Trekking poles vs Hiking Staff – 60”

[Brett R]

Hi everyone,
I’m in the market for a new tent. Prolly gonna be the Altaplex. I’ll need a longer trekking pole though. I might be interested in going single pole as well… That looks like an interesting way to go. Anyone know who makes trekking poles that extend to 60”?? Anyone tried one vs 2 poles and have an opinion?

Thanks!

[John S.]

I don’t know of any trekking pole pair that extends to 60″. The folding komperdell pair would extend at least to 49″. A hiking staff can be that long or use a pole jack plus regular length pole. Mountain Laurel Designs and others sell pole jacks.

[Nick Gatel]

Some thoughts and some options at the bottom of the article.

http://popupbackpacker.com/tracks-hiking-staff-better-than-trekking-poles/

 

[Brett R]

Who’d of thunk it’s this hard to find those parameters on trekking poles or a hiking staff? Thanks for the info, y’all. Still looking. The ZPacks staff looks nice, but $$$$

[Nick Gatel]

Yeah, the two I own are 57 and 59 inches. The 59 is no longer made.

[William Chilton]

There are some trekking and ski poles (e.g. Leki Khumbu) that extend to 58 inches, if you can make do with 3 inches shorter.

[Nick Gatel]

We don’t need 60” hiking staffs or trekking poles to walk. We need them for tall shelters if we want to leave a separate tent pole at home.

When I bought my Tracks staff in the ‘80s I also bought a Chouinard Pyramid around the same time, which needed at least a 66” pole or even longer depending on the pitch. The tent pole weighed almost 11 ounces. So I adapted one section of the pole to connect to my hiking staff . . . yes,    back then we counted grams, or more precisely fractions of ounces.

Anyway, at the bottom of this article, I show how I made it fit my hiking staff. It might be helpful for someone.

http://popupbackpacker.com/hiking-staff-repairs-adaptations/

[Jacob]

Ruta Locura makes aftermarket poles http://www.rutalocura.com/Tent_Poles.html I really like the 45″ 450 poles w/adjusters I got for a smd haven. They make trekking poles as a separate product http://www.rutalocura.com/trekking_poles.html

I instinctively use one hand to brace myself when I feel unstable on steep terrain.

When carrying two trekking poles, my hands feel full. I feel awkward on those sections where I instinctively want to reach down to brace myself.

I remember liking to use walking sticks I found as a kid so I tried zpacks 60″ staff that is made for the altaplex.

Having one hand free to brace myself dispels the awkwardness on steep sections for me. When descending the staff helps me brace myself, allowing me to reach pretty far ahead, so I can travel more confidently and quickly down steep rocky terrain than I can empty handed. When going through brush the staff’s length is appreciated in holding branches off the face and gut at the same time. These are the only two benefits of carrying the staff for me so I usually leave it behind and go empty handed. I was very glad to have it when we trekked off trail up and down a ridge after dark to see the neowise comet; although a normal length trekking pole probably would have performed the same.

I’m 5’11 so the staff is about shoulder height on me. I usually hold it between waist and elbow height, and have almost never handled the top section while hiking. When on the move its natural to let the staff slide through your hand to grip it at different heights as needed, but letting it slip all the way to the end is awkward. If you have to stop to evaluate the path then its natural to grip the end the staff to reach forward.

So while I would agree with @ngatel that 60″ is not needed for hiking, I would say it helps extend the usefulness of a one handed staff/pole. I think anything longer than shoulder height would become excessively unwieldy.

 

 

[John S.]

Didn’t Joe of Zpacks just use a broom handle for his first staff before he decided to sell them?

[Stephen Stephens]

Cnoc Outdoors sells trekking poles that extend to 62″. “Darwin On The Trail” (a You Tube blogger} uses one with the Altaplex.

[Iago Vazquez]

I don’t have one, but perhaps a single wall 8 oz or alu (8.5oz) could work for you.

http://www.neotrekk.com/#bigstik

 

Also, Ruta Locura may have some options.

[Stephen Seeber]

Zpacks sells a trekking pole extension that adds 10″ to any pole and weighs 1.2 oz.  At the moment, they are out of stock.

[Brett R]

Great responses, y’all. Thanks. A broom handle… BRILLIANT!! Seriously. CNOC doesn’t sell them any longer. They were unhappy with the quality of the parts they were getting I believe. I found a Komperdell on an LL Bean website:

https://m.llbean.com/llb/shop/120819?productId=1683742&attrValue_0=Black&pla1=0&mr:trackingCode=573CAB1B-9C2C-E811-80F9-00505694403D&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=m&mr:adType=plaonline&qs=3124992&gclid=Cj0KCQjwg8n5BRCdARIsALxKb95K4Hb0-Q8srRlVtJBwJ088WWtwMtz-AQJjdhHqOL3qPIM8eoYYSXAaAj2dEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

It has two sections and extends to 59 inches. That’s long enough I think. I might give that one a go!

[David Thomas]

Home Depot sells lightweight, 60” wooden broom handles. For less than $4.  They’re tougher than aluminum and CF poles. By a lot. Which I find handy when scaring off a black bear (did that to a momma and cubs yesterday), crossing a stream or am in a boulder field.

Bring a scale with you because they can vary 20-30% in weight. If not a scale, pick one with wider grain and it’ll be lighter.

Then attach one or two straps to it. Just some 3/4” flat webbing with a half twist in it like a proper ski/trekking pole secured with two Sheetrock screws.

Photo of the cub I treed 26 hours ago.  Mom was further into the forest. .

[James Marco]

Well, I think you have the pole purchase under control.

For on trail use, I prefer one pole. Most of the trails in NY are rough, usually scrubbed in with brush. Two poles don’t work. One or the other is always getting hung up on something. Even after removing the baskets, there is simply not enough room to swing two poles in many places. Though they work pretty well on the old logging roads crisscrossing the ADK’s.

As far as using one staff, a tent pole is a given. But there is little difference between one pole and two. I can hop over obsticles with one pole. Two poles doesn’t help me go any further or leave me less tired out. You can coast, brake and accelerate just as well with one pole. However, they do require different techniques.

One pole means “pumping” on the up hills. This means sliding the pole up to your feet with EACH STRIDE, pushing off and immediately sliding up to your feet, again. With a very light 4oz pole, this is no hassle, but can disrupt your balance until you get used to it…it is a slightly different gait.  Braking means your hand on top of the pole. You want to catch part of your weight before each step to take strain off your knees and to slow you down. There is no sense in hanging on to a staff when just leaning on it will do.  Coasting is simply a matter of tucking it under your arm like a fishing pole. But this is dead weight…I prefer to always use my arm pressure as forward motion (‘cept downhill. :)  In extreme cases, like scrambling, you can slip it into your pack.

[robert mckay]

Sturdy bamboo poles can be found at garden centres for pretty cheap. I took the plastic foot from an old folding chair and then used a hair dryer to mould it to the bottom of the pole. Worked for years and gave me a slight bit more confidence when traveling in bear country.

[David Thomas]

While not as light as landscaping bamboo poles, old Nordic ski poles are 2 for $5 at thrift stores, the oldest ones are bamboo, but any of them – aluminum or fiberglass – are pretty light since they don’t have all the hardware of overlapping tubing of collapsable trekking poles.  Or new ones start around $30 for a pair.  150 cm = 59 inches.  155 = 61 inches and is offered in more Nordic pole models.  And they come with straps already.

A quick check of 3 trekking poles and 4 nordic ski poles at my house found the ski poles to be lighter (and far lighter per length) than the trekking poles.  And the ski poles are obviously strong enough to take considerable compressive load and don’t break even after repeated falls onto them.

[Anonymous]

I’ve found that bamboo plus carbon fiber and epoxy (or Titebond III if on a budget) with spray foam sprayed in the core, makes for a very strong and tough structure. Note, you have to sand down the bamboo’s outer coating a bit first, since the first layer(s) are so silica rich and not as easy to bond to.

Since carbon fiber is on the pricey side–there are a couple alternative options that in combo make for something just as good, but less expensive.

S glass fiberglass plus carbonized cellulose nanocrystals.  The latter can be made at home. If you start with a source that already contains a high percentage of CNC (hint, most of the bast plants used for fiber), then you can get pretty high levels if you do the chemistry, timing, and temps right.  A little C-CNC goes a long way. Some of the research literature I’ve seen references to 2% C-CNC to epoxy by weight for the ideal increase of different strengths (mainly tenacity and stiffness).

S glass fiberglass’s specific strengths (strength to weight ratio) are only slightly below that of carbon fiber, but it’s much cheaper. Even better, you can do a loose wrap with carbon fiber tow first (much less expensive than the cloth, and then overlay with the S-glass plus C-CNC in the epoxy, then use spray foam for the core.  Would make for a ridiculously tough and strong structure.

(as to why I started experimenting with the above combo’s–I was interested in cutting up a steel mountain bike to make it lighter, and adding composites into the frame)

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