COSTCO carbon fiber hiking poles – $29.95

Many threads on these. Great deal.

I’m not a Costco member but I saw some labeled as Pure Outdoor brand in my regular email from Monoprice for 34.99 right now. They mostly sell electronics, outdoors is a new line for the company. No affiliation, etc etc.

Eric,

Are you confident that these are strong enough for skiing?

I have a pair of the older type twist-loc Costco/Cascade Mountain Tech I was thinking of using for (mild) tele-skiing because of their light swing weight, instead of my elderly but beloved Leki SX Super Extreme, but am apprehensive about their strength.

the SEARCH goes back years

Robert,

As long as I don’t catch a pole in a branch or rock they should be fine for back country skiing. Carbon fiber shafts are hellishly strong on downward compression but not so much for lateral pressure. I once had an oafish Canadian XC skier step on my SWiX CF racing pole and break it near the basket (AND not offer to pay me the $50. replacement cost).

That said I’ll probably tape the bottom section with black Gorilla duct tape to prevent nicking on my ski’s steel edges. Nicks can create a weak spot. More likely I’ll stick with my old aluminum Leki poles for backcountry skiing. If those get trashed I’ll use the new CF poles. I mean, really, for $29.95 + tax I won’t have heart failure if one breaks. I’ll just buy a new set directly form Cascade Mountain Tech (for $49.99, not the COSTCO price but still decent).

Yes, don’t get them stuck on something and be moving forward. Any pole will break. I broke some BD aluminums that way (3 piece) and I saw others break Outdoor Products aluminum and the Costco carbon poles that way.

I’ll probably tape the bottom section with black Gorilla duct tape to prevent nicking 

Good move. I use heavy high density PE tape for that: very resistant to cutting. It may be anti-friction sliding tape? Well scuffed, but surviving after many years.

Cheers

Nice deal – I’ll have to check the Costco here in Temecula.  I’ve been meaning to pick up some for my wife and that’s $10 cheaper than I’ve found them for online.

Eric – Thank you for your response. I have been worrying for some time about the effect of such a pole splitting while backcountry skiing, and potentially causing serious injury.

John S. – Thanks also for the advice.

Link . – I am well aware of the copious history of posts on this site, and the search function, thank you.

Robert,

Ken and I were not pointing out the BPL history to you so I don’t know why you responded and to only me as I am not the only one to point it out,  I did make a link to save time for anyone wanting to research it since there are a lot of people who don’t seem to know how to.

Have A Nice Day,

Link

I feel left out ☹️

I Love You Ken…I saw your post(and they are always appreciated)

Link:

Your posts are much appreciated and helpful! While many of us here are “well aware of the copious history of posts on this site, and the search function”, your efforts are still very helpful.

Please keep posting!

Dear Ken,

I totally know how to use the search function for reals.

Ian

(better?)

?

My one big question regarding “bargain”CF poles is how they are made?

For example, SWIX pioneered CF racing ski poles by inventing a “Maypole ribbons” style diagonal interweaving of the CF fibers on a mandrel. This gave SWIX poles a lot of strength for minimum weight, the goal in racing poles.

But the Cascade Mt’n. Tech poles do not show that kind of weave. So how is their carbon fiber laid up on the mandrels? And why is it done that way? For price point? For strength? Both?

Company A makes CF cloth with a square weave. It may be only 0.2 mm thick.

Company B coats the fabric with a thermo-set resin to make a ‘pre-preg’.

Company C wraps the pre-preg tightly around a polished metal rod, wraps that in plastic film, compresses the whole lot either with vaccuum or high pressure, then bakes it. The thermoset resin cures. Then the plasic film is removed. You can see the spiral ‘edges’ of the plastic film on some tubes.

If the customer wants, the tubes are then ground to remove the spiral marks.

WARNING: not everything which looks like CF tubing really is. Some cheat, use cheap pultruded glass fibre tubes as a base and coat the surface with carbon dust in epoxy. Looks very similar, but splits like crazy. Carbon Express arrows were made like that – I KNOW, as I bought some for tent poles.

Cheers

Re: “These poles are “Made in China” but seem to be decent quality…. So for that money I’ll take my chances.”

Previously, we knew that CF tubing was pultruded, wrapped, or filament wound; with the latter by far the strongest, and pultruded by far the weakest.  In between are the various wrapped varieties, and Roger now notes some new processes.

If you check out Dragonplate, Clearwater and Rockwest brands, you can see that the cost of 1/2″ and 5/8″ OD filament wound CF tube with a smooth finish is much more expensive than the selling price of the low cost CF trekking poles noted from time to time on BPL.

Were the low cost poles the best quality, they would be the loss leaders of the industry, and maybe world history, for manufacturers.

The idea of protecting the lower end of CF poles against nicks with tape sounds good.  But it will not resist the brute force created if the pole gets snagged in a crevice while you are moving fast, especially downhill.

That is why I think the only answer is for the bottom section(s) of the poles to be made from aluminum alloy.  Given a less than very high temper, it will bend, before breaking.  CF will not.  The Yukon Charlie carbons are almost as inexpensive, and CF up top with alloy for the bottom two sections, and there may be others..  However, the Charlies have inferior foam grips that I had to replace with solid foam grips from some European ski poles that also had long grip extensions for choking.

As might be expected, there are plenty of reports of breakage of CF trekking poles.  If you must have all carbon poles, please consider the more expensive Locus poles from Japan, or some of the slightly heavier US major brands.  A busted pole in the middle of a trek would be a major PITA, and might well result in serious injury or worse from a bad fall.

Happy Trails.

Sam Farrington – Many thanks, that was the kind of information that I was hoping for with my query.

A busted pole in the middle of a trek would be a major PITA,
Of course, the cheapest and lightest solution which never fails is to dispense with the poles completely. Some of us can actually walk in the mountains without needing to support ourselves with two sticks as well as two feet.
Pretty amazing stuff, but then, 30+ years ago, none of us older walkers bothered with these things. Isn’t modern marketing spin wonderful?
Cheers

With respect, Roger, 30+ years ago our knees were 30+ years younger, and why carry unnecessary weight; and it was not unknown to trim a branch for a walking stick when conditions were a little more onerous than usual.

I can well remember thinking this new-fangled craze for hiking poles was a bit wet, effeminate even, like convertible trousers/shorts; but in later years found two poles (especially CP3s) really helped, especially in steep descents. Now I tend to prefer just one pole (the beloved Leki Wanderfreund – and not just for the wonderful name). So my evolution has been 0 > 2 > 1.

Meanwhile, I’m considering trying a tiak for my backcountry skiing, which would make that evolution 2 > 1… possibly even by combining my Leki SX’s into the avalanche probe, which could then do double duty, but combined they/it might not resist bending force too well…

We’ve come full circle in this thread.

Yes, but threads combine better in warp and weft than in full circles; past and present intertwined…

Hi Robert
Ah, now, tiaks …
From the archives of the Kiandra Ski Club here in Oz:

For what it is worth, the Kiandra Ski Club was founded in 1861 and is the world’s OLDEST ski club. The gold miners at Kiandra needed something to do during the snow-bound winter months.

Wives and children also skied, of course.

cheers
Roger