Reviews > Trekking Poles > Poles > Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles > Owner Review by Curt Peterson

Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles

May 2004

www.bdel.com

Below You Will Find:

1. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Description
2. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Specifications
3. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Features
4. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Use and Review
5. Tester Contact Information and Background

1. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Description

The Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles are a three-section trekking pole pair with angled grips and Black Diamond's patented FlickLock pole section length adjusters. They are relatively simple as far as trekking poles go – there are no shock absorbing springs or cork handles or titanium alloys or carbon fibers. The Advance poles are simple aluminum poles with standard rubber grips. These particular poles, manufactured in 2001?, are unpainted aluminum with the exception of yellow and black graphics toward the top of the uppermost section. While this exact model is no longer available, it does show up occasionally in inventory sales and current similar offerings are still manufactured by Black Diamond. Hopefully that makes this review still relevant.

2. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Specifications

• Weight of each pole: 9.9 ounces (281 grams)
• Shortest Compacted Length: 28 in (71 cm)
• Shortest Locked Compacted Length: 32.5 in (83 cm)
• Longest recommended length: 55 in (140 cm)

3. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Features

The primary features of the Advance Trekking Poles are:

• Three Sections: The Advance Trekking Poles break down into 3 sections, making them compact enough for easy travel or an unobtrusive attachment to a backpack when not in use.
• Angled Grips: The grip section of the trekking pole is bent at a slight angle (15 degrees, according to Black Diamond) which gives the user an ergonomic advantage when swinging the poles forward. The idea is that the pole reaches its forward plant position while the user's wrist is in a neutral position.
• Lack of "Extras": These are basic trekking poles. There are no shock absorbers in the shafts, no shock absorbing grips, no titanium, no carbon fiber, no compasses or cork built into the handles.
• Cam grips: The wrist loops fit into a locking cam on the very top of the pole grip. This allows for very quick and simple infinite adjustments of the wrist loop lengths.
• Tips and Baskets: The tips are just like most of the industry-standard carbide tips found on modern trekking poles. Tough, small, and extremely durable.
• FlickLock Mechanism: Unlike most trekking poles on the market, the Advance trekking poles do not use a twist expander inside the pole segments that rely on friction to keep the pole certain lengths. Instead, Black Diamond poles use a patented camming device called the FlickLock that squeezes the inner pole sections securely, but allows for very easy undoing. This requires no inner screw mechanism like most trekking poles, and is quite simple and reliable to adjust both at home an in the field.

4. Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles Use and Review

The virtues of carrying trekking poles into the backcountry are many, but I won't cover them here. If you are unsure of the value, there has been a lot written about trekking poles and a little time spent researching this will offer hours of reading. The comments below on my use and review of these particular poles are for the benefit of those who carry poles and are trying to make a solid choice in which poles to use – not to convert those who don't believe trekking poles are useful. That said, here is my experience with the Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles:

The Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles have served me extremely well over the past couple of years. From dayhikes to snow climbs to skiing to shelter support, they have risen to the challenges I have presented them. Best of all, I have almost never had to tinker with or even think about them - something I really appreciate.

On dayhikes and common backpacking trips, they have performed flawlessly. They have not collapsed on me, have not bent, and still work as well as they did when new. This is not something I can say about my other twist-expander trekking poles. My expander trekking poles all have been factory-painted black trekking poles, and eventually all begin to chip and flake. The unpainted aluminum on the Advance poles is certainly scratched and nicked, but it has not affected the feel or appearance of the poles. After using unpainted poles like the Advance, I will never buy painted metal poles again. The unpainted poles age and perform so much better over time that this has become a priority characteristic in any future pole purchase.

I have not noticed a significant difference between the straight shaft trekking poles and the angled Advance poles. There is a slight difference, to be sure, but nothing so great as to make angled grips a "must have". They are particularly nice on downhill pole plants.

The cam locking wrist retention straps are one of the few places Advance poles could use some improvement. The straps themselves are both too short and too stiff and thick for my tastes. After a year or so of use, I finally replaced the original straps with replacements made from webbing available at local outdoor shops or fabric stores. I used a slightly thinner webbing, added a few inches of length, and with a couple of quick passes of a sewing machine, created better fitting and more comfortable straps that are easy to replace the stock straps with. Due to the thickness of the webbing, my stock straps constantly popped the cam open. The thinner webbing allows the cam to get a better bite and hold a strap adjustment much more securely. Better yet, the additional length has allowed me to fit gloved or mittened hands into the wrist loops.

The greatest feature of the Advance poles - and in my opinion the greatest feature of all Black Diamond poles - is the FlickLock adjustment. I had constant difficulty with the twist expander trekking poles, primarily with loosening them to shorten them. To get the poles tight enough to adequately support a full weekend of trail use or climbing, I tightened the expanders quite securely. This made them almost impossible to undo. Particularly in wet or snowy weather, the effort was often futile. With the Flicklock, it is always a straightforward affair with little effort no matter what the conditions are. I have used the FlickLocks in rain, snow, sub- freezing temperatures and brutal heat. The quick opening cam has never posed a problem. An initial (and once a year in my case) adjustment of each cam with a screwdriver determines how tightly the cam squeezes and how much forces is needed to open and close the FlickLock. Proper compression is simple to determine and stays secure once set.

I have bent two pair of trekking poles while skiing, and snapped another pair. After two and half seasons of skiing on this one pair, I have yet to bend or break even a single section of either pole. Each section slides as smoothly and easily in to the next as they did when new. This is not something I can say about any other trekking poles I have used. Even with the best of them it is now difficult to slide sections into each other due to slight bends here and there. Even with my XXL size, I am confident in putting great pressure on the poles when getting up from a deep snow fall.

I have used the Advance as a center pole in three pyramid style tents - the Black Diamond Megamid, the Black Diamond Megalight, and the Golite Hex 3 Nest. All 3 of these shelters require connecting the trekking poles to each other to gain the needed height to erect the shelter. Using the Black Diamond fabric pole connecter, I have successfully used the Advance Trekking Poles to strongly support all of these shelters. While certainly not as simple, clean, and attractive as the dedicated poles for them, the Advance have proven every bit as strong and durable. In this particular use of the trekking poles, the FlickLock mechanism has been invaluable. Slight adjustments to the pole height to accommodate shelter fabric sagging, expansion, or stretching is difficult at best and a nightmare at worst with a twist-expander trekking pole used as a center pole. With the FlickLock, small adjustments can be made easily and accurately with little effort or stress. In my opinion, users of shelters that depend on trekking poles for support owe it to themselves to tryout FlickLock poles to see how simple and secure this can be done.

Overall, the Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles have been a valuable addition to my backcountry gear kit. No other trekking pole has proven so durable, simple to use, secure, and stable. In my opinion, the FlickLock mechanism - while a little more bulky - is a superior pole length adjustment technology that will likely be copied extensively in various incarnations once the patent expires. Until then, Black Diamond has a great thing going with the FlickLock line of poles. They could be lighter, but for a relatively basic trekking pole that works in all conditions and involves little worry or frustration, the Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles are a wonderful example.

5. Tester Contact Information and Background

Curt Peterson: e-curt@a...

Age: 32

Gender: Male

Height: 6'3" (1.91 m)

Weight: 270 (122 kg)

I live in Seattle and do the vast majority of my outdoor activities in Washington State. During the summer I try to head to the backcountry at least every other week, averaging 3 to 5 multi-day trips in July, August and September. In the fall and early winter, I usually do a couple day hikes a month and probably one overnight per month. In the winter, I ski 1 to 2 days per week, and backpack in the Central Washington steppe 1 to 2 times over the season. Spring and early summer I usually climb, most often on the Cascade volcanoes. I usually go to the coast in Olympic National Park at least once a year, and try to summit at least one big volcano a year, so the range of locations that I test gear is pretty broad. I also do a 3-mile (4.8km) walk each day with my dog, no matter what the conditions are, and I often evaluate gear during that time.

I played football in college, and have been pretty active my entire life. I have been camping and backpacking as long as I can remember. First in Utah as a child, in Minnesota until I finished college, and here in Washington ever since. I served on the Product Test Committee for Seattle's biggest outdoor gear retailer for a two-year term in the mid-90s, then guided backpacking tours with my wife in Olympic National Park for a few summers. I've been interested in the most recent shift to lightweight thinking for the past few years and really enjoy checking out new ideas and approaches to backpacking.

Reviews > Trekking Poles > Poles > Black Diamond Advance Trekking Poles > Owner Review by Curt Peterson