I'm going to go ahead and disagree with the good pole argument. I've had expensive poles both for backcountry and in-bounds, and both have broken immediately. First I had a set of fancy-schmancy carbon poles for in-bounds, and they snapped in three hours--I didn't even crash when it happened. Then last year when I got my first set of adjustable poles ($80, blah) for touring I broke them two turns into my first run. I had to buy another upper section for $25 and haven't broken it since, but they're flexy as hell and make me nervous. The $10 poles I use for resort skiing now have been great, and I'm probably never spending any more than that on poles again.