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Best freeski poles?

sstahlbush

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Hey everyone, I had just picked up a pair of the 2019 K2 Poachers and I am extremely excited to use them. However, I am stuck on which poles I should look into getting to help complement my skis. If I can, I would love to stay loyal to the K2 brand. I was looking into the K2 Flipjaw and Freeride 18 poles. Any other ideas? Any feedback is appreciated!
 

ironhippy

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I found my poles hiking the mountain in the spring time.
I think they might have been rental poles at one point, so maybe "stolen from rental shop" is my actual answer.

I have a good set of collapsable poles I use for touring, but I don't use them on the lift because I don't want to break a 100$ pair of poles.
 

Not Sure

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Why does riding the lift equate to breaking poles?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Scott-Sun-...istol-Grips-Made-in-USA-vintage-/232978526608

Old guys like to hang the old breakaway grips on the safety bar . Only problem is mid stations are low enough to snag the tips .

I still use my 1970's grips just move them to new poles . I know 2 other people who do too . I never felt comfortable sticking my hand through a strap . Scott had perfect design I wish they would bring them back
 

gmcunni

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Hey everyone, I had just picked up a pair of the 2019 K2 Poachers and I am extremely excited to use them. However, I am stuck on which poles I should look into getting to help complement my skis. If I can, I would love to stay loyal to the K2 brand. I was looking into the K2 Flipjaw and Freeride 18 poles. Any other ideas? Any feedback is appreciated!


those flipjaw poles look sweet. i like the grip. i'd go with those. What do you do with your poles while on the lift? hold em? hang em? sit on em? i sit on mine
 

ironhippy

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Why does riding the lift equate to breaking poles?

Well as pointed out, I suck at riding lifts.

But more importantly, my local hill has an old chair lift. When you are loading this chairlift, it sometimes stops because of offloading problems at the top (apparently everyone at my local hill sucks at riding lifts).
When the chair stops, it rolls back 3 - 5 feet.
This might not seem like a big deal, but when you are loading the lift you are within 3 - 5 feet of the chair in front of you.
If it stops, you need to move back QUICKLY in order to not get hit by the chair in front of you.
Quite often in this scenario, you plant your poles and push backwards. This gets your body out of the way of the lift, but leaves your poles to be run over by the chair.

This is the most common scenario that people break poles at my local hill. They can also get stuck in the ground when the chair is leaving because the ground is uneven and the chair moves quickly.
I'm not sure if I have broken any poles personally, but I don't use my good touring poles for that reason.

I do hate riding the lift though, it takes too long and all you do is sit there. I'd much rather hike up the hill on my own, but that limits the number of downhill runs I can get in so I use the lift when conditions are good.
 

skiur

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I dont think a lift that rolled back 3-5 feet each time it stopped would be aloud to operate in the USA, it sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.....I guess laws are different in Canada.
 

gmcunni

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Luxury! I got my Reflex powder poles from the dump for free.

lol, you reminded me of my daughter's first poles. we'd skied the day at mount snow and my daughter was still skiing without poles. she'd been complaining that she was getting better and needed poles but i was ignoring her. End of day we were returning to the car at the Carinthia lodge and as we walked out there was a set of adult poles in the garbage can, 1 bent fairly high up. grabbed them, cut them down (below the bend) and she was happy as a could be.
 

ironhippy

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I dont think a lift that rolled back 3-5 feet each time it stopped would be aloud to operate in the USA, it sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.....I guess laws are different in Canada.

I'm not sure there is a lot of oversight. I wouldn't say it's Canada wide, more New Brunswick (my province) wide. We only have 4 ski hills in the whole province and none have high speed chairs (actually one might).

I may be exagerating by 3-5 feet, but it rolls back and the lifties need to be on the ball to try and stop it from hitting people waiting to load.
Numerous people have been hit, I'm not aware of any serious injuries, however lots of broken poles.

It was installed in the early 80's with only the most basic maintenance since. They did replace the cable in 2016 though.
 

BenedictGomez

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I'll be the different one here.

I actually value a more expensive pair of carbon fiber ski poles. Many will balk at paying > $100 for poles, but you hold them all day long, for hours, and I like the featherweight feel of the carbon. A few years ago I forgot them and had to borrow a pair of Jay Peak's aluminum rental poles from the ski shop, and it felt like I was swinging baseball bats because I'm so used to the effortless, featherweight swing of carbon.

As for pole brand, I'm a Leki loyalist as I received some of the best customer service of my entire life from them a few years back. Plus, I hate pole straps, so I like Leki's strapless design.
 

skifree

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I ski with many people that don't use poles and they RIP!!!
I like the feel without poles but need them to push my fat ass around in flats/lift lines.
Tried many different poles and don't find any difference between dump poles or carbon.
 

skiur

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If you go down in deep snow poles are very useful for getting back up.
 
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