Ski poles, and why the cheap aluminum ones are the right answer

What a pole is actually for

Three things, in descending order of how much they matter to a recreational skier: timing a turn, pushing along flat ground, and getting up after a fall. Notice that none of them is steering - the pole plant marks the rhythm of a turn, it does not cause the turn.

That is why this is a sixty-dollar purchase and not a three-hundred-dollar one. A lighter pole with a better swing weight is a genuine improvement for someone making forty short-radius turns a minute down a mogul field. For a family on a groomed blue run it is not detectable. The ski pole sizing page covers what poles do in more depth.

Why aluminum, specifically

Carbon poles are lighter and they are also brittle in the specific way that matters on a ski hill: a carbon shaft that takes a hard side load snaps, usually somewhere in the middle, and a snapped pole is done. An aluminum shaft under the same load bends. A bent pole is ugly, entirely usable and often straightenable.

All three poles here publish an aluminum DURAL shaft, which is the correct material for anyone who is not racing. The price of that decision is about 80 to 120 grams a pair that you will never notice.

Sizing, done in ten seconds

Turn the pole upside down so the grip is on the floor. Take hold of the shaft just under the basket. If your forearm is level and your elbow makes roughly a right angle, the pole is the right length. If your hand is above your elbow, it is too long.

That table is a starting point rather than an answer, and the pole sizing page has the full chart and the reasoning. If you are consistently between two lengths, go shorter - a pole slightly too short encourages a forward stance, and a pole slightly too long pushes you back.

The picks

Rossignol Tactic

The pick, and honestly the end of the discussion for most people. A published $59.95 buys an aluminum DURAL shaft in six published lengths from 110 to 135 cm, an R-Grip with bi-injected vibration-damping components, an RTL19 strap and an SB60 basket.

Six published lengths matters more than it sounds. A pole sold in three lengths forces half its buyers into a compromise, and a compromise on pole length changes your stance for the whole day.

What Rossignol does not publish is a weight or a warranty term, which is worth knowing and is not worth much. A pole is a tube.

Rossignol Electra

The same money, the same shaft and the same basket, with two things changed: a grip of smaller circumference, and a length run that starts at 105 cm rather than 110.

Both changes matter for the same person - a smaller skier with smaller hands. A grip you cannot close your hand around properly is a grip you hold too tightly, which is how hands get cold and how poles get dropped. The cold hands page covers grip tension as a cause.

It tops out at 125 cm, so a taller woman should buy the Tactic instead. The women’s version carries no price premium, which is worth noting because in this category that is not always true.

Rossignol Tactic Jr

Marked as the skip above, conditionally. Eight published lengths in 5 cmsteps from 70 to 105 cm is the finest size grid on any product in this ledger, and it exists because a child passes through that entire range in about four winters.

It publishes a junior-specific grip and strap rather than an adult pole cut short, which is a genuine difference - an adult grip in a child’s hand cannot be held properly at all.

The reason it is the skip is simply that poles come free with rental and leased ski packages. Buy these when the child owns skis. The seasonal lease page covers what is included.

Fixed or adjustable?

Every pole on this page is fixed length. Adjustable poles exist, they are heavier and more expensive, and the case for them is specific rather than general: they suit touring, snowshoeing and a growing child, because in all three cases the correct length changes.

For resort skiing the correct length does not change, so the mechanism adds weight and a failure point in exchange for nothing. That comparison has its own page and it is more sympathetic to adjustable poles than this paragraph is.

The one habit worth learning

Put your hand up through the strap from underneath, then close your hand around the grip over the top of the strap. Done that way, the strap takes the load when you push, which means you can hold the grip loosely - and a loose grip is a warm hand.

The exception is trees and terrain parks, where many skiers deliberately ski with their hands out of the straps so a caught pole cannot wrench a shoulder. Both positions are defensible; holding the pole in a fist with the strap dangling is not.