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  1. #181
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    I once hiked with two Poles, a Check, and a mad Albanian.
    If you find yourself in a fair fight; your tactics suck.

  2. #182
    Registered User jjozgrunt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sarcasm the elf View Post
    Ok thats the post of thread, and I will now never buy twist poles even if we don't have any type of big cat here, just in case.

    This thread has been interesting reading, many "expert opinions" both for and against. Really you will only find out if they are for you by trying them. I use them for all the reasons mentioned including holding up my duplex. Here are some more reasons.

    Down here they also come in handy for checking the other side of logs before stepping over them. Had a lowland copperhead strike my pole a couple of years ago, doing just that. (5th or 6th most venomous snake here).

    Knocking down the web with of a 4" golden orb spider, just love them, not! crawling on my face in the morning.

    Holding back all the friendly bushes and vines we have here, especially in the rainforest, like Wait-a-while vine and Gympie bush. (thorns and stinging)

    Helping you run across the top of the water when the advice to cross above the rapids, and therefore no crocodiles (according to all the experts), doesn't prove correct.

    I'll try to describe this maneuver, meeting a boar sprinting down the trail in thick bush and and using the poles to propel yourself up and over it, to a 2 point landing beyond the boar.

    Attaching your umbrella to a pole to provide shade, when sitting in the desert.

    That's just some other uses I've found for them.
    "He was a wise man who invented beer." Plato

  3. #183
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    To answer the original question, yes I really need trekking poles.

    I'd estimate that once each day hiking on the AT, they have prevented me from landing on the ground from a slip, trip, or ankle roll. Also the occasional sudden shift of gravity that sometimes occurs when fatigue sets in is handily set right again by a quick jab of trekking pole.

    The reasons I first tried them: spider web clearing here in FL, and my hands would swell after hiking a while. I was afraid my rotator cuff injury would disallow their use, but it hasn't caused any recurrence at all.

    ...and lighter tent options are available to trekking pole users.

  4. #184

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    Giant Golden Orb Weavers spiders and gypsy moth caterpillars dropping down inside your shirt, yippee.

    Wake up drowsy. Knock the palmetto bugs gathered out of the trail runners. Squeeze those fire ant pustules. Pack up. Head out with crusted up eyelids. Suddenly remember you're in Florida so you look down to avoid coral and rattlesnakes. Than bam, caught in a huge orb weaver spider web that entraps you like subtle cloud of sticky cotton candy threads.

  5. #185
    Looking for a comfortable cave to habitate jrwiesz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sheepdog View Post
    I once hiked with two Poles, a Check, and a mad Albanian.

    I normally hike solo, but yesterday, I hiked with two poles!

    So, how come when camp was set, there were three poles?
    "For me, it is better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
    Carl Sagan

  6. #186

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    Giant Golden Orb Weavers spiders and gypsy moth caterpillars dropping down inside your shirt, yippee.

    Wake up drowsy. Knock the palmetto bugs gathered out of the trail runners. Squeeze those fire ant pustules. Pack up. Head out with crusted up eyelids. Suddenly remember you're in Florida so you look down to avoid coral and rattlesnakes. Than bam, caught in a huge orb weaver spider web that entraps you like subtle cloud of sticky cotton candy threads.
    That old thick yellow web is tough.

    Had my daughter on back of 4 wheeler in woods once when she was about 10.
    Ran thru a web on a trail accidentally
    Long story short, daughter ended up with a huge golden orb weaver on her (we call them bannana spiders)
    She jumped off the moving bike screaming, she lost touch with reality for a few seconds, scared the heck outa me

  7. #187
    Registered User Ktaadn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    While I've seen people stabilize their balance often with trekking poles while fording, crossing snowfields, and on descents I've also witnessed some brutal falls because a pole suddenly unexpectedly broke, especially on a steep descent, a pole unexpectedly didn't have or maintain good purchase as assumed it would while momentum was expected to be absorbed by a supposedly solidly planted trekking pole tip, again on descents, tips get caught in trail construction, on roots, slip into holes, get caught in rocks, etc on descents resulting in heels over head injuries, trekking pole grips getting in the way of preventing a fall or preventing a hiker from absorbing a fall by allowing them to put their hands and arms quickly out in front of them, etc. I've seen several seriously injurious face plants with one hiker's teeth being knocked out because trekking poles got snagged on nearby brush and grass as he attempted to absorb the fall by outstretching his arms in front. Another hiker the same thing happened on rather wide but brushed large rocks single track resulting in a severe head injury as his one trekking pole got caught up on boulder and he smashed his head on a rock as he fell. I've seen more than two dozen times a hiker leaning on trekking poles standing around and a pole unexpectedly break or the pole tip loose traction resulting in falls. Most of those times weren't serious but on two occasions it resulted in serious complications. Once a hiker fell off off the trail down a steep slope into the manzanita underbrush where she got sliced up badly and puncturing/lacerating her arm(hospital trip) and another time resulting in a man falling sharply onto one trekking pole while standing around that resulted in a severely bruised spleen almost rupturing it which can be life threatening if happening in the back country(hospital trip, had to be medivac).
    I'll be sure to never get caught hiking near you. I haven't seen this many severe injuries in my entire life. Anywhere. For any reason. Let alone all related to one piece of hiking equipment.

  8. #188
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    Quote Originally Posted by SueJhiker View Post
    That's why I am questioning whether I need them. My tent does not require the trekking poles. I can pick up a big stick for chasing away cobwebs and thornbrushes. My only concern is balance. Maybe they would help with that?
    SueJhiker - like you being North of 50 - I do find my poles help with balance and stability. This along with the added benefit of helping the knees both up and down hills, and assisting in general going uphill - sort of a 2nd pair of legs - does as Muddy said make poles beneficial.

    Furlough
    Last edited by Furlough; 12-02-2016 at 15:09. Reason: stupidity
    "Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen." Louis L’Amour

  9. #189
    Registered User Ktaadn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RockDoc View Post
    They are a fad fed by strong retail marketing. Nobody used them before the late 1980's. Europeans favored them before Americans did (I saw French people using them on the Annapurna trek in 1983; I thought they were klutzy even then).

    The American style traditionally was a wooden staff. Still is for quite a few hikers. Strong, no worries about breakage, attractive and natural. Great protection, strong support to prop up a heavy pack. Mine gets a lot of compliments. Not so much when I use Komperdells... but I like to support the mining industry too.
    I had no idea that a fad could last for 35 years.

  10. #190
    Registered User Ktaadn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    They all are pics of people that could care less about whether I use trekking poles or not, have likely hiked more miles than 99% of the posters on WB in the last yr, and aren't preoccupied with feeling the need to take sides on using trekking poles in this forum.

    They all are folks that don't allow themselves to get into circle jerk debates because the'd rather be out hiking going with their flow doing their thing.

    They are people that consider their options and make choices that best reflect their approaches and needs.
    Circle jerk? I haven't heard that term in a long time, but thanks for the chuckle.

  11. #191

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    No shame. No fear. No remorse. No sympathy. No time for your jawjackin. Go into the back country unprepared and die. Go into the back country unprepared and require a rescue for your living or dead body and you put others lives at risk. Advocate going into the back country unprepared, and you put others lives at risk. Why not argue against seat belts? Condoms? Helmets? Or, anything else you know zero about in practice.

    Quote Originally Posted by ScareBear View Post
    Have you no shame?

    This post is repugnant. You are speculating on so many levels to justify your absurd position. You are willing to claim that Sherpa is missing because he didn't have poles. And you base this upon WHAT, exactly? ? ? Other than your obsessive need to be seen as some authority on a subject that people who are reading this thread are laughing at you over......stop it. Show some respect for Sherpa and his family. **** about Sherpa and poles, for a start. Check yourself. Exhibit some restraint. I'd tell you to quit making an arse of yourself, but I suspect that after a lifetime of such behaviour, you are going to be resistant to change.

  12. #192

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    Kris Fowler-Sherpa.jpg Unprepared. Missing. Assumed dead. Enough said.

  13. #193

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    Actually I base this on the missing hiker post on this website's homepage tool. What is repugnant is that dilettantes like yourself have a forum to lead others to their discomfiture or, to their doom. Re read this thread. I am both respectful to this boy, and his grieving family. I manage to do so without name calling too asshat. Check myself? Don't come out to our wilderness and die because you have no idea what you are doing - it really ruins it for those of us who work to keep our **** together. Please and thank you.


    Quote Originally Posted by ScareBear View Post
    Have you no shame?

    This post is repugnant. You are speculating on so many levels to justify your absurd position. You are willing to claim that Sherpa is missing because he didn't have poles. And you base this upon WHAT, exactly? ? ? Other than your obsessive need to be seen as some authority on a subject that people who are reading this thread are laughing at you over......stop it. Show some respect for Sherpa and his family. **** about Sherpa and poles, for a start. Check yourself. Exhibit some restraint. I'd tell you to quit making an arse of yourself, but I suspect that after a lifetime of such behaviour, you are going to be resistant to change.

  14. #194

  15. #195

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    Quote Originally Posted by pilgrimskywheel View Post
    It's an interesting article, and might be relevant if you wanted to post it in an entirely different thread.

  16. #196

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    This article is about unprepared hikers dying, and scoffing at, or minimizing hiking's inherent risks. My view is that a hiker without trekking poles is less prepared than a hiker with them. Want to go less prepared then the next guy into a wilderness - go! There's a reason why everyone else is holding a pair of poles. If I were on a boat and everyone else had a life preserver on I'd wonder: are my reading comprehension scores high enough?

    Quote Originally Posted by CalebJ View Post
    It's an interesting article, and might be relevant if you wanted to post it in an entirely different thread.

  17. #197
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    The problem with your argument, Pilgrim, is that trekking poles, while generally useful, really aren't on the essentials list. They'd be way down on the list of priorities for survival. To argue that point is folly. Thousands of thru hikes were done without them. They were a rarity among summer hikers until about fifteen, twenty years ago.

    The 1990 "Philosopher's Guiide" has an eight page equipment checklist, and another twenty pages on trail ethics and general trail wisdom ("Sapientia Callis.") Poles aren't mentioned in any of that.

  18. #198

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    You don't need boots, tents, sleeping bags, a stove, or for that matter a pack either really. In theory you can go barefoot and naked into the woods with a fanny pack on - like my boy "Coppertone". The question is: why would you want to? Poles are not necessary, but they sure do help. Last word I swear it. Thanks for all of the stimulating dialogue!

  19. #199
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    The problem with Pilgrim's argument(besides spouting false crap and invoking the name of a missing PCT hiker) is that he is trying to sell the belief that hiking/trekking poles are an essential piece of safety gear. That to hike without them is reckless/careless/foolish. That to hike without them means your aren't prepared properly for a foray into the wilderness on the AT, at least...

    He can't realize the foolishness in his belief. You can't reason with him. I'd like to point out that no real mountaineer(unless ski mountaineering) carries hiking poles while climbing, and I've never seen them used while hiking to the climb, so how much of a safety necessity are they? The answer is: They are not. In fact, as I pointed out earlier, if you wear your hiking poles with the straps on you risk far greater injury than if you didn't use hiking poles at all. Also, even without straps, it is my honest opinion that poles can cause falls or create havoc and injury during a fall. They are an AID to those who desire or NEED them. Those who don't desire nor NEED them are not committing any kind of SAFETY faux pas, except that they may in fact may be SAFER without them(reference my earlier argument concerning straps/injuries)!!!!

    Pilgrim's safety belief about the poles and his obsessive need to call them out as a necessary safety item is just that, a belief. A belief I and many others do not share, for all the prior reasons and probably some others I have not yet pondered...

  20. #200
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    They weren't issued to me in the USMC . Somehow I survived.

    Thom

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