6 oz/pole, $30 DIY poles

Nice, and the price is right!

Nice work Dave….I had a similar plan in mind until I found a pair of Gossamer poles for $40. I'd like to make a pair like this for Steph though.

Are you going back to paired poles….or did you make 2 just to have an extra?

B

I prefer two for "serious" hiking. The primary purpose of getting these going is the Devil's Backbone 50 miler south of Bozeman in July. I always used two poles in the Grand Canyon, too.

How have these poles been holding up?

Curious, don't you use straps around your wrist?

Mark:
The GG poles don't have straps (unless you order the straps upgrade). I had the same question (thought I'd miss straps) until I got my LT4s and started using them. When they are this light, you really don't need straps.

Dave:
Very cool project. It'll be interesting to see if you need/miss straps with a 6oz pole (rather than 2.5oz for the LT3/4s). Good luck!

Cheers, James.

My wife and I were crossing a rock field we were both using GG Lightrek 3 carbon fiber poles. Mine were stock. She didn't like not having straps so I installed straps on hers. I caught my pole in a crack and fell. I held onto the pole as long as I could to break my fall, but when I felt significant bending, I let go.

The same thing happened to my wife, but because of the strap, her pole broke over a rock and cost $110 to replace. It wasn't because the pole was carbon. I'm pretty sure an aluminum pole would have kinked given the same forces.

Now neither of us use straps. One nice thing about the ultralight carbon poles: they tend to stay put better when jammed into the ground instead of falling over so we don't miss the straps all that much.

I use my straps to hold and put pressure on my poles. For me it is more a case of grip and how i hold onto a pole. Most of my weight is transferred by the straps. I do very little actual gripping to transfer weight onto the poles.

me too, you can get serious leverage on the straps and that makes using your poles that much easier.

I don't like and don't use wrist straps for trekking poles. Too clumsy and slow to get in and out of, and I like to vary my grip depending on cadence and terrain.

These poles have been used a lot in the last year, and are holding up great. I've added a pair of small baskets, as the extra weight is made up for in their resistance to getting stuck in soft ground.

I made a shorter, aluminum pair for my wife, and they are even lighter and cheaper.

I'll put in one more plug for these poles. The fiberglass XC ski pole shafts have proven to be really sturdy. The metal tips hold up well, I give them a grind with a file every so often to keep them sharpish. The GosGear grips are absolutely ideal. The poles even float, and the cork grips and non-metal shafts make a noticeable difference in the cold.

Best money ever spent on backpacking gear? Maybe.