Thread: Recommendations for hiking poles

Went up rangiwahia to triangle hut on Friday.
Well the descent into triangle took a tole.on the young (30yr) old knees. They were screaming when I saw the hut. I'm definitely coming up with a nock name for that track.

I'm fine chugging.up hill but my knees just hate going down. Any recommendations on some.poles that'd help the knees out would be awesome.

Heaps of sign around btw, no venison for.me though.

Did see two whio first thing in the morning outside triangle hut which was cool though.

I’ve got the Macpac carbon poles. Work well, had them since 2020.

I’ve used some Macpac carbon fibre poles (borrowed) and have bought some naturehike ones. My advice is go for the lightest ones you can afford.

Flash ones will break just as well as cheap ones.
Go somewhere like H&F and check out their rack. Get a set of cheapies that you like the look of. No point snapping a flash one while you work out how to use them.

we've got 2 pair of the mackpac A3 (Aluminium 3 piece) poles but also got an AliExpress set that I used to use weekly. Ive given both types hell but the AE ones stopped me going backwards off a cliff and took almost all of my weight without bending.
The carbon will be much lighter though
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32361878488.html

I have a mate with these and swears they are the best pole he's ever used ( compared to any straight handle design)
Worth consideration.
https://pacerpole.com/

Originally Posted by RUMPY

I have a mate with these and swears they are the best pole he's ever used ( compared to any straight handle design)
Worth consideration.
https://pacerpole.com/

These are the recommended ones by a lot of long distance hikers overseas and a few in this country too, such as Pacific Crest Trail, Te Aroha etc.

Mother natures been making them since time immortal

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....-poles-102495/

I remember reading a study years ago that said the weight of walking poles had a negligible effect on energy consumption compared to the savings in having them to start with.
Having used both fancy poles and big sticks I can't say I really noticed a difference, so I'd just get a cheap set.

I've had a few cheap sets - the twist adjustment has crapped out on more than one. Whatever you get, make sure it has the lever-type adjustment.

Get lever clamp or Z pole folding type. The twist lock types fail, either getting stuck or slipping.
Alloy pole slightly heavier, but there's a chance you can bend them back if you ever take a big tumble onto top of them and bend them.
Carbon less chance they'll fail in that situation, and lighter, but if they do fail then they're buggered.
I use carbon pole from Aliexpress. About $100.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3295...Cquery_from%3A

One reason to go for the telescopic over folding style is if you ever use them as shooting sticks. The telescopic ones give you a much greater range of functional length - when shooting across the slope you may need one at full length and the other fully compressed to get the best points of contact

I have been using a set of carbon pacer poles since around 2014, a bit rough looking now but have worked great except for me buggering up one of the torque tighteners whacking a possum that kept trying to move in with me under a tarp. Epoxied it up and still use it though not quite as collapsible now. Only drawback compared to a straight pole is not very comfortable if you just want to take a single stick and swap between hands depending on direction of sidle. Find them a lot more effective when striding it out with the pair.

Avoid the folding ones, I've seen many get stuck in muddy ground and pull apart upon the next step