Excellent poles. I questioned the ability to open flip locks with glove on, its extremely easy. Poles are very rigid and have a great design. Love the extended grips by Black Diamond, use lower part for ascending and upper portion for descending w/o changing lengths. Definitely recommended

The tech specs say backpacking and hiking but I've used these to snowshoe and skin up the mountain on my splitboard and they work great. Really light in the pack too. My only complaint would be that when fully stowed the cam locks don't fully lock down on the narrow end and adjusting the screw would cause the cams to be too tight when locking the poles out into hiking mode. Overall very nice and light.

Great all around pole. I use them for glacier travel, skiing, hiking, mountaineering, ect. The flick lock is a great system that is far better then the twist to tighten system of other poles. I love how small they collapse for being able to strap them to a backpack when things get technical. I recently fell while skiing with these poles and somehow managed to crush the top of one pole with my arm (carbon fibers only downfall). Thankfully Backcountry.com has a lifetime guarantee and I had a new pair in three days. BD has changed the lower part of the grip since my last pair and now instead of having a ribbed foam grip like the picture above they have put a simple sandpaper like surface below the main grip. It also now comes with both the winter and summer baskets.

I have used these poles heavily for about one year no, almost daily for several hours. I can assure you that they are very good. Unfortunately one of them broke by my mistake (the carbon can crush) but I got one new. Also the tip of one of them broke loose, but they are replaceable and I have put on a new one. The flip-lock is excellent, never slipps as with other poles. And the grip-material is splendid. Very good to have it down the pole. The poles are besides of nearly no weight. Keep in mind that all the parts are replaceable! So I can surely recommend these poles:-)

Gustav
Norway

Pros: Incredibly lightweight and much more rigid than any aluminum poles I've tried. Recommended for hiking dirt trails (talus destroys these things), and for people who put a lot of weight/trust on their poles. Cons: In one day I snapped the lower section on one pole and the whole tip/basket fell off of the other (granted, it was a 14er with lots of rocks). They max out at 130cm instead of 140cm like other BD poles. The grips are from the same mold as BD's ski poles, which means the fit is very awkward without gloves, and I don't usually hike with gloves on.

Finally a pole that doesn't slip. Removing that weird twist-lock pole has been a nice change of pace. My girlfriend and I day-hiked Mt. Whitney on July 1st and her twist lock poles gave out about dozen times and she was cursing a storm. However, my trusty new flip-lock poles never had a problem. Pay a few more bucks for these poles and another gear headache is solved.

I carried the Alpine CF's for over 3000 miles on my thru-hike of the continental divide and loved them. At first I was skeptical of the carbon fiber, but this proved to be without merit. they were my tent poles as well so the flicklock proved valuable for the quick adjustments and it didn't move like the other companies twistlocks can.

Although this is my first pair of trekking poles, I love 'em! Strong and light weight. Flip-lock feature is easy to use with no slipping. A definitely must have!

As far as poles go, These were the first pair I ever used. I thought I was going to look like a gooner in front of my hiking brethren and I probably did. The important thing here is by the end of our backing or hiking trips someone will ask to use one because they'll see how effective they actually are.
Being able to use your upper body on steep inclines saves energy and takes pressure off your knees. weighing less than 1.30 lbs together and folding down to about 25" makes them easily attachable for the outside of your pack when you don't need them.