Walking Poles: What You Need to Know
With summer just around the corner, and planning for the tramping season getting underway, we took a deep dive into the world of walking poles. We’ve put together a useful guide to help you decide whether you’ll need poles for an upcoming trip. We talked to Glenn Campbell at Mountain Adventure, which distributes walking poles in NZ, about his top tips for choosing poles and how to use them.
The Advantages: Safety First
Poles boost safety by increasing stability, thereby preventing slips, trips and falls, the most common cause of ACC tramping injury claims. They’re especially useful when walking downhill on loose rocks or scree, and navigating slippery tree roots and uneven ground. Equally, they’ll help your stability when heaving yourself and your heavy pack up tussock-covered or rocky inclines. They’re also useful for testing the depth and current when river crossing, and keeping your footing as you cross.
There are health benefits too. Poles improve posture when you’re carrying a heavy pack, providing more even weight distribution, and thereby reducing the load on your legs and protecting your knees and other joints. This will pay dividends in the longer term, with better joint health. Walking with poles also enables your chest to open, allowing easier breathing by widening your chest, especially when walking uphill.
When it’s muddy or there’s water on the track, poles come in handy to check how oozy the mud is or deep the puddle, so you can choose the best route through.
Do You Need Poles for Your Next Trip?
If you're trying to decide whether you need poles for an upcoming trip, ask yourself the following questions:
- How long is the overall trip and the estimated walking time for each day? Am I likely to feel fatigued at some point?
- Are there steep sections?
- Is there likely to be scree or slippery, steep sections?
- How did my body feel last time I went on a walk? Check in with yourself.
- What do other trampers suggest? Search the track in Plan My Walk and read the track reviews to see if others recommend poles.
One Pole or Two?
Glenn Campbell at Mountain Adventure says two poles are preferable to one. Two poles give you greater balance and stability, and enable a quick response on one side, should you need to re-balance yourself at any time. With folding poles, it’s easy to store a pole if you think that you only need one for gentler terrain or you need one hand free.
How Long (or Short)?
When using poles, Glenn’s rule of thumb is to keep your forearms as close to right angles with your body as possible, as this will ensure you’re not overworking your shoulders. When setting the length, make sure you’re standing on flat ground.
To maintain the optimum length of your pole, you’ll have to make adjustments with the changing terrain. Walking downhill requires a longer pole, while for uphill, the pole needs to be shorter. When traversing steeper terrain sideways, such as down a scree slope, you can shorten the uphill pole and lengthen the downhill pole to maintain a level posture, too.
Does the Strap Matter?
Yes, the wrist strap is an important part of the pole, says Glenn, as it effectively distributes weight across your wrist as well as your hand. With the strap around your wrist, there is also less fatigue in gripping the poles as the weight of your arm is supported through the wrist joint, whilst still allowing your wrist to flex with the motion of the pole as you walk. Using the strap also means you won’t lose your pole if you drop it.
For the best use of the strap, put your hand through the strap from the bottom before clasping the handle. Your thumb should be on top of the strap with the bottom of the strap around your wrist.
What About the Snow Basket?
Snow/mud/trekking baskets are the flat, round rubber attachment that can be screwed or pushed onto the end of the walking pole. These are designed to stop the pole from sinking too far into the ground, preventing you from having to stop and wrestle them out.
While these attachments are great for winter hiking through snow or walking through mud (hence their name), they’re also useful on other soft (non-snowy/muddy ground) to stop the pole from over sinking.
Now, Stride Out
For the greatest stability when walking with poles, Glenn says to swing your left pole forward in synch with your right foot, and your right pole in synch with your left foot. The tip of the pole should hit the ground in parallel with the corresponding foot.
If it’s your first time with poles, be patient, says Glenn, as this new style of walking can take a bit of practise before you master it.
The Nuts and Bolts (and Construction)
Carbon fibre or aluminium? Glenn suggests carbon fibre for the pack-weight conscious but with the caution that this light-weight material has its downsides – it can bend and snap if caught between rocks and leveraged under too much weight.
If you’re hard on your gear, aluminium, although heavier, might be your best option, says Glenn.
Cam/lever lock or screw? The length of the pole is adjusted with either a cam/lever lock or screw. Which mechanism is best is, again, personal choice, says Glenn. The cam or lever lock, however, is the fastest way to adjust your pole – so less mucking around on the track.
In a nutshell: 5 tips for using your poles
- Keep your forearms at right angles to your body.
- Use the straps to distribute weight across your wrists.
- Attach the snow/mud basket to stop over sinking.
- When striding out, keep your pole in sync with the opposite foot.
PHOTO CREDIT: Shaun Barnett.