I'm also a happy alpine carbon cork camper.
I can also offer up some advice on not what to get- any of their (Black Diamond) adjustable z- poles. The concept is great, but there is a design flaw somewhere. I broke a pole during the Bob Marshall Open on a stream ford- it's possible any pole would have broken- not sure. Anyways BD graciously sent me a new pair (for some reason they don't have singles????). Six month later during a snowshoe trip my buddy said one of your poles in bent- yup sure enough it was- right at the same spot the other broke. Called BD and that said hmmm- we'll replace it. This time I went with a heavier aluminum pole (but same adjustable z pole design). A year later on a trip I broke one of those- same exact spot. I told them this was the third pair and they all broke in the same spot, so they suggested I go with the alpine carbon corks and so far, so good with these. They've been through some hellacious talus too where I would occasionally jam one between two rocks and put more pressure on the pole than I wanted, but they've held.
Interestingly I have one of the original pairs of carbon z-poles- fixed length though, that I used to use for running and they're still good to go, BUT they don't get subjected to the same abuse as traveling off trail through rock. So unsure if it's all z-poles, or just the adjustable length z ones?????
