Broken Gossamergear LT4 adjustable poles

[john hansford]

Last year I took a pair of Gossamergear LT4 adjustable poles on the John Muir Trail. After 100 mls I tripped, and one pole snapped in the lower section, 1.5 " below the upper section. I was able to mend this with a short length of spare tent pole that I had carried around for years, together with a wrap of gaffer tape. This lasted the rest of the walk, but at the end go the walk, the other pole snapped in exactly the same place for no obvious reason.

When I got home I ordered some lengths of 11mm aluminium tubing and glued these into each pole using two part resin glue.

The pole tips were also missing the carbide metal ends, so at the some time I cut off the pole tips with a sharp knife – easy to do since the plastic is quite soft, but go easy near the carbon fibre! – and attached new Leki ones with the same glue.

This year I did 360 mls in the High Sierra, and both poles survived completely undamaged.

Each piece of tubing weighs 1oz, and I did notice even that small amount of weight in what was originally a 4.5 oz pole, but it was a lot cheaper than buying new poles!

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