The shorter ski pole (continued)

One significant element I forgot to mention in the discussion about selecting the right length pole is to pay attention to the ratio between torso and leg length. Skiers with longer legs in relation to their torso should end up using longer poles and vice-versa...

Now, here are a few responses from my French skiers friends to that blog:

Anselme Baud, the extreme skier, added the important speed element I had missed: “Obviously new easy-turning skis and high-speed are making turns that much easier. Without speed there's no turn! Now, when you combine manicured groomed runs with speed, poles become useless. Furthermore, expert skiers have rediscovered the virtues of leaning forward – moving away from Georges Joubert's backward stance! - so when speed is combined with aggressive leaning inside a turn, pole use becomes a mute point. On the other hand, when a skier is out of bounds, in deep or difficult snow or tricky terrain, speed generally goes down and longer poles become again a vital element. Snowboarders know that too well...”

Catherine Muffat, Cyprien Richard's former ski coach, who is slightly shorter than me, sounded like a contrarian when she stated: “I now use 50” poles instead of the 48 and even 46” poles I had 25 years ago!

Says Alain Tomamichel, ski-shop owner in Les Deux Alpes, France: “Might be interesting to take this guy into 2 feet of fresh snow with poles that are 5 to 10 cm shorter and see how well he does...”

Jean Barbier, the former French distributor for Leki poles agreed with my points and said: “Pole length has nothing to do with ski length and everything to do with a skier's height. I see in that effort to promote shorter poles an attempt to boost pole sales on the part of companies that have nothing new to bring to the table and that think that skiers will bite into this questionable hook...”

Then, Léon Empereur, a ski instructor from Val D'Isère and mentor to Sasha Rearick, Ligety's head coach, concluded quite appropriately in remarking that adjustable poles would quickly settle that discussion. His point was so obvious that I had not even thought about it...