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How long are your poles?

NE1

Getting on the lift
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Cape Cod, MA
Years ago the suggest measure was to hold the pole upside down and with a hand at the basket the arm should be at a right angle to the ground. I forget if the hand was to be held under or over the basket.

Under. To account for the pole being buried in powder up to the basket, I presumed.
 

Brad J

Out on the slopes
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871
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Newbury, Ma.
5' -10' and getting smaller every day, 48' for me , I used 46" for years when I skied mostly bumps, those days are now in my rear view mirror.
 

crgildart

Gravity Slave
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The Bull City
View attachment 96417

Fairly tight grouping.... as you'd expect. Not too many outliers... the main one is probably whoever is 6' tall using 135 poles.

I took the first or main size if people gave multiple, depending on what they said. And converted everything to cm, which introduces just a little bit of rounding error.
Is this a representation of poll data or pole data?
 

martyg

Making fresh tracks
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2,216
I can't even begin to answer this, and be politically correct.
 

neonorchid

Making fresh tracks
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Mid-Atlantic
User HeightPole Length (inches)Pole Length (centimeters)
4'1" - 4'4"3895
4'5" - 4'8"40100
4'9" - 5'0"42105
5'1" - 5'3"44110
5'4" - 5'6"46115
5'7" - 5'9"48120
5'10" - 6'0"50125
6'1" - 6'3"52130
6'4" - 6'6"54135
6'7"+56140

^Skis dot com


Height

Centimeters: 170



Pole Size (approximate)

Alpine: cm 120
Skating: cm 150
Classic: cm 140

^Backcountry dot com

Would appear @ ~ 170cm I've been on the $$$ with 120cm poles. That my story and I'm sticking with it;)
 

graham418

Skiing the powder
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Mar 25, 2016
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Toronto
User HeightPole Length (inches)Pole Length (centimeters)
4'1" - 4'4"3895
4'5" - 4'8"40100
4'9" - 5'0"42105
5'1" - 5'3"44110
5'4" - 5'6"46115
5'7" - 5'9"48120
5'10" - 6'0"50125
6'1" - 6'3"52130
6'4" - 6'6"54135
6'7"+56140

^Skis dot com


Height

Centimeters: 170



Pole Size (approximate)

Alpine: cm 120
Skating: cm 150
Classic: cm 140

^Backcountry dot com

Would appear @ ~ 170cm I've been on the $$$ with 120cm poles. That my story and I'm sticking with it;)
I'm 172cm, and I had been using 120cm poles for ever. 2 or 3 seasons ago, I switched to 115cm. I am much happier now ogsmile
 

neonorchid

Making fresh tracks
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Mid-Atlantic
I'm 172cm, and I had been using 120cm poles for ever. 2 or 3 seasons ago, I switched to 115cm. I am much happier now ogsmile
Using shorter than website suggested lengths seems to be the trend around here.

I could easily adjust my Black Diamond Traverse poles down to 115cm. Tried it once, didn't feel right and I set them back to just below the 120cm line at the bottom of the 120cm print which is ~119cm.

As I said up thread, I tend toward a more upright centered stance. I like the longer reach initiating a pole plant and also the extra push when skating the flat and or rolling cat tracks between runs or on the flats around lifts.
 

Ogg

Skiing the powder
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Jun 3, 2017
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Long Island, NY
This thread has me thinking I should try some longer poles or at least try maxing out the adjustment on my Goodes.
 

Brad J

Out on the slopes
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Posts
871
Location
Newbury, Ma.
Really depends on many factors , terrain, snow conditions , groomed , moguls, stance. but I feel the standard chart is about 2" longer than I like for normal zoomed groomer skiing and 4" longer for woods and bumps. Just my two cents.
 

neonorchid

Making fresh tracks
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Mid-Atlantic
This thread has me thinking ... we all have different body types, proportions, builds, of which have been unaccounted for thus far therefore the results are flawed. This thread is rigged. I demand all post deviating from dot com guidelines be thrown out and the results go back to the OP @zircon's numbers for the win;)
 

altabrig

Drifting like a long radius with some tail rocker.
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Apr 19, 2023
Posts
242
Location
SoCal
Really depends on many factors , terrain, snow conditions , groomed , moguls, stance. but I feel the standard chart is about 2" longer than I like for normal zoomed groomer skiing and 4" longer for woods and bumps. Just my two cents.
Been thinking this for about a decade and decided to chop a pair of tree n pow poles down 2"today.
 

James

Out There
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Dec 2, 2015
Posts
24,455
You can have a pole suited for skiing or traversing/skating. If you ski very upright, it’s much easier for those to match. If you ski with lots of angles, and lower, or moguls, those two don’t match. Or you just touch way outside in bug feeler mode. There’s plenty of high performance skiers, invariably ex racers, who do that.

I mean some people ride motorcycles with handle bars that have their hands up at their head. A sport bike bar to them would be like the park rat pole size in skiing

IMG_1529.jpeg

^ Not even that tall
 
Last edited:

cantunamunch

Meh
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Nov 17, 2015
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Location
Behavioral sink
This thread has me thinking ... we all have different body types, proportions, builds, of which have been unaccounted for thus far therefore the results are flawed. This thread is rigged. I demand all post deviating from dot com guidelines be thrown out and the results go back to the OP @zircon's numbers for the win;)

You're completely forgetting that pole length works like gearing height.

Faster skiers need longer poles, and skating proves it.
 

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