When well chosen and correctly adjusted, hiking poles help you make the most of your mountain and alpine outings. Let's look at their key features.
Even though, unlike nordic walking poles, their use is not essential to the activity, hiking poles can greatly contribute to the success of your outings and provide real enjoyment. For covering long distances or hiking on steep, obstacle-strewn terrain, on slopes or traverses, hiking poles will make your life easier — provided, of course, that you choose them well and use them correctly.
Poles are part of the essential hiking kit, and just like footwear, they play a decisive role in the success of your outings — both during and after the effort. Indeed, hiking poles engage virtually every muscle in the body, thereby sparing the thigh and leg muscles. As a result, for the same effort over the same duration, fatigue and load (particularly if you're carrying a backpack) are spread across the entire body. A hiker using poles tires less quickly, protects their joints — especially the knees — and reduces the risk of injury, both in the short and long term, as poles improve stability and help avoid accidents caused by a fall or a slip, for example.
From materials to size, through to storage systems, let's explore everything you need to know about hiking poles!
The benefits of hiking poles
Improved balance and safety, better posture and endurance, reduced risk of injury and lower-body muscle fatigue — not to mention relief for the lower back and joints — pole use offers multiple benefits when hiking. With them, you can go faster, further and for longer. To enjoy all these benefits, it is essential to choose your hiking poles correctly — that is, to select the ones best suited to your practice, your level and your needs. Once you have the right poles in hand, properly adjusted, you can only be more effective.
How do you adjust your hiking poles?
While nordic walking favours single-section fixed-length poles — particularly to minimise vibrations and keep poles as light as possible — hiking requires the ability to adjust pole length and pack them away easily in a backpack to minimise bulk. Multi-section poles are therefore used, whether telescopic or foldable and adjustable.
If you opt for retractable poles fitted with an adjustment system to adapt the tube length to the terrain, you'll be able to adjust the pole height to get over an obstacle, shorten it on the way up, lengthen it on the way down, and even adjust each pole individually on a traverse.
Telescopic or foldable hiking poles
We've established that in hiking, poles are of the multi-section type — an essential feature allowing you to stow them in your backpack during tricky sections, on flat and even terrain, or simply when heading out on long treks where you won't need your poles at every moment. Within the multi-section pole category, there are two main types of storage system: telescopic or foldable.
- Telescopic poles: these are generally made up of two or three sections and are themselves divided into two categories: screw-lock or clip-lock.
- Screw-lock telescopic poles: length is adjusted using a sliding system — the different sections slot into one another and are screwed together. This is the oldest system, and also the most affordable and probably the most common. Bear in mind that the sections can sometimes come loose during use or become slightly stuck, making unscrewing difficult.
- Clip-lock telescopic poles: introduced after screw-lock telescopic poles, they work on the same sliding principle but the sections clip together rather than being screwed. More reliable, simpler and faster to use than their predecessors, they are only slightly more expensive and do not have the drawbacks mentioned above.
- Foldable poles, also known as collapsible poles: more compact, more resistant and lighter than telescopic poles, foldable poles do not slide into one another but instead interlock. They are even easier and faster to deploy than clip-lock telescopic poles, and therefore more manoeuvrable and less bulky. The different sections, connected by a reinforced cord, detach from one another so they can be folded in a Z shape. Do take care when choosing them, however — most collapsible poles are not all adjustable. If you want to be able to adjust the length of your poles, which we strongly recommend for hiking, choose ones that are both foldable and adjustable.
What size hiking pole do you need?
For the hiker's comfort and safety, and to make the most of the many benefits of poles while hiking, it is essential that the pole length is correctly adjusted. Whether hiking, nordic walking or doing trail, the technique for calculating pole height is virtually the same. You need to put on your hiking shoes, stand upright on flat ground and hold the pole perpendicular to the floor. In this position, your forearm and elbow must form a right angle. This is precisely why the length must be adjustable when going downhill, uphill or on a traverse. Adjustable poles allow you to maintain a ninety-degree angle in all conditions.
Carbon or aluminium hiking poles
Another very important criterion when choosing hiking poles is the tube material. Aluminium or carbon? The choice is mainly between these two materials and deserves careful consideration. Sometimes the tube can be made from a blend that includes fibreglass, particularly for carbon tubes, which are in reality manufactured from a composite of fibreglass, carbon fibre and resin. Let's take a closer look at these two categories.
- Aluminium hiking poles: these are the most common for hiking and also the most affordable option. Particularly sturdy, they are durable, reliable and fairly lightweight. Aluminium almost never breaks — it can bend, but rarely snaps. An excellent choice for beginners.
- Carbon hiking poles: hiking poles can also be made from a carbon fibre alloy, present in varying percentages. Carbon has the advantage of being ultra-lightweight, offering greater lightness than aluminium, though it is also slightly more fragile. However, it absorbs vibrations more effectively, providing better joint protection — which partly explains its higher price.
Telescopic poles: all-terrain use in all seasons
Modern manufacturing techniques allow us to get the most out of our hiking poles for as long as possible, both in terms of durability and year-round use. This is particularly evident with telescopic poles, which are equally suited to mountain outings in fine weather and winter use on snowy terrain.
Telescopic poles are in fact the same whether used for summer hiking or for ski touring or snowshoeing. What changes are the baskets, which must be adapted to the sport and the terrain — which is why they are interchangeable. Small ones are known as "summer baskets" and are used in fine weather. Wide ones are used in snow and prevent the pole from sinking in too deeply. It is also possible to add and swap the tips on your poles to choose the ones best suited to the terrain. They also protect the point (on tarmac, for example), absorb shocks and improve grip.
To round off the durability discussion, where possible opt for tungsten carbide tips, more durable and resistant (but consequently more expensive) than steel tips. And if the option is available to you, note that cork grips are more durable than foam grips, and far more comfortable than rubber or plastic grips.
