This is the new 2007 model with carbon upper and lower section. Very sturdy and great with fliplock. Minor issues: It does NOT have the forwarding handle, picture shown was 06 model as of this writing. Depends on your style, it may or may not matter; The binary adjustment may sound and look cool but is held together by friction and a tiny metal clip, almost impossible to get a perfect fit. If not, the pole rattles and clicks when planted; On steep ascend, wish it was shorter than the minimum allowed by the binary; The tip is round and may not bite well on bare rocks, I like the one with daisy shaped teeth. Both this site and Black Diamond have excellent service, offered great help.

I had the Black Diamond Terra CF for about 2 years. I bought this over many other poles because of the design. It is very light and the handle (also with the cork) design makes this pole very comfortable. When walking down a terrain, you can palm over the top of the cork and brace for impact or grip the black foam when going up the terrain. The cork handle fits very comfortably in the palm. Most of the parts are replaceable. Recently I hiked the Appalachian Trail and the “binary adjustment lock” breaks causing the lower aluminum shaft to collapse with every impact. The con of this product is that (unlike the Leki locking mechanism) over an extended use during the trail the mid shaft does have a tendency to slowly collapse into the upper shaft which requires constant readjustment.

After I had my ACL replaced my doctor advised me to purchase a set of trekking pole for backpacking trips.
These poles are very light weight and prefect for bad knees.