? Poles for me old knees

"JRS" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

for the first time in my life long grinding descents have become
uncomfortable / painful. Any views on the value of poles and any
types/brands recommended if they might help?

Very useful. I got a pair with handles, almost like a walking stick,
to give myself more grip when I place the poles and put pressure on
them (rather than my knees) during decent.

Graham

would not be without mine, for ascent as well as descent.
Best to have a pair in my opinion and take time to learn use them correctly.

I'm sure that there has been many threads on the subject if you use google
to search
Steve

"JRS" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

for the first time in my life long grinding descents have become
uncomfortable / painful. Any views on the value of poles and any
types/brands recommended if they might help?

TIA

Jon

"JRS" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

for the first time in my life long grinding descents have become
uncomfortable / painful. Any views on the value of poles and any
types/brands recommended if they might help?

I use bog-standard Leki poles, without the "shock absorber", which, having
tried other peoples', is, IMO, a waste of time and money. Starting to use
poes is definitely worth it, I reckon.

Pete Clinch posts on here, and may respond, but you could do worse than take
a look at his poles page at:

http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/poles.htm

Rob

Great link thanks. I'm convinced of their merits. Are they all pretty
similar bar shock / no shock? I don't feel the need or see the value of any
shock absorption for my purposes.

Would a major determinant of choice be weight or should I look at other
issues?

Thanks.

Jon

"Rob Naylor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"JRS" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

for the first time in my life long grinding descents have become
uncomfortable / painful. Any views on the value of poles and any
types/brands recommended if they might help?

I use bog-standard Leki poles, without the "shock absorber", which, having
tried other peoples', is, IMO, a waste of time and money. Starting to use
poes is definitely worth it, I reckon.

Pete Clinch posts on here, and may respond, but you could do worse than
take
a look at his poles page at:

http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/poles.htm

Rob

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Great link thanks. I'm convinced of their merits. Are they all pretty
similar bar shock / no shock? I don't feel the need or see the value of any
shock absorption for my purposes.

Would a major determinant of choice be weight or should I look at other
issues?

cost may be relevant, which is likely to be related to weight I guess.
If you are not planning anything too extreme, some less high-spec ones
may be the best bet.

IIRC Aldi occasionally do some for next-to-nothing which have received
reasonable comment on here. And I think that Peter Storm & Yeomans do
mid-price ones. Personally I really don't like Leki as their grip
shapes don't fit my hand shapes, though they are probably the market
leader so that may just be me being a funny shape!

--
Darren
mail to darren not ng

JRS said:

Would a major determinant of choice be weight or should I look at other
issues?

They are, for the most part, generally made of not entirely
dissimilar aluminium alloy with weight accordingly quite similar.
You can get Titanium and/or carbon fibre ones if you're made of
money and just /must/ have titanium, but it's not as if the
aluminium ones are heavy.

More important, I'd say, is the comfort of the strap (unless you're
going for a T-handle, that is!). A finer denier strap tends to be
more comfy than a coarse one IME, and wider are more comfortable
than narrow over the back of the wrist.
Personally I prefer the Flicklock style over the more common twist
locks but twisters are proven technology and work okay as long as
you don't chuck them in a cupboard wet and find they've siezed up a
couple of months later.

But as long as they're reasonably solidly built (just hold them in
your hands and see if you feel happy with them) most of the
differentiation between flavours is dotting 'i' and crossing 't'
stuff. After all, it's just a stick, not a space rocket.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

JRS said:

Would a major determinant of choice be weight or should I look at
other issues?

They are, for the most part, generally made of not entirely dissimilar
aluminium alloy with weight accordingly quite similar. You can get
Titanium and/or carbon fibre ones if you're made of money and just
/must/ have titanium, but it's not as if the aluminium ones are heavy.

More important, I'd say, is the comfort of the strap (unless you're
going for a T-handle, that is!). A finer denier strap tends to be more
comfy than a coarse one IME, and wider are more comfortable than narrow
over the back of the wrist.
Personally I prefer the Flicklock style over the more common twist locks
but twisters are proven technology and work okay as long as you don't
chuck them in a cupboard wet and find they've siezed up a couple of
months later.

But as long as they're reasonably solidly built (just hold them in your
hands and see if you feel happy with them) most of the differentiation
between flavours is dotting 'i' and crossing 't' stuff. After all, it's
just a stick, not a space rocket.

Pete.

The only major factor - at least it was for me - is the length of the
pole while packed. If you're into scrambling, you'll be fiting the pole
onto / into your pack and will find that longer poles can often snag in
unconfortable positions. I chose the Leki Ultralites as they were the
shortest. In general, sprung poles will not shorten as much and your'd
obviously want to avoid 2-stage poles.

druidh