Last year I had such problems finding suitable backcountry cross-country skiing poles. They just do'nt have them at regular or even specialized retailers. What's needed is poles with large ringed baskets below like they used to have in the '70s when sross-country skiing started getting to be known instead of the tiny baskets they all have nowadays.
The first poles I had, the red and black one second from left on the pics, were the ones I got with the skis, boots, harnasses, as part of the package deal at the retailer's. I quickly saw that following snowmobiles in deep snow they dug too easly in the snow. Soon thereafter, I broke one of them because I was hitting on a branch with it like an idiot. Fiberglass poles are not indistructable. Old bamboo poles are probably more resistant. And the new poles with the very short tips do not stand up by themselves when you need to ajust something or other. You have to just let them drop to the ground. Inconvenient.
The second poles I used last year was a pair I got from a used materials shop in Sorel. They had lost of old cross-coutry skiing poles but I was limited by choice since I'm over 6 feet tall and poles that fit my hight are not that much in the shop. Anyway, I got the blue and white poles third from left on the pics. Looked like something out of the '80s. Cheap: the baskets broke off on short notice.
Next I got my uncle Jean's old poles, the bamboo poles on the right. They must be from the '70s. He was just as tall as I am, yet these poles are too short for me. Why is it that in those days retailers and specialists advised shorter poles than they do today, I have no idea. Anyway, they are too short to my liking, to modern standards, and too short for backcountry cross-country skiing. But they do have the large ringed baskets.
One evening as I was watching TV, I browsed the web to continue my quest for a pair of backcountry cross-country skiing poles. I did give many chances to the local retailers but to no avail. So on the web at one time I did a chat with one on-line retailer from the states. Nice way of doing business. He proposed a type of poles like I wanted but not of the right length. So I continued to search this model from other retailers and found at
http://www.rei.com/product/743066 just what I needed. I ordered those.
More pic of the unwrapping of the box they came in at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=739480474&aid=97950These, the black ones first on left on the pics, are still available from the same shop but for half the price, $20US instead of the $40US I got them for, and they look improved also! The Alpina ASC Backcountry 160cm Ski Poles were a charm to use and I still use them today one year later. No reservations to them. They are perfectly what I needed. Maybe I'll get another pair for this half price!
Did my real first bike ride of the year. Went to past the town of Saint-Gérard-Majella to do a nice round number of 50km. It's quite an early first ride this year, this the 18th of March. Last year at this date I was doing some cross-country skiing on the St-Pierre lake. We had a record breaking snow accumulation last winter of 2008, so I was doing cross-country skiing right into the first week of April. But this year of 2009 is quite the contrary: Rain in late winter and warm weather before spring equinox makes for better cycling conditions than cross-country conditions.
Another few hours of cross-country skiing in Notre-Dame-de-Pierreville, this time from a point where I was yesterday to farther north, that is from the Pointe Au Moulin to the Pointe De La Grande Commune on the western side of the peninsula and coming back on it's eastern side.
