Thread: Walking Poles

Originally Posted by Savage1

Manuka poles etc are great, but cannot be loaded in the same way as a good purpose built pole with a hand strap, unless you have forearms like popeye. The hand straps are essential and you can fully load the pole without gripping the handle hard if you put the straps on properly, see the picture below.

The other issue is the amount of grip, good walking poles have a tungsten tip on them which grips on angled rocks, a manuka pole would not provide nearly the same amount of stability in the rocky areas.

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A lot of people think that a mustering stick is used and held with one hand swinging it out like a walking pole. This could not be further from the truth, a mustering stick is correctly held with both hands shoulder width apart in an opposed palm grip. For descending a steep slope, the stick is behind pressed down. The hand behind the body faces down and the one in front faces up. Bend the knees, lean back into the stick and run down the hill in foot long steps, keeping the knees bent. The opposed hands keep a constant down force on the stick so that it acts as suspension

In my experience, compared to two, one pole does fuck all when it comes to propelling you forward and when descending you can take the load off your knees and move much more quickly with two because you can always have one on the ground. One strong pole (heavy stick) is helpful for stability when sideling steep terrain but it has to be fairly long and that becomes a pain in the arse when you are not using it.

My father always used a walking stick when mustering.
I am pretty sure he and his mates knew how to use them.
His two older brothers had Coronet Peak and he worked all the stations in the area.
They mustered sheep out of some pretty knarly stuff.
Look at the face of the Remarkables and imagine walking all over it.
The big advantage off walking poles over the stick is the ability to shorten when not using.

Originally Posted by dannyb

Yup do it all the time, mine has a rubber foot on the bottom that is ideal for most terrains and super grippy but also cam be easily removed if a harder tip is required.

I'm not saying they are the be all end all but they are definitely more useful than most give them credit for.

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If you want a harder tip for when you have the rubber foot removed, epoxy metal in a broken HSS drill bit (tip, not shank, as the shank is not hardened).