Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The thing with trekking poles is that even the worst ones will work until they don’t. There is no way to know off the bat if you’ve got a good pair by simply looking at them, so I decide to peek inside these poles and compare them to my existing brand-name poles to see if there were any big differences or similarities. Similarities: • Both pretty lightweight. A difference of about 0.7 ounces without the rubber boots but including straps and grips. • Both have similar locking mechanisms. Turn to loosen or tighten each section. • Both have an anti-shock feature (spring/strut mechanism). Differences: • Brand-name has a strut on lowest section. These have a spring on top section. • These have a greater compression/travel distance. • Brand-name have composite grips, these are rubber. • These have secondary grips below main grip (I don’t know how I’d use those). • These came with a ton of boots and baskets, and included a carrying case. I needed to replace my old poles and if these didn’t fit the bill one of my kids could use them, so it wasn’t a big gamble to get these. But having had a chance to inspect them and try them out a little bit over the weekend, I’d say they compare very favorably with my very expensive old ones. I paid 5x more for those almost 10 years ago, so the only question is whether these will last me anywhere near as long. If they even come close, I’d say they were a steal.