Those Darn Slipping Pole Straps!

Up until the early 1980s pole straps were pretty simple - a loop from the top of the pole that you put your hand up through.  The trick was adjusting the length of the strap so that you minimized the slippage of the strap on your hand while skiing.

Those of us who skied a lot way-back-when developed little tics - wrist flicks and such to adjust the pole strap back into position mid stride, without stopping or using both hands, etc.

I had always wondered why I developed the ability to do this with my left hand way better than with my right hand.  I'm a righty, so it would make sense that I could do it well with both hands.  But it really was one of those things that I couldn't master - like if you tried to write with the "wrong" hand.

Recently I started using again what are now known as "biathlon straps" - simple loops that some biathlon racers employ to make it easy to get their poles off and on when coming in and out of the range.  My reason was that I do a lot of long training classic skis in preparation for marathons, and am constantly taking my poles on and off for one reason or another - food, drink, adjust clothing, (check phone!!) etc.  The simple strap system makes this much easier, and given that I grew up with this system it wasn't a big leap.

Well it turns out that even in this millennium the simple pole strap system can slip.  So back I was to my left-handed wrist flick.  I noticed, however, that I didn't do this nearly as often with my right hand.  Hmmm...

Not sure if it was due to years of unnecessary graduate education, but it dawned on me - given that I am right-handed, my right hand is LARGER than my left.  So if the straps are the same length, the one of the left hand will be looser, and slip more.  I also recalled that back in the day I would make sure that my straps were adjusted the same length, which to my adolescent brain made sense -  except it didn't - given my point above.

With a shorter loop on the left hand pole the strap now slips....less.  "Biathlon straps" aren't the perfect system but they do have their advantages, just like the snug comfy modern ones do.