First chair doesn't necessarily mean fresh snow every time, but it can mean fresh corduroy to carve following a snowless evening. The Arctic S3 Ski Poles provide Salomon's speed-driven performance on groomer days like these. Their alloy shafts might be slightly frostbitten from the crisp, blue sky, but they slice through the air when you're carving at your fastest, and the S3 strap auto-releases if you end up sliding down the hill.