Thanks for all the feedback guys. I went day hiking today out of the Glenn Alpine trailhead near Lake Tahoe. It is amazing how little snow there is in the Lake Tahoe/Desolation Valley area now. I was in my trail running shoes at 8000 ft. in the middle of December with no problems. There was some ice on the trail though at times, but very little snow.

The plan was to go to Susie Lake, but somehow we got off trail headed up some steep cliffs with lots of boulder hopping. Well, we eventually had to come down the cliffs and my fancy Italian made Fizan poles collapsed a little again on the way down. When we got to the bottom of the cliffs, I tightened one pole, pushed on it hard, and the bottom section collapsed up inside the second section entirely. Not exactly confidence inspiring. I want those expanders to hold until the poles bow out. Maybe I'm expecting too much from them. I need to investigate this collapsing pole syndrome more thoroughly.

I may wait until the Black Diamond poles come on sale and report back.