Everyone is going shorter these days.
I liked the Scott race pole straps with velcro adjustment and one side wide. Easy to adjust, simple, has a pre formed loop. I think they're changing it to something worse.
The length issue. Any one who's skied for a while knows... They've been visited by the equivalent of Moses, seen the burning bush, read the stone tablet. Pole upside down, hold underneath grip, your arm is at a right angle. Suggest anything else and you're a climate denier, hate animals, or think cigarettes are good for your health because they kill germs. But wait, are you wearing ski boots, or standing in bindings when you do the right angle test? Ah details...People are open to ski length input but totalky certain about pole length for some reason.
If your lost about poles, about the only "requirement" I'd say is that the top of the grip can fit easily in your palm. And you like them - swing weight, looks, feel. For kids this probably means a race pole as regular ones have an absurdly large top that's bigger than an eye socket. Apparently 7 year olds that race don't have this prob but all the rest are jamming it in their eyes on a regular basis.(Never seen it, but did have a 10 yr old give herself a bloody nose from planting)
If the top is large you can't do a Bullfighter turn, push from behind, or do other things with the pole in the palm. This is a serious deficiency. But if you've seen the burning bush and know otherwise, carry on.
If you're renting poles, you may not believe it, but they did not use a super computer to figure out the perfect pole length for you. If you're at the mt, you can easily exchange for a different size during the day. Some kids show up with poles 10-12 inches too long. Kids are apparently excempt from the words on the stone tablet. As long as they can grow into them.
Straps or the strapless connection?
There are two types of skiers...
Those that like straps, and those that like that LEKI thing. (Well there's a third- those that like that open C shape bintage plastic grip. The advantage there is you can hang them on the safety bar of the chairlift. And then there's no straps for avalanche and tree zones).
The LEKI System people clip in as if they're about to fly some sort of very advanced plane only they can see. Which is true, only they can see it. Psa: no one cares you have a weird connection with your poles. Except the shop that'll charge you $40 for a new system strap when you loose it.
Actually LEKI should be sued for discriminating against strap users.
They make some really nice poles then stick that system on it. Throwing a bone to those of us who just can't see that invisible flying craft, there's some sort of cockamamy strap conversion offered. It's usually siting in a dusty bag in the bottom of the drawer that holds the shop's loaner socks for boot fitting. Don't worry, they won't actually hand you a bag nestled under fermenting socks, factory sealed with disdain by Hans who can't fathom someone not wanting the LEKI system. Like the users on the slopes who consider themselves to have evolved past us Neanderthal strap users. "Why would anyone want to use regular straps?" they wonder, as if pole straps are like driving a car with stone wheels.
Well before the moment that strap conversion bag is produced you'll be given six ways from Sunday why this system will change your life, make you a better skier, a better human, more efficient. Modern. Surely this is obvious to any conscious person.
At that point you'll either start seeing the spaceship, or you'll wonder wtf, (John Goodman in Big Lebowski), "Has the whole world gone crazy??" Your gloves or mittens will now be required to have bondage wear to interface with the System. The truly evolved have the special gloves with the interface built in. Now they're flying the spaceship with mind control. No garrish bondage wear, no forgetting the extra piece you now have to bring to the mtn, very discreet. But forget the special gloves, forget the connection to your poles. Oh but wait... You could buy the bondage wear to stash in your bag in case you forget the special gloves or want to use those nice puffy down mittens. The truly evolved think of everything.
If by now you're certain Major Tom is a junky and decline the shop persons offer to join the evolved in their enslavement to the LEKI System. Oh right, it's 'freedom from straps', duh. The shop guy will say, "We have other poles...(for the mentally challenged)."
Straps that don't adjust?
Grass sticks- you've been smoking too much weed. Adjustment matters. Spring, winter, gloves, mittens are all different sizes. Hemp only matters to Woody Harrelson. He can make his own poles and smoke those. We've also known for centuries that hemp shrinks when wet.
(I've heard they changed the Grass Sticks. The swing weight was vastly superior to the Soul Poles also made of bamboo. I may get a pair if the straps are acceptable.)
Aluminum or carbon?
-whatever.
Light weight poles are nice. But it is all about the swing weight. Years ago when I was dislocating my shoulder nearly once a month, I bought some of those Goode pencil thin graphite poles. Mainly because they were somewhat flexible. These replaced the gold standard of vintage poles- Kerma late 70's racing poles with clear grips over gold foil and leather straps with a brilliant and simple breakaway clip. That simple idea has never been equaled despite 40 years of progress. (Oh wait, LEKI leap frogged over that with their System. Duh).
But the swing weight of the Goode wasn't good for a pole probably half the weight of the now ancient Kerma. The Goode felt heavy. The Kerma was heavy but had a nice swing weight. The flexible idea never kept the shoulder from poping out. They are strong though. I once bent
@Bob Barnes pole nearly in half just after losing a ski and clinging to the Cirque at Snowmass.
The weakness to carbon poles is hitting the bottoms with your edges. This can greatly weaken them. The coup de grace for my Goodes was playing ski golf with a crushed can in the spring one year. At some point I swung and the bottom of the pole went somewhere else. The tips had already been fixed under warranty. Ski golf wasn't covered by the warranty.
I've also sheared an aluminum pole in half on a very cold day. I went to whack a clump of snow that looked like ginger bread frosting. It was frozen hard as a rock. After the whack the bottom of the pole flipped up in the air.
There is a lost text somewhere that decreed real skiers use heavy poles and not that namby pamby light stuff. I know, ilight poles are a luxury and really you should be dumpster diving for poles. Well if your skis came out of the dumpster you should definitely be consistent and start diving for poles.
It is true that real skiers should be able to rip a couple of branches off a tree and with a little duct tape or proper rope (ie not hemp), make poles to ski with. Those felling ash trees, steaming the planks for camber, or out on the ice floes clubbing baby seals to make their own Stocklis should not be buying aluminum or carbon poles.
Aluminum can have strength benefits for whacking snow off boots, fending off tree branches, or not worrying about throwing them in a car or loading in a bag for the airplane gorillas to throw around.
Carbon or graphite can be really light. Some use both aluminum and graphite/carbon. If you ski with kids a lot I'd go with aluminum and save the carbons for other skiing. Kids boots need whacking a lot to clear snow.
Aluminum poles with straps can be turned into snow chimes on flat trails. Just let the poles dangle from your wrists and just hit the ground. It makes a nice sound. The LEKI flyers can't do that.
The worst pole I ever used was a Rossignol branded rental. It must have been made of some unbreakable plastic. After you pole touched the thing would wobble as a standing wave was created in the shaft.It was so distracting and irritating. Usually the problem with rentals is the dinner plate on top of the grip.
These days they're making some very pretty colored poles. Nothing wrong with that. Get a few for different outfits.
The stone tablet did say that colorful pokes are for kids and idiots... But it's 2017.
(UCL thumb up 
)
