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I think it was in about 1995, that I made a set of hiking poles out of anodized blue aluminum tubing with turned wooden handles and a strap that went into a hole on the top of the handle and rubber feet. Serious tribe 2 then went one step further and used two tent poles that had a click stop arrangement that allowed the poles to adjust their height.

Realizing that the idea actually had merit, the adjustment idea that is, I decided to purchase a pair of proper poles, that would have been in about 96/97. I got a pair of yellow and black Charlot Moser Gypsies, which I still use and are battered and scratched to bits, but still work very well and is my oldest piece of gear, having taken about 14 years of punishment and still have life left in them.

Used for river crossings where only the tops of rocks are visible it means you don't have to take off your boots, just make sure you have good balance. For climbing up passes, for descending they have proved to be a good investment and saves the knees. Being able to adjust the height is a necessity, although I think that you only need a two section pole, a three section pole has to many bits to break. Also I prefer a twist lock mech rather than a switch clip lock down, as i know from experience that these plastic mechanisms on tripods tend to break after a while.

We used to have fun with the tissue flingers when they asked if we had been skiing, and said yes that there was plenty of snow up on the top, even when it was summer, .

Two feet good, four feet better!!

So who uses hiking poles, perhaps we can make this into a "pole" .

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My wife suffers from serious vertigo (especially on those paths where the slope drops dramatically down into big air, and always struggled with river crossings due to balance - sore knees after a long day also a problem (in fact, in retrospect I'm not sure why she likes 'berg hiking - maybe its my company after all ??? ).

The purchase of a set of trekking poles has however been a life saver - river crossings cut down from ten to two minutes (seriously!), knees saved, dodgy paths generally easier. All in all I'm all in favour to solve these problems!

As a personal view, I'm a minimalist - too much stuff to carry is never a good thing !

Have you heard of Nordic Walking ? It's a recognised sport in certain (Nordic, I presume) countries, designed to maintain skiing fitness during the summer months. Effectively its power walking on the trail, with the emphasis on using your trekking poles as energetically as you would use your legs. Apparently it burns something like 20% more energy - if you like an invigorating workout, give it a try sometime !

Yes it definitely does burn lots of energy, especially when you are "burning" along the contour path at 6 clicks and hour. After a long hike, my upper body is as sore as my legs just because with the pole, you tend for some reason to want to go faster.

I have also found that coming down very steep grass embankments on passes, the poles can be used to slow you down a bit. I even used them once to self arrest me when i slipped on such a steep grassy bank. I jut rolled onto my stomach and and two handed, dug the one pole into the ground and stopped soon thereafter.

V.useful.

I find them awesome for uphills,downhills and river crossings, but find them annoying on flat sections. But all in all I think they're a good investment!

Yes, my two trustee poles never miss a hike! I find them extremely usefull when ascending and descending. I used them once to pole vault a river in Mnweni when I was too lazy to take my booots off
I find a lot of uses for them around camp like hanging my clothing up and once having used them to hold a "tarp" up in a random rainshower when we were un prepared.

hiking poles - yes i use them ! - have a pin in my left leg - SADF - and i find that the poles are great for all sorts of things - going down is so much easlier with them - able to support yourself - also on flat ground - i agree that it makes you want to walk faster - somehow ?? also agree with mike on the twist lock type - my poles are getting old but still have no faults and have taken a lot of punnishment over the years yet they keep going ! two poles and some cord dry my socks out ! lol