PRB

I think you've put your finger on the issue. The "puck" is for that Haute Route style lever rather than the Raider style lever.

I've gotten the icing, too, and it's definitely a thing in PNW temperatures and snow.

I've only ever seen aluminum break like this if it was dinged or scored. Did the poles take a hit? (FWIW, I've only damaged the plastic parts of my Batons, and then only in heli baskets or jumbled up in roof-top boxes on cold days.)

If you do need to replace one, the top caps are a pain to get off, but here's what I did. First, I broke the top part of the cap off when trying to tug on it with some channel locks, so don't do that. (Turns out that it's glued on, so that wasn't going to happen anyway.) Next, I went to the hardware store and bought a washer and lag screw and then threaded the lag screw into the the portion of the cap down in the aluminum shaft. I grabbed a decommissioned dyneema runner, girth hitched one end over the h...

Took some wrestling, but I managed to get the ATK leashes attached to the ATK Raider 12 (and FreeRaider 14) in a satisfactory (to me) manner. I was completely unable to figure out how to use the little puck thing that ATK provides, as were all of the various techs/ski mechanics I talked to. The girth hitch approach requires strong fingers and some force, but it doesn't get in the way of the binding function.