I'm wondering how people feel about using carbon fiber trekking poles with shelters that use them. Aside the added benefits of less weight and not being lightening rods, are there any down sides to using them with your shelter? Are you more at risk to break a pole in high winds or with a super taught pitch with CF poles? In other words, are the stresses put on carbon fiber poles by a shelter something that increases their likelihood of breaking after already suffering the abuses of the trail? I hear about carbon fiber poles breaking 10X more than aluminum and they seem to break in the situation of minor trail nicks followed by a high stress incident.

I'm asking these questions because I'm considering swapping out my Black Diamond Alpine Ergo Cork Trekking Poles for a set of Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork Trekking Poles.

Also, anyone that owns the aluminum Black Diamond Alpine Ergo Cork Trekking Poles and uses them with a shelter...do you have any issues with them due to the 15deg. tilted grip?

TIA!

KJ

Edited by f8less on 11/28/2012 09:20:10 MST.

CF poles will conduct electricity quite well.

That said I have used mine for many, many nights supporting shelters like Tarptents and the NEMO Meta 2. I am using a Brooks Range Propel tent next month that will use them too.

I better edit this to say that I use CF poles, but not the ones you have.

Edited by rayestrella on 11/26/2012 16:17:45 MST.

"CF poles will conduct electricity quite well."

Huh! Didn't know that. Learn something new every day.

What are you preferred CF poles?

KJ

bump

If you break a cf while using it with a shelter then you are like having bigger issues than just your poles. The strength of a collapsed or partially collapsed pole is much stronger than other parts of the system like stakes, guy lines and tarps. Most cf poles get broken by being stepped on or by putting the tip in a crack and pushing forward.

The BD alpine carbon poles are very burly, I wouldn't worry about them being a weak point in your shelter.

Yep, depending on the shelter i'd think the fabric would rip or the poles would tip over before anything snapped.

I guess I'm more so referring to the stresses put on them by a shelter (perhaps similar to a "prolonged" fall catch with the pole...if you will) adding to their likelihood of breaking at any point in time...even though I did mention concern for high winds and a taught pitch being a possible cause for breakage.


Either way, it's sounding like the ones that I'm looking at, this issue should be nonexistent.

KJ

Edited by f8less on 11/28/2012 09:43:23 MST.

They use carbon fiber to make masts and booms for racing sailboats. it is strong stuff.

"The BD alpine carbon poles are very burly, I wouldn't worry about them being a weak point in your shelter."

+ 1

The BD Alpine Carbon Cork poles are ultra beefy for a carbon pole. Short of severe user error (ie. have no overlap between sections), you're extremely safe with these. I'd suggest going with a lighter pole personal. Locus Gear has some new flick lock poles coming out that weigh ~12oz (vs. 16oz for the BD ACC poles) which should be a nice compromise between the gossamer gear LT4's and something beefy but heavy like the BD ACC's.

http://locusgear.com/products/trekking-pole/cp2

The GG LT4's are great for holding up a shelter too. I've snapped a couple during off-trail mis-haps, but I continue to use them because they are so much nicer to hike with and short of me landing on them, they hold up just fine. I would like flick locks though and I can see the benefit of a 10-12oz set of poles for off-trail/snow use.

Edited by dandydan on 11/29/2012 20:41:43 MST.

Still using my MYOG CF poles. My wife and I have combined about 2000+ miles on our original pairs. 185 grams per pair. $30 and 10 minutes of work.