Best Trekking Poles for Two More Points of Contact

Oh, you’re going to love this. There is nothing — and I mean nothing — quite like the moment a hiker puts a second pair of feet on the ground. That is what trekking poles are, you know, when you get right down to it: two more points of contact between you and the earth. Two feet are a start. Four is a conversation.

I have watched a great many people come down a hillside on two legs and a prayer, and I have watched the same hillside receive people on four, and I can tell you the second group arrives at the bottom happier, straighter, and more inclined to come back. The people who test these things for a living say the same in their way — they talk about knee load and points of contact and percentages per step. I talk about the ground. We mean the same thing.

The four pairs below are the ones I would send anyone out with. They differ in what they ask of you. The first asks nothing at all — it is simply the pole the testers reach for without thinking, cork in the hand, locks that hold, a little tool tucked into the grip for tightening things on the trail. The second asks sixty-five dollars and gives you almost everything the first does, which is remarkable, and the owners — and there are so many of them — say so cheerfully. The third asks you to carry a few more ounces in exchange for a promise: a lifetime warranty on the shaft, from the people who have been making poles the longest. And the fourth asks the most money and the least attention; it folds to the length of your forearm and waits in the pack until the trail tips downward, and then, out it comes.

A few things the testers agree on, whichever pair you choose. Cork grips over foam, if you can — cork takes the shape of your hand and stays kind when it is wet. Lever locks over twist locks; you can see that a lever is closed, and a twist you can only hope. Fit them so your elbow makes a right angle with the tip on the ground beside your foot. Shorten them a little going up, lengthen a little coming down. And use the straps — hand up through the loop, then down onto the grip — so the pole carries you instead of the other way around.

Poles are only part of what carries you. I have my views on the day packs worth filling, and my colleagues have filed theirs on the walking shoes that make the miles kinder, and — for the person who likes everything in its place before the trailhead — the packing cubes that keep the layers tidy.

You will not regret going. Bring water, tell someone your plan, and go while the light is good. And put the poles down when you stop to rest, tips in the soil, and stand there a moment on all four. The ground will receive you well. It always does.