Trekking Poles – Critical Gear

Choose the Right Equipment

Why Trekking Poles?

I first became curious about trekking poles only in the past few years. I’ve always seen hiking as something that was between you, your boots, sometimes your hands, and the mountain. Particularly as I’ve aged and my knees have become the limiting factor on steep downhills, I now realize the relief and safety provided by a solid pair of trekking poles.

This brief discussion is meant to provide you with some small insights I’ve learned in my selection and use of trekking poles. Expensive poles might run up to $250 while the cheapest are under $50, so where do you begin?

Luckily, there is only so much to know about these life-saving tools. Oh, wait, did I say life-saving? I stand by that assertion. When you are hiking, you have only one balanced point of contact with the ground. Make a mistake or lose your balance and the consequences can be anything from a slight adrenaline rush to death, and almost every conceivable twisted, broken, torn thing in between.

Where to Start?

When it comes to buying gear, I usually counsel people to start at the lower end and only upgrade once you’ve outgrown the lower quality stuff. This way you 1) know the limitations of the gear, 2) are sure you will be using it enough to justify the upgrades, and 3) can judge the needs for your better stuff. Not so with trekking poles. I would advise you to start with the $80 to $150 range as a budget, which gives you plenty of room to maneuver. You could go cheaper, but for a piece of gear that is designed to keep you safe, reduce effort, and extend your hike, do you really want to go low budget?

This mid-range is going to get you into some of the better poles that will combine lightness with durability and quality to help keep you safe. My personal belief is that you should not entrust your safety to a cheap pair of trekking poles, especially when you find yourself descending very steep, rocky or loose trails.

Which Features?

Poles come in two basic types: 1) multi-section, single length; and 2) multi-section extendable/adjustable. The former will give you the lightest weight and generally lowest cost. They are very strong and you can count on them to always be at the expected height. Because I value the trekking pole most highly when I’m going downhill, I find the single-length pole to give me everything I need. I happen to own the Black Diamond Distance Z poles that weigh 350 grams and cost $80. They are aluminum, sturdy, inexpensive, and very light. Black Diamond offers a similar pole in carbon fiber that cuts weight to 290 grams and doubles the price.

When it comes to buying gear, I usually counsel people to start at the lower end and only upgrade once you’ve outgrown the lower quality stuff…not so with trekking poles.

The extendable poles offer you a multitude of heights that will let you loan your poles or adjust height for climbing, hiking, sidehilling, and descending. The extensions add weight to your setup, so this is one tradeoff. The second tradeoff is keeping the torque adjustments carefully set for the adjustment cams. If they are too light, your pole will slowly (or quickly) collapse on you while you use it. If they are too tight, you may have great difficulty in working the cam. Generally, the adjustables are roughly the same price, perhaps a little more than the single-lengths in the better poles. The Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Corks that I have weigh in at 475 grams and will set you back about $150.

Side-by-side. Black Diamond Distance Z and Alpine Carbon poles.

Weight is always a consideration when hiking. The good news is weights are pretty low and reasonable in that $80 to $160 price range. For a starter pole, it is hard to beat the strong Black Diamond Distance Z aluminum poles. They are very light and strong and inexpensive. Be sure you get the right length though. I find the single-length to be plenty adequate and I tend to get a size longer than I would for say a ski pole. If I’m standing straight with my upper arms at my side and my lower arm bent 90 degrees, I want my hand on the pole immediately below or just straddling the bottom of the grip. This helps me with my descents.

Cork grips offer a little better feel than foam grips, in my opinion, and represent a modest cost upgrade but add a tiny bit of weight. I prefer them. I’ve never tried the ergo grips. They may work for you, but you may be better to start with vertical standard grips and switch out to ergos when you find out they work better for you. Shock-absorbing grips might be nice in many situations, but I don’t have any experience with them. They add weight and cost, and I don’t want anything but very solid contact between me and the rocks.

So, here is where I would start:

• Aluminum single-length poles with foam or preferably cork grips. These can be easily replaced given their price, if you break them, and can be bent back straight when you bend them. They are very light.
• Carbon fiber adjustable poles with cork grips. These get spendy due to carbon fiber, but this keeps the weight down to something reasonable. If you must have adjustable length, I’d recommend you bump to carbon fiber to keep weight down.

Summing Up

Keep in mind that these are just my own personal observations, having only owned a few pairs of poles; however, my wife and I did put a 5,000 foot ascent and resulting 5,000 foot descent on each of the suggested styles above. We had one mishap that resulted in a slight bend added to the aluminum poles, but I was able to straighten them to nearly-original. I believe if the carbon fiber poles had taken the same fall, we’d likely have been fully one pole short for the remainder of the descent.

I don’t particularly find the adjustability to be worth the hassles. I’m fairly strong, and so I can tighten the cams to finally grip the segments enough to prevent partial collapse, but I’m pretty sure most women and some men won’t find the compromise worthwhile. I give the slight nod to purchase of the aluminum single-height poles and splurge on the cork grips.

A side note is that trekking poles have alternate uses. They can be used to stabilize a hunting rifle, a spare tent pole, or even a defensive weapon if such is desired, perhaps to keep stray dogs at bay or other unforeseen pests. Surely, although I’ve not tried it, they can be used to dry clothes or even improvise a clothes line.

I’ve heard it said that trekking poles can reduce the work required to climb a mountain by up to 30 percent. There are numerous papers that declare the efficacy of trekking poles in reducing damage to your joints and connective tissues in downhill applications. Combined with the additional stability they provide you, there are very few reasons that you would not consider buying a pair, or two, in my opinion. Helps in climbing effort, saves your legs for later years, and helps prevent nasty spills. The trifecta tells me these guys are a no-brainer. Go forth and trek!