Gloria said:skiing on piste with your straps on is no big deal. Especially if you are pushing across flats or on traverses. It's truly in the backcountry
or in the trees where they become a problem. I have gotten out of the habit of skiing with them on at area because I do ski the trees alot and now that my daughter is skiing I do more yo-yoing than true backcountry skiing. I simply don't want to get caught in a tree well and need my arms to free myself or clear an air pocket to breath and realize that I forgot to take my straps off and I can't move my arms. Let alone the risk of snagging them.
Unfortunately I have heard that the break away straps are good for most situations except being stuck in a tree well ( the most common risk of tree skiing ). If you don't ski the trees frequently, yo-yo or ski in the backcountry, you are probably safe with them on and probably not in anymore immediate danger than you would be with them off. If you are skiing in the backcountry or deep snow and losing your poles from putting them in the snow too deeply, try a larger basket designed for deeper snow.
I've been caught in a tree well. The pole straps were on and were not an issue at all. It was easy to move my hands to clear my face with the straps on, and easy to remove them when I wanted to. It wasn't easy to get out of the tree well - but that had nothing to do with my poles - that was just because I was bent in half with my feet stuck up over my head. I finally worked out a rhythm to take a deep breath, wiggle (which would bury me in snow from above again), clear my face, and repeat. Eventually I worked my way out. On another note - since that happened 5 years ago, my husband and I bought whistles which we wear on our jackets. My husband and friend were less than 100 feet away and I could hear them talking, but they couldn't hear me screaming my head off because I was muffled under the snow. That was really the scary part. I even had an avy beacon on, but they didn't know to look for me, so it wouldn't have done any good. They thought I had just kept on skiing down to the lift.