My favorite trekking poles have been the Black Diamond Vapor Carbon 1 poles for many years now. I use fixed-length poles when possible as I’ve broken so many adjustable poles over the years, but BD just announced 2-piece Vapor Carbons that adjust from 100-135 cm and collapse down to 95 cm. I might trim 10 cm off the top of the lower section to allow them to shrink down a bit smaller when collapsed and use them for packrafting trips.
The one downside for me is they use the metal ‘pro’ flicklock system where the locking lever faces forward and gets flipped open by brush with some regularity when bushwhacking. On a recent elk hunt I handed the lower section of another guys BD pro flicklock poles to him after he got mugged by salmonberries and alders a few times. We eventually duct taped the mechanism closed. A short section of road bike inner tube slipped over the flicklock mechanism obviates this downside, but I still prefer the older plastic flicklock that wraps securely around the pole shaft. I always use small, round summer baskets and jam about a 2″ chunk of radiator hose over the flex tip (slid up against the bottom of the baskets) to reduce ground penetration.
Anyway, I’m excited to have a [somewhat] collapsible version of the best light-but-burly pole on the market.
