Black Diamond does it again

As you can read in my post of the 25th I broke my pole while skinning at Deer Valley. This is a pair of Black Diamond carbon poles bought back in 2005. The upper shaft is aluminum and the lower part is carbon fiber to keep the weight down. They also have what BD calls a “Flicklock closure” that ensures the ability to adjust the pole length when transferring from the up-track to downhill skiing. Although they don’t actually give them away (count about $100.00+) this has been a great product and as far as I am concerned a great value. With that level of attachment I was a bit apprehensive about the prospect of having to buy a whole new pair just for breaking the one (typically the case when it comes to ski poles). And if they would agree to sell just a lower shaft, I knew they kinda had me over a barrel – talk about captive audience… And what would that do to pricing? Well I went down there yesterday and not only do they sell just the one half of a shaft but the price was just $15.00 for what amounts to the better part of a quarter of a pair of poles. It is in moments like this that going with the slightly higher priced vendor with the superior product and service is completely rewarded. This is not the first time I get superior service at BD and that is also why they have been listed under the preferred vendor since the very beginnings of this blog; They are listed under "The Whippet Resource Center", see first link to the right under "Useful BC links".