Trekking poles: what to do with your hands while hiking?

It is unlikely that there are people left today who have never seen a trekking pole and perceive a person with it as an old man in poor health or a shepherd who has lost his flock. Who is a traveler with a big backpack in the eyes of the majority? Anyone! But a person with a backpack and special telescopic sticks with comfortable handles and lanyard loops for hands is already a serious traveler who needs to ask something about Everest or the snows of Kilimanjaro. Yes, many still do not use this very useful tool, believing that such a tool was created for large mountains, or that only well-fed pensioners in the Alps walk with sticks, but in vain! Today we will answer the question why the world needs trekking poles on a hike.

It is impossible to determine exactly when a person began to use additional support for ascents and descents on hikes and travels. For example, in the Alps, the ancestor of the trekking pole, the alpenstock, was seen in the arsenal of mountain regulars already at the end of the 18th century. Later, a long pole with a metal tip was replaced by ski poles, but due to its fixed size, this option only worked for descent or ascent, and was also difficult to carry. Everything changed in the mid-70s, when German ski masters Leki introduced the world’s first telescopic pole specifically for hiking. What did it give?

The main purpose of trekking poles is to relieve stress on the joints and muscles of the lower body during trekking. Two additional supports transfer part of the load from the legs and spine to the traveler’s hands, elbows and shoulders. Also, the presence of two additional support points significantly increases stability when walking on uneven and slippery surfaces. The folding design is not only convenient for carrying, but also allows you, firstly, to adjust the poles to your height, and secondly, to change their length depending on what awaits the traveler: descent or ascent. By the way, numerous studies have shown that poles are most effectively “unloaded” during descents.

The average length range of poles, consisting of three sections, is 60-140 cm. The size is chosen for flat terrain, based on the rule: the angle between the forearm and shoulder is 90 degrees. Depending on the steepness of the ascent, the poles are shortened, and for the descent, on the contrary, they are increased so that the person does not have to stoop. It is worth noting that even on flat terrain, trekking poles make walking much easier, especially with a heavy backpack on your back, and, as a result, increase the speed and length of distances covered during a hike.

Of course, the list of good deeds that these simple devices are ready to perform is not limited to unloading and support. Sticks provide invaluable assistance when stretching tents and awnings. Today there are even models of ultra-light single-layer tents, the design of which allows you to have two such poles. In an emergency, you can build a stretcher from two pairs to carry the victim, and in an avalanche-prone area, use deeply dug sticks as snow anchors. Well, for dessert: you can use a trekking pole as a flagpole, a device for knocking down apples from a neighbor’s tree, and, finally, as a basis for a selfie stick. By the way, some manufacturers began to develop the topic of photography even before the advent of the fashion for crossbows, equipping the top of the handle with a bolt for a camera tripod socket, turning an ordinary trekking pole into a full-fledged monopod for shooting!