What on earth is a ski pole basket? In this post, I’ll discuss what these are, how to change them and give you a quick rundown of the different ski pole basket types.
A ski pole basket is a fundamental accessory which is attached nearing the tip of the ski pole. It is mainly used to prevent the ski pole from digging too deep into soft, powder-like surfaces such as snow, sand and mud.
These ski pole basket types are universal, meaning they can be used in all different types of powdery surfaces like snow and sand.
The shapes are very varied for these types of baskets but a majority of them use a disk-shaped design and some even have large holes in them to ease the pressure formed when the snow/sand and basket come into contact.
These ski pole baskets are designed for racing through snow-covered terrain, and they're usually smaller than freeride models. They also feature a distinct design that often includes curved triangles on one side of the basket.
Winter Ski Pole Baskets are made using super lightweight metals like Carbon Fibre or Aluminum for better aerodynamics and weight distribution, plastic tends to crack in lower temperatures so they aren’t that commonly used for these types of baskets.
These types of ski pole baskets are used in terrains such as sand and mud. Summer ski pole baskets have a similar size and shape to the standard Freeride baskets, being disk-shaped but with fewer holes and in some cases, a convex shape.