Properly chosen and correctly adjusted, hiking poles help you get the most out of your alpine and mountain outings. Let's look at their key features.
Unlike Nordic walking, where poles are mandatory, hiking poles are not strictly essential for outdoor trekking, but they will dramatically improve your outings and overall comfort. To cover long distances or hike over rugged terrain, rocky trails, steep climbs, and off-camber slopes, hiking poles make life much easier—provided you choose them wisely and use them correctly.
Poles are a fundamental part of your hiking kit, and just like good or bad footwear, they play a decisive role in the success of your hikes—both during and after the effort. Hiking poles engage virtually all upper-body muscles, significantly relieving your thighs and legs. As a result, for the same effort over the same duration, fatigue and pack weight are distributed across your entire body. A hiker using poles tires less quickly, protects their joints (especially the knees), and reduces the risk of injury over both the short and long term. By boosting stability, poles also prevent slips and falls.
From materials and sizing to locking systems, explore everything you need to know about hiking poles!
Benefits of hiking poles
Better balance and safety, improved posture and endurance, reduced risk of injury and lower-body muscle fatigue, not to mention relief for your lower back and joints—using poles brings a wide range of benefits when hiking. They let you go faster, further, and keep going for longer. To get the most out of these benefits, it is essential to choose your hiking poles properly, picking the ones best suited to your activity, level, and needs. Once you have the right poles in hand, adjusted correctly, you will inevitably perform better.
How to adjust your hiking poles
While Nordic walking favours fixed-length, single-piece poles—mainly to minimise vibration and keep weight as low as possible—hiking requires adjustable poles that pack down easily into a rucksack to save space. That is why we use multi-section poles, either telescopic or adjustable folding models.
If you opt for collapsible poles fitted with an adjustment system to adapt shaft length to the terrain, you can resize the pole to clear an obstacle, shorten it on ascents, lengthen it on descents, or adjust each pole individually on traverses.
Telescopic vs folding hiking poles
As mentioned, for hiking, poles are multi-section—an essential feature for stowing them in your backpack on technical sections, easy flat terrain, or during long treks when you do not need them constantly. Within multi-section poles, there are two main pack-away systems: telescopic or folding.
- Telescopic poles: they typically feature two or three sections and come in two main locking mechanisms: twist-lock or lever-lock (clip).
- Twist-lock telescopic poles: the length adjusts via a sliding mechanism; the sections slide into one another and tighten by twisting. This is the oldest system, the most economical, and probably the most common. Be aware that the sections can slip loose while walking or jam slightly, making them tricky to unscrew.
- Lever-lock (clip) telescopic poles: developed after twist-lock systems, they use the same sliding design, but the sections clamp together with an external lever rather than twisting. More reliable, simpler, and quicker to operate, they cost only slightly more and avoid the drawbacks mentioned above.
- Folding poles, also known as Z-poles: more compact, stronger, and lighter than telescopic poles, folding poles do not slide inside each other but slot together. They are even faster and easier to deploy than clip-lock telescopic poles, making them more manageable and less bulky. The sections, connected by a reinforced cord, separate to fold into a Z-shape. Be careful when choosing, though: most Z-poles are not adjustable. If you want to be able to adjust the length of your poles—which we strongly recommend for hiking—choose poles that are folding and adjustable.
What size trekking pole do you need?
For comfort, safety, and to reap the full benefits of poles on the trail, getting the length right is essential. Whether hiking, Nordic walking, or trail running, the technique to find the right pole height is virtually identical. Put on your hiking shoes, stand upright on flat ground, and hold the pole vertically against the floor. In this position, your forearm and elbow should form a right angle (90 degrees). That is precisely why adjustable length is vital when tackling ascents, descents, or contouring slopes. Adjustable poles allow you to maintain that ninety-degree angle whatever the terrain.
Carbon or aluminium hiking poles
Another crucial criterion when choosing your hiking poles is the shaft construction. Aluminium or carbon? The choice is mainly between these two materials and deserves careful thought. Sometimes, the shaft uses a blend incorporating fiberglass—especially carbon shafts, which are actually made from a fiberglass, carbon-fibre, and resin composite. Let's take a closer look at both categories.
- Aluminium hiking poles: these are the most common in hiking and also offer the most budget-friendly option. Particularly robust, they are durable, reliable and fairly lightweight. Aluminium almost never snaps; it can bend, but rarely breaks. An excellent choice to get started.
- Carbon hiking poles: hiking poles can also be made from a carbon-fibre blend with varying percentages of carbon. Carbon is ultra-lightweight, making it lighter than aluminium, but it is also slightly more brittle. However, it absorbs vibrations better to protect your joints, which partly explains its higher price point.
Telescopic poles: all-terrain performance 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 seasonal versatility. This is especially true with telescopic poles, which adapt just as well to mountain outings in fair weather as to snowy winter terrain.
Telescopic poles are the exact same models used for summer hiking, ski touring, and snowshoeing. The difference lies in the baskets, which must be adapted to your activity and the terrain—which is why they are interchangeable. Small "summer baskets" are used in dry, clear conditions. Wide baskets are designed for snow, preventing the pole from sinking too deep. You can also swap and add different rubber tips to match the surface you are on. They protect the carbide tip (on tarmac, for example), dampen impact, and enhance grip.
To wrap up on durability, opt whenever possible for tungsten carbide tips, which are more durable and harder-wearing (though more expensive) than steel tips. If you have the choice, cork grips last longer than foam grips, and are far more comfortable than rubber or plastic handles.
