You may look at the topic of this post and think to yourself, "Why would I want to read a review about ski poles?" and in the case of the Black Diamond Boundary ski poles, you want to read a review about them because they are absolutely amazing. They may not be the lightest ski poles on the market, they aren't made from carbon, and they don't pack down very small, but they have handled the abuse of being my ski poles for 3 years now, and they haven't bent on me yet. For me, that is a big deal.
I grew up ski racing and so I would either ski with pre-bent GS poles or with slalom poles that would end up bent after just a few days of training. So for me, having a pair of poles that haven't been bent after three years is amazing. Now, the reason that my slalom poles got bent is because I would overreach when I was cross-blocking, blocking the slalom gate from hitting you in the face, and the ski pole would bend after the constant abuse of the gates hitting the poles in the same place, run after run. However, after I stopped racing, my poles would end up bent after a month of skiing with them. Sometimes they would get bent from tree skiing, sometimes they would get bent from me falling on them, sometimes they would get bent from me being an idiot on the chairlift, but they would always end up bent for some reason or another. But the Boundary ski poles are different. I have been an idiot with them on the chairlift, and they have gotten stuck under my leg when I'm suppose to be getting off of the lift and they are still straight. This same mistake has broken a few pairs of lesser poles in half. I have smacked these poles on trees on accident as I go skiing by them and they still manage to just have a few scratches on them. I have rolled over these poles a few too many times, just ask my body, it hasn't handled the crashes nearly as well as these ski poles. I have even bent a pair of skis to have a cambor they weren't suppose to have with a crash in the time I have been skiing with these poles, and yet the poles still don't have a bend in them. I have traveled with these ski poles and everytime I get off of the plane and check my gear the poles are still in great condition and are just as straight as they day I got them. These are a durable pair of ski poles, and I absolutely love them. I didn't think that having a durable pair of poles would make me as happy as these poles have made me.
I could now go into the different features of these poles, like the fact that they are adjustable height backcountry ski poles. Or that the adjusting mechanism is made out of metal instead of the flimsy plastic clips that I always seem to break, which very well might be one of the greatest things Black Diamond has done for ski poles, but what's the point? My favorite thing about these poles is that they still haven't bent after 3 years of abuse. Here's to hoping that these ski poles last in the years to come.
