Break trail through deep snow or tight trees enough times and you'll eventually snap or lose a basket, and once one's gone, that pole is basically useless in powder. The Compact Powder Baskets are the oversized replacement basket built for Black Diamond's Compactor poles, giving you proper flotation so your pole tip doesn't just punch straight through the snow on every plant. They're an easy screw-on swap and cheap enough that most backcountry skiers keep a spare pair in their kit.
SPECS
- Replacement 3/4 powder basket for Compactor ski poles
- Sold as a pair
- Weight: 30 g
- Material: 100% EVA
- Country of origin: Taiwan
BUYERS' GUIDE
A few things worth knowing before you screw these on. First, they thread on, and some people find that fiddly to start, so take your time lining up the threads rather than forcing it. Second, the cutout design matters more than it looks: for pole plants on steep terrain, point the cutout uphill so it faces you on the plant, this keeps the pole from skating out before it bites. Flip it 180 degrees when you're skinning up. Third, several of our customers have noted these baskets can rotate out of that ideal alignment over a day of use since the fit on the pole isn't dead tight, so don't be surprised if you need to give it a quick twist now and then to reset it. If your poles are compatible with the indexed version of this basket instead, that fixes the rotation issue entirely and is worth the small upgrade. And buy at least two pairs. Baskets are notorious for getting left behind in deep snow, and you don't want to end up on a pole with no basket mid-tour.
