Black Diamond Women's Alpine Carbon Cork

A beautiful pole that takes a beating, but the form over function of the flick lock design loses points. This is the 95-125 cm Women's version.

When the porcupine bites on my wife's 7 year old BD poles started to become annoying, we started looking for another set. These 7 year old poles have been champs with thousands and thousands of miles. And only a few issues. So we decided to grab a pair of the new Black Diamond Women's alpine carbon cork poles. At 5'2" the smaller size and weight limit means a lighter pole. And at 5'9" I was also able to use the poles without issue, but I had to extend them to their max. So we cannot recommend these if you are over 5'9"

The all carbon shaft is amazing at absorbing shock. There is no "twooing" when the tip hits the ground. And the cork helps finish off any vibration. So these are very comfortable for long distance. 

These collapse fairly small at just over 23" total. So they pack up and attach nicely to a smaller pack when not needed.  

The poles are substantial with little flex. I have no doubt they will survive a good amount of abuse. BUT, you feel that strength in a weight penalty. At 16.65 oz for the pair, these are actually heavier than the aluminum poles they replaced. And only .2 oz lighter than my Cascade Mountain Tech (CMT) 3k poles. Given the CMT's are longer (130 vs 125), this is disappointing. Given carbon fibers tendency to break vs bend, weight savings and vibration damper are it's only benefits. So the BD's only have 1 benefit over typically cheaper aluminum.

The tips have taken a beating and don't really show signs of wearing. This is the case on her older pair as well. And that tip is replaceable, so if it wears out, you don't need to replace the entire plastic and tip. HOWEVER, on her old poles with the replaceable tip, the inner threads rusted out. We ended up gorilla glueing in the tip and they have stayed put. We shall see if the same rust attacks these. Already you can see there is some dirt aggregating in the wave pattern of that replaceable tip. So, I suspect it will meet the same rusty fate. These carbide tips have plenty of grip/bite in all conditions (mud, snow, rocks), that we threw at them.  

I really like the basket threads on the tip. The threads end and the basket eventually sits in a non-threaded zone where it can just spin without unscrewing. Most threads are continuous and if a basket is loose enough to spin it will unscrew. Can't tell you how many baskets we have found on the trail. But BD seems to have this problem mostly solved. Just be sure to keep screwing on the basket into the zone. And when removing you need to pull the basket down a bit before it engages the threads. 

        Interchangeable tech tip and allen head bolt on lock 

Now let's talk about that flick lock - this poles Achilles heel. As you can see in the pic below, the lock can easily come off the pole. All the locks slide off in this fashion and in my opinion, they should be glued on. If they do slide off, you need to ensure the lock is all the way back up the shaft, if it is too low, it does not grip well. What concerns me most is if this lock were to slide off and get lost somewhere, boom expensive poles down the drain. Other reviewers found the flick locks could get snagged on bushes and open. If this were to happen and the lower section came out, that lock could be fall off as well.

This removability isn't the only issue with that lock. The allen wrench required to adjust it was surprising. Why on earth would you change from a simple flat/Phillips head to a hex. Now I am required to carry an allen wrench with me in the field? None of my multi tools has a small allen wrench, but they all have some sort of screwdriver. Why BD chose this nut in this flip lock is beyond me. And I subtract a star for this alone as something a simple as a loose lock could be non-serviceable in the field without that stupid little allen wrench. I would be hesitant to use these on long trips because of this serviceability issue. We have had to adjust a few of the nuts so far and they are a little tough to get dialed in, I had to re-adjust a few times to get them just tight enough, but not too tight. I also noticed the nuts are getting a little loose. They are covered in blue thread locker, but that seemed to be wearing thin, so I applied a little more to try and get things to stay put.

The grips are comfy and the straps work great. They are labelled left and right and there is a small difference in the strap that goes along with the side. But my wife has never noticed a difference when using them wrong handed. It would have been nice to put the L/R indicator on the top of the strap vs the bottom. It's inconvenient to see in it's current location.

The cork is wearing as normal without any big chunks coming off or excessive wear.

 The size markings on the poles are easy to see and don't seem to be coming off. This was an issue with the prior pair. 

We really wanted to love these poles as she had her priors. But the flick lock issues are really a deal breaker. I'm sure these will run for a very long time - if we don't lose those locks and if we never need to field tighten. We are disappointed given the cost. It seems Black Diamond put form over function. The cost and weight hit are also annoying, and I just can't see these being worth the cost.

Background

Been using trekking poles for 15+ years.