Leki corklite Trekking poles
When wandering around outdoors, I've always thought that staying upright when hiking saves a lot of aggravation and possible injury. Using hiking poles has saved my beautiful face from being squashed like a bug on more than one occasion.
Helpful on the uphills since they allow you to use your arms to help get you up the hill, they are even more helpful going down. "Down damages" is the motto often heard in long-distance backpacking, and a good set of trekking poles can greatly reduce the impact on your joints.
It's nice to know that instead of grinding your very costly-to-replace knee joints into dust over many years of exciting backcountry travel, you can instead put some of that nasty brute force into the poles. Replacing $6 trekking pole tips is a much more cost effective solution than a double knee replacement.
I've had both my brother and his hiking partner using Leki Corklite and Cristallo trekking poles over the last year, as they attempt to summit all of New Hampshire's 48 peaks over 4,000 feet. With positive feedback from both of them, and with about 300 miles under my belt with them myself, I feel confident to recommend these to anyone who likes their knees just the way they are.
With a price tag of $140 and weighing 19 ounces per pair, they are not the lightest ($150 Ruta Locura Yana CF poles at 7 ounces a pair), nor are they the cheapest ($30 Cascade Mountain CF poles from Costco or Amazon), but they have an excellent warranty and great longevity (the $6 replacement tips seem to wear out about every 2,000 miles or so for me on similar Black Diamond poles)
Helpful on the uphills since they allow you to use your arms to help get you up the hill, they are even more helpful going down. "Down damages" is the motto often heard in long-distance backpacking, and a good set of trekking poles can greatly reduce the impact on your joints.
It's nice to know that instead of grinding your very costly-to-replace knee joints into dust over many years of exciting backcountry travel, you can instead put some of that nasty brute force into the poles. Replacing $6 trekking pole tips is a much more cost effective solution than a double knee replacement.
I've had both my brother and his hiking partner using Leki Corklite and Cristallo trekking poles over the last year, as they attempt to summit all of New Hampshire's 48 peaks over 4,000 feet. With positive feedback from both of them, and with about 300 miles under my belt with them myself, I feel confident to recommend these to anyone who likes their knees just the way they are.
With a price tag of $140 and weighing 19 ounces per pair, they are not the lightest ($150 Ruta Locura Yana CF poles at 7 ounces a pair), nor are they the cheapest ($30 Cascade Mountain CF poles from Costco or Amazon), but they have an excellent warranty and great longevity (the $6 replacement tips seem to wear out about every 2,000 miles or so for me on similar Black Diamond poles)
SUMMARY: A solid pair of competitively priced trekking poles with an excellent weight to strength ratio. Adjustable for a variety of users, and collapsible for easy packing. Comfortable grip contours nicely to the hand, and a well designed top cap provides a good position to "palm" the trekking pole when going downhill (cupping the top of the trekking pole when descending to provide a slightly longer pole length, as opposed to stopping and adjusting the poles to be longer). Cheap and easily replaceable tips provide years of use with hassle-free fixing when the tips finally wear/snap off with extended or hard use. Natural swing weight allows for good striding, and keeps the poles feeling light in your hands. A solid (and now newly designed webbing wrist strap) allows for a more aggressive transfer of weight to the wrists instead of the hands. A+ Recommended for hikers of all ages and styles.