WARNING: Keep your pole straps loose

LC.

LC.

Active member
I don't know about most of you guys, but I always used to ski with my pole straps pretty tight because I normally like to keep a really loose grip on my poles. Well I learned the hard way this year that it's a bad idea. Dislocated left thumb and chipped bone/torn ligament in my right, which made me miss out on the last month of this year's skiing. Both were caused from falling onto an oustretched hand and the grip pushing into my thumb, and would have been completely avoided if I'd had them loose. So for your own safety, keep it loose.
 
i was skiing park with a fucking full arm cast last year it was stuck in L shape i got lotta props when i took my jacket off to sesh
 
Haha you punks. Good job on keeping a smart head with an injury...whatever.

But yah, I use the straps so loose now...or no poles at all. Dislocated my thumb so ofter last season.
 
I hooked a pole in some tree skiing this season and lost it, thankfully. If I had been using the strap I wouldn't have a hand anymore.
 
I was in a half-cast type spint for 3 weeks - one week before surgery and two weeks after. First off, it was hard to hold my pole. I did start skiing park one week after the operation but any impact to my hand in the slightest hurt like hell, and one fall caused my thumb to pop out of the splint and I had to force it back into place. It was the most painful moment of my life, by quite a long way. I was sure I'd re-torn the ligament too. Luckily I hadn't, but it would have been easy, which would have meant going home because there was no way the surgeon would do the same operation for me a week later, and absolutely no chance that my insurance would pay for it again when I had been told not to ski. I got a full cast after a month and was riding 100% again.
 
its not your straps you silly goose, it's because you're holding the grips with your thumb on the underside, and when you stick your arm out to catch yourself, your thumb gets ripped back by hitting the ground. your straps have nothing to do with holding the grip of your pole
 
its all about how you hold them, all you people complaining of skier's thumb, you just hold your poles the wrong way. If you hold your poles correctly, your pole straps should not interfere with your thumbs at all.
 
Silly goose, nice. No really, when I had my straps tight, there was no room for my grip to move from the gap between my thumb and finger when I fell on them. With them really loose, unless you fall completely square onto the front of the grip, your hand will naturally let go of the grip and it will move to either side without putting force on your thumb.
 
i broke the 2 bones in my hand and skiied in a cast..u can ski with a bummed thumb man. go without poles if needed..i survived without them.
 
put the strap around ur hand and put ur hand over the straps....hard to explain but that way it wont pull ur thumb too when u let go
 
for some reason one day i wanted to see if i could poke my pole into a snowfence and pull it out before it got stuck while i was moving pretty fast. it got stuck and luckily it just ripped my glove off...i was stupid.
 
I don't even use the damned things. Somehow I still hold on to them when I fall, and when I don't, it's for the better.
 
I broke my thumb when I was jumping off a brick wall. I didn't even know i broke it until the x-rays showed up cuz it hurt a little bit.

But i was in a cast and it hurt like a bitch when i jerked it, and I still skied.

But I always hold mine in the right position, it pisses me off when people don't.
 
that's what happened to sasha chernenkoff, she tore her ligament off her bone and chipped the bone in her arm from the pole strap, but the only thing thats different about you two is that shes so thuggin that she kept skiing, and competeing with a hurt thumb..one pole steeze whaaat
 
Wow, alot of ignorance in this thread. Keeping your pole straps on keeps your pole closer to your hand (hence the point of the strap) and if you land on the pole and the straps are UNSTRAPPED, you'll be more likely to land on the pole than to let go of it and not hyperextend your thumb, therefore tearing/rupturing/spraining your UCL and possibly fracturing your thumb (avulsion fracture).
 
warning: if you use scott poles, the leather strap for the pole strap... if u go from underneath, up, then down so ur holding ur pole, ur thumb will eventually break....... I skied all winter with a broken thumb and no cast.
 
you are going down a terrian park and in some cases going 70+ feet in the air with risk of falling, why the fuck would you strap something to your wrist that might get caught. its like breathing in cigarette smoke you have to be a fucking moron if you dont believe there are going to be consequences.
 
yeah i dislocated my left thumb too at breck, good thing it was the last day of the year, but a cast for 5 weeks sucked shit. damn polestraps
 
i have leki trigger poles, so normally i dont have the pole straps attached. i tored some ligaments too, because i landed on the pole. when i know i'm going down, i just toss the poles to the side now so i dont have to worry about them getting tangle in the inevitable mess. when i'm actually skiing all mtn though, i put the straps back on because hiking up a steep pitch to get a dropped pole sucks.
 
I like the straps on the higher end Scott poles ( I have some bright orange Deep 6s, sick poles). The strap is designed to have the hand enter from the bottom and grip the strap in the area between the back of the grip and the part of your hand between your thumb and index finger. I haven't had any problems with it, and it makes pole planting easier.
 
I did that this season a few times. Banged it up real good, then repeatedly reinjured my thumb. I got like a giant ass calcium deposit or something in the web of my thumb now, haha. Meh, its worth it.
 
Quizá usted personas mudas caen tanto y ustedes no tendrían que quejarse acerca de romper los pulgares. Si ustedes acutally aterrizó las artimañas que usted trató de realizar que usted no tendría que preocuparse por correas de asta. ¡Yo no prefiero astas de todos modos son apenas más fácil de tratar con y menos dinero!
 
if you use straps properly, you shouldnt have much of a risk of buggering your thumbs & you should be able to easily hold your pole between your thumb & forefinger.
 
I have 2 completely destroyed thumbs...so what I do is this. If you have gloves with the velcro cinch strap on the back of the wrist, put the loop through those then close it up. If you have a small fall its held in place same as around your wrist...but on a major fall or if it gets caught somewhere then the velcro releases and the poll comes off.
 
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