Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL trekking poles | Tested and reviewed

Due for release in spring/summer 2025, Leki says its Skytera FX Carbon SL pole has been designed for “minimum profile” with “maximum performance”.

That’s a fair analysis. This nifty trekking pole is genuinely ultralight (182g), with a thin, streamlined and minimalist shape, akin to trail running poles. This may polarise opinion. Will you love the low weight and compact pack-away or hate the lack of reassuring heft and sturdy thickness?

The Skytera FX Carbon SL (£190/$209.95) features a hybrid design, fusing the two main design techniques – Z-shaped and telescopic – into one pole. It’s a four-part pole, but the top two segments slide together in a telescopic style, secured via a lever clamp lock.

This effectively transforms the Skytera into a three-part pole which can then fold away compactly in the classic Z-shaped orientation. Collapsed down, it’s just 40cm long and fits superbly in your backpack side pockets. Once erected, it’s adjustable from 110cm to 130cm.

The Skytera is made entirely from carbon, with carbide tips, minimalist trekking baskets, a highly breathable leash and an extended foam hand grip with a minimalist, non-contoured design. All-round performance is first-rate, but it’s certainly better suited to hikers who move fast, light and nimbly through the mountains.

Design, locking mechanism, materials and durability

This pole is ultralight, streamlined, thin and minimalist. It has lots in common with trail running poles and it looks like one. It certainly has a very thin profile. This may polarise opinion: some will love the low weight and simplistic, compact shape; others will see it as lacking in sturdiness and strength.

Which camp will you be in? If you love being fast, light and nimble, this pole is a winner. If long-term durability and a strong, solid design are more important to you, it’s best to look elsewhere.

The Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL is a hybrid, fusing the two main design techniques – Z-shaped and telescopic – into one pole. This is how it works. It’s a four-part pole, with four separate segments. But, thinking from the top downwards, the second section slides upwards into the top section (the part with the grip) in a telescopic style.

This effectively combines the top two segments into one, thus turning the Skytera into a three-part pole that can then fold away compactly in the classic Z-shaped orientation. In many ways, it’s the best of both worlds.

The locking mechanism, which enables the adjustability and versatility between the top two pole segments, is a lever-style clamp lock. Leki calls this a “core locking device”, or CLD for short, describing it as “sleek and lightweight” with the ability to “quickly deploy the poles or fold them into three sections”.

Based on our assessment, the locking mechanism appears to grip strongly and securely, with a solid design. It can also be adjusted on-the-go easily via an in-built, grooved, circular dial.

In terms of materials, the Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL is made completely from carbon. It feels well-constructed and pretty solid, but – at the same time – strength and durability are not its top-performing metrics. This pole is ultralight, with a thin profile, and it’s certainly not as bombproof as much heftier aluminium poles.

We never felt too worried about the pole during our test hikes and we certainly didn’t encounter any specific issues or concerns, but it’d be fair to say that with a pole as light and streamlined as this, there’s always a slight thought at the back of your mind that you need to take care.

All ultralight carbon poles are super-strong under top-down, vertical loads, but they are vulnerable to snapping or breaking if placed under horizontal pressure, so we always took care to not bend this pole over rocks or lever our body weight accidentally in a horizontal direction.

Length, adjustability, weight and portability

This pole delivers the best of both worlds: it’s ultralight and adjustable. Often you only get one or the other of these benefits, not both, but the Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL is rare in achieving the two simultaneously. It’s a big bonus.

On our scales, the Skytera FX Carbon SL clocks in at just 182g per pole (the Leki website says 178g). This is genuinely light, offering a big weight saving compared to many others. It feels very light, nimble and easy to handle when you’re in the mountains – we’re big fans.

For comparison, the Skytera FX Carbon SL is 26g per pole lighter than even the fixed-length Black Diamond Pursuit Carbon Z (208g) and 45g per pole lighter than the Komperdell Carbon C3 Pro (227g), but it’s 13g per pole heavier than the ultralight Fizan Compact (169g).

The Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL is adjustable from 110cm to 130cm (in the standard version), so there is a decent size range to suit hillwalkers of different heights. You can easily adjust the pole length on-the-go via the lever clamp locking mechanism, making it longer for descents and shorter for ascents to suit your preference. It all works fine.

Some poles have broader size ranges of up to 35cm, but it’s unlikely you’ll ever need this much variation. For shorter individuals, a compact version of the Skytera FX Carbon SL is adjustable from 100cm to 120cm. It weighs 173g per pole.

In terms of portability, the standard-sized Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL is superb too, with the pole packing down to a super-compact, minimalist length of just 40cm.

This is about as short as poles get when packed down, and is the same size as the fixed-length Black Diamond Pursuit Carbon Z. This size fits excellently into backpack side pockets and makes carrying the poles hassle-free.

If you want a fixed-length version of the Skytera, the Leki FX.One Carbon costs £185 ($189.95), weighs 181g per pole and packs down to 37cm long.

Hand grips, leashes, baskets and pole tips

All of the components and parts of the Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL feel premium, tailored to strike a fine balance between lightness and performance. The replaceable pole tips are made from carbide and, based on our initial test hikes, deliver good grip and traction.

The minimalist baskets, which are not the widest we’ve ever seen, still do their job at preventing the pole sinking too deep into mud or bog – or you can switch in wider winter or snow baskets, if preferred.

But it’s the hand grip which is the most striking design feature of this pole. First up, the leash is a D-loop mesh strap that’s “ultralight, fast-drying and stable in shape” with low liquid (sweat and rain) absorption and top-tier breathability, according to Leki, and it’s also easily adjustable via a fast-opening cap.

It works well enough and it’s certainly lightweight and well-designed for faster activities. Although, in all honesty, we’ve never really been massively offended or wowed by various strap designs from different brands. For us, at least, it’s never a deal-breaker feature.

The way Leki describes the leash strap in such pedantic, comprehensive detail is also symptomatic of the brand. It really lives and breathes trekking poles, and its expertise and attention to detail is bordering on obsessional. Leki is nothing if not a brand of geeky pole boffins.

Leki is similarly perfectionist in its approach to hand grips, offering several high-tech, precisely-engineered options across its ranges. Here you get Leki’s new “significantly lighter” Verticon grip made from 1K foam.

Leki describes it in excessive detail as follows: this new grip design “combines the ergonomic Aergon grip with the lightness of the Spartan grip, making it perfect for alpine adventures”; it’s “lightweight and comfortable, with the grip contour of LEKI’s Trail Shark”; the grip has the “correct angle providing ergonomic support for a relaxed wrist” and a “speed shape for more control due to flat edges on the sides of the grip”; while the “grip extension has round grinding for an even better grip”.

We’ll try and put this in layman’s terms. In our eyes, the foam is quite firm with just a touch of give. It's not as contoured as many others. There are no specific curves or ergonomic notches to direct your finger placement.

Instead the grip is gently rounded at the front and back, with more angular edges on the sides, while the top is oval shaped. It all feels quite simple and basic, with minimalism at the heart of the design.

The angular edges feel a little different, possibly odd, at first, but over time we got used to it. Overall we found the main hand grip comfy enough and it didn’t ever cause us problems. But we’d probably describe the all-round grip comfort levels as mid-range rather than exceptional.

You also get decent length to the grip extension, which continues down the shaft of the pole for 10cm extra below the main hand grip (full grip length is 25cm). Again this design is simplistic, as it’s just rounded foam, with circular indents to add a bit of ridged grip to the feel. But it works well enough.

Verdict

The Leki Skytera FX Carbon SL Trekking Pole is a superb, cleverly-designed carbon pole with length adjustability, but the ultralight and minimalist trail-running style may polarise opinion.

About the author

James Forrest writes regular features and route guides for Trail and has been one of our main gear testers for the last few years. James is based on the edge of the Lake District so when he isn’t off on his latest crazy adventure or challenge, he’s walking in his local fells.