at least no major flaws were revealed. I’m looking forward to giving them a real test with skis and real snow!
OK that's a pretty lengthy post for a half-review of a pair of poles. But what the heck, I had some free time and we need something to talk about here anyway.....
The snow just kept coming after that and I got tons and tons of frontside, backside, side-side, BC, and XC powder days. Unfortunately Orbital had some snags and wasn’t able to get the poles to me for all that. If we only knew!! The poles showed up at my house in November of this season. Needless to say there hasn’t been a powder day to speak of since then. The BC and even XC options have been pretty limited. On top of that, I ruptured my bicep around the same time. While I’ve been able to snowboard, skiing has been off the table. So the poles have sat in the corner.
This weekend I felt that I really owed them a test. But of course conditions everywhere are bulletproof – hardly a test for this concept. Plus I’m still on light duty for skiing. But hiking with poles is good PT for my arm and a good BC pole should be tested on the up as much as the down. So I took for a hike up Mt Liberty on Franconia Ridge on Sunday. So here’s Chapter 1 of a gear review. When the Valentine’s Day storm hits I’ll be able to test and write Chapter 2.
Out of the box: Orbital sent me their 3-section Discovery pole. This model is marketed as their more backcountry version with a few extra features such as the 3rd section and extended grips for the ascent. Basket technology aside – these are some nice, high end poles. Carbon fiber weighing in at 468g. That’s nearly 100g less than BD’s comparable carbon pole. Very comfortable foam grips. Reinforced straps. tunsten/titanium tip. The finish is a very sharp looking, but hard to describe, graphite gray. Although the ultra-smooth finish could present grip problems if trying to adjust and secure a solid twist-lock with gloves on. The twist-lock itself was one of the major concern point raised in the original thread. But more about that later. These poles lack the ‘hooking point’ that BD’s offer which is a nice feature for AT bindings but not a deal breaker. All in all a very nice looking, light, comfortable pole. Of course the main feature is the convertible basket. The contracted basket looks like a little pyramid sitting at the end of the pole with a small, race like surface area. With a light press on top of the basket the 3 petals of the expanded basket SNAP into place. It’s a little scary how hard the spring fires these things out. It definitely makes you jump the first time and you wouldn’t want your eye anywhere near the thing. It goes without saying that I did this about 100 times in a row for the fun of it. And everyone I’ve showed them too has gone through the same fun. The independent and very stiff nature of the 3 petals made me wonder about durability. I could see snapping one off. Although the company does claim some high strength specs and they seem to be replaceable.
On the trail: I was skeptical of my ability to actually test this pole concept on a hike, but the opportunity presented itself pretty quickly. Liberty Springs Trail on Sunday was about as perfect as a winter trail can get. Base depths are only 1-2’ and we’d picked up 2-3” 36 hours earlier. The trail was perfectly packed out by snowshoers making for a smooth, soft boardwalk to the summit. Light tracking was plenty for the few bits of ice. The packed out trail was narrow though, so you had to choose: pole within the packed out channel, or shorten the poles and keep them on the outside. I opted for the inside the channel and having the pole baskets contracted kept them small enough to avoid catching each other or my boots while moving along. As the trail got steeper, the channel got a little narrower and it made sense to pole outside the channel. The small baskets easily punctured the ¾” crust making for annoying poling. So click-POW and I’ve got a powder basket. I shortened up the poles a bit and the baskets did their job keeping on top of the crust. Adjusting the length with the twist-lock in the field was pretty easy even with gloves on. Although I was wearing very light, very grippy gloves. A ski glove might be a bigger challenge. Twice on the 4 mile hike up the twist-lock slipped. Once near the beginning and once after I adjusted them. That’s not terrible but it is a recurring problem with any twist-lock and compared to flip-lock. Also, I was putting relatively light pressure on them as compared to ascending on skis. For the down I extended them out longer and kept the baskets extended. The twist-lock didn’t slip at all on the down despite much more pressure. So maybe I just needed to dial in the strength of locking them. I got more comfortable putting serious pressure on the baskets and they showed no signs off breaking. Over the course of 8 miles these poles were very comfortable. The extended grip made for a great option on steeper sections.
So far I thought they were some pretty sweet poles…for hiking anyway. The technologies and cost are certainly way overkill for a simple hike, but at least no major flaws were revealed. I’m looking forward to giving them a real test with skis and real snow!
OK that's a pretty lengthy post for a half-review of a pair of poles. But what the heck, I had some free time and we need something to talk about here anyway.....
