Originally Posted by
leo l.
true.
We had two periods where hiking poles got used and advertised.
First was in the 90ies and they pointed out the advantages you all here pointed out as well: Load distribution, saving knees, "4-legs-drive".
Then a few years later some people started to tell around that hiking poles are bad, for all the reasons you pointed out: Danger of injury, losing training for balance.
Hiking poles came back some 7-8 years back, but very specialized ones and they call the job now "nordic walking" (we call it nordic wobbling" for all the overweight wom..hmmmpf, sorry for the political incorrectness <g>
we have the citys most famous nordic walking route here passing by just by my window, so while sitting in the office i can watch them all wobbling, eh, walking by.
About 80% of all people use poles now. Its a fashion. All poles, be it skiing, hiking or walking, have some sort of quick/emergency release of the loops since many decades.
Out on the mountain trails here hiking poles are less used, because many routes involve some sort of scrambling, where the poles would have to be stowed away, and almost all tracks are to narrow and rocky to make good use of poles.
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