Adjustable poles. Short for park, little longer for groomers.

Personal preference.

In my case no poles for park, sometimes using poles make my body all stiff(I guess I worry to much about catching something with them) and really affects my style, also when you fall there are less consequences.

And poles (nothing to big) for all-mountain, because you need them some times , especially in deeper stuff

Am I the only one who poles kind of help "spinning" more ? :P it is the only reason a i bring them to the park ... but im kind of affraid of trying new tricks with them ... did anyone ever got hurts badly cause of poles ?

Ajustables poles seems like a great idea ...

I can't stand adjustable poles... Cheap ones always shorten up as you use them and expensive ones are, well, really expensive, especially saying as how I irreparably bend or brake a pair or two a year... What I've done is get somewhat shorter poles (I'm 5'11" and the poles are 115cm). When I'm lapping the park or just carving and jibbing off groomers all day I'll go sans-poles and keep them at the base if I decide I want to use them.

I ditched them a while ago and wouldn't look back.

The only time I'd still use them is skiing steep pow.

They are basically a hangover from the straight-ski click-clack days when pole planting was an important part of skiing technique.

Fuck poles especially in the park. For me they just feel gimmicky and useless. They are always getting in the way and I tend to tense up when I hit rails with them. Only time I use poles are on days where I feel like shredding all mountain only. Other than that they just feel like thing of the past, unless you are into pole planting...

Hiking is also way more enjoyable without poles.

Poles are a very valuable tool for any skier. Poles help with body position, balance, stability, etc... They are definitely not a fad from the past. That being said if you are lapping the park and you want the grabibility that no poles provide then more power to you. As long as your having fun who gives a shit how you do it.

Depends.

i don't know what to do with my hands when i have no poles i start to feel like a ape

I forgot my poles the other day. So I skied without them. It was fun, but my balance was way off, backseat. I had to pretend that I was holding poles to change my stance. The imaginary pole plant helped in the bumps and the trees. When I was skiing powder, I just wanted to drag my hands through it, that threw me way off too.

Other than that, once I got the hang of it, skiing without poles is super fun. Still wouldn't do it tho