Trekking pole handholds – how to make more comfortable?

Bike gloves and trekking poles go together well. I wear unpadded fingerless gloves until I need cold weather gloves. If the handles are small, it is easy enough to get padded bike gloves to make up the difference.

You might be able to use the wraps made for baseball bats, but my guess it they won't stay on very well— too much variation in surface and one day hike would be more contact/friction than a season of baseball.

You want grip around where the grip part is or below on the pole part?

either way, you could try bike handlebar tape. comes in different textures and thicknesses. Or even split a bike inner tube in half and make a rubbery grip.

Bike handlebar tape! That's it!

I love the feel of that stuff.

Fingerless bike gloves not a bad idea either – I often use them at home, with tools. Although I don't think I want the weight/fuss of gloves on an actual backpacking trip.

Still open to other ideas, too.

– Elizabeth

Similar answer to handle bar tape: Tennis racket grip tape. Pretty cheap, absorbs sweat, you usually get a few in each pack so when one wears out, you have more to put on. I've tried fingerless gloves but the tape gives you one less item to keep track of because it stays with your poles.

SoCal Mike

I have a similar issue with my Black Diamond Distance trekking poles. The grips are hard and way too thin for my long fingers. I bought a couple of $2 ice scrapers from the counter at a convenience store, peeled the foam hand grips off of them, and shoved them onto my poles. I had to start at the bottom and push them up, and it took a lot of elbow grease, but they really did the trick. They've so far lasted all summer without noticeable wear…

rei had their cork handled, exterior locking trekking poles on sale too, I went down to look at them, but the sales people gave me enough info about the negatives of their poles to make me give black diamond cork ones a try.

If you haven't tried modifying yours yet, you can just go in and trade them in before the sale ends for the other ones.

The sales guys I talked to agreed that the hard rubber handled poles aren't very pleasant to use, blisters and so on.

A word of caution from my experience…I had to use the tennis racket tape on cork handles because they tore my hands up. Now, I was not using Black Diamond brand poles, but beware that you may have the same problem with the cork handles that you do with the hard rubber. Everyone is different. My point is, get the poles you want. Modifying the handles is easy; modifying the poles are not. If the poles are exactly the same and differ only by handle, it's not a bad idea to try the cork–if it doesn't work out, try wrapping them, etc.

Michael

Do you use the straps Elizabeth?
I only use the handles when descending steep ground, and then only my palm on the top. I've used various poles, and never found the material they are made from an issue. My hands barely rest on the poles. I'll use a finger to flick them forward as i walk.

Patagonia sun gloves.

You'll have to experiment with fit, but grips for road or mountain bikes might work.