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Re: Walking poles

Thank you to all for the helpful replies, it is great to have such a pool of knowledge to draw upon. I am looking forward to May and hopefully sharing some Challenge experiences!

Re: Walking poles

Hey Wilf!

I use walking poles, but I'm relatively young with strong knees, so I generally only use them for ascents or descents. On the rare occasion that I want to travel really fast, they can help take some of the load off your legs.


I also so you a Henry Shires Tarptent, which uses 1 stick as a pole. I have absolutely loved it, but have found it slightly less resilient to weather than it's compatriots.

Re: Walking poles

Hi Wilf,

I have used walking poles for 20 years. The science says they take some load off your legs. The benefits they give me are: (1) More power / speed for ascents and flat walking, (2)braking effect when going down hill, (3) stability on rough terrain, (4) excellent '3rd leg' for fording rivers, (5) pole vaulting over streams and bogs (they take quite a weight!), and finally (6) they hold my 'Notch' Tarptent up. I use Cotswold's Fitzan Ultralight poles at 330g for the pair. They are good and importantly, they are far cheaper than other poles. I used to use poles with shock absorbers - they are fine if you are walking on hard surfaces but as a qualified physiotherapist I remain sceptical about the advertising suggesting they reducing repetitive strain on wrists when walking cross country. Related to your question, my Notch Tarptent uses walking poles. I am 189cm tall and it fits me far better than my TN Laser Comp. The Notch has uses 4 or 6 pegs depending on the weather. I use 2 carbon pegs from my TN Laser Comp and 4 Ti V pegs (Alpkit do a great deal) for stormy weather.

Best wishes,

Simon