who here uses trekking poles? what kind of hiking do you do?

>>960412
>who here uses trekking poles?
all the faggots who now can barely take 2 steps on a flat gravel city park trail without twisting an ankle

to use a crutch is to become reliant on a crutch. never start, or you'll never be able to go anywhere without them.

>>960440
Hey it's stabilizing muscle guy
How is the back country, parkour, ninjutsu going?

>>960440
You sure are angry for a child

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>>960412

>2017
>not using a wizard's staff

>>960455
>belittling me means i'm wrong
that's okay, keep hiding the truth in the statement
>once i started using them i could never go back to not using them
that invariable pops up in these threads populated by trailbound sissies

>>960471
You are memeing but i seriously collect hiking staffs. I make them from found branches.

I think treking poles are about as gay as you can be but i always take atleast my lightest staff. It is 4 ft tall and made from beach driftwood.

My masterpeice is an oak staff that is about the weight of a baseball bat.

>>960412
they are useful for long distance hiking while carrying a heavy pack, like 30 mile day hiking. they really save your knees going down hills and make you way more stable. Other than that I wouldn't use them

>>960673
meant to add
so don't use them unless you are carrying a large heavy pack. Otherwise you just look like a humongous faggot
>>960534
I made an awesome wizards staff from a whole driftwood tree I found, I left the roots on the top and they are all gnarled and cool

I use them, I've never walked with them but they're really good for putting up a tarp!

Is it worth getting a trekking pole type tent if you don't think you'd use the poles much?

I'm thinking there is your regular tent with poles that aren't good for anything else but with a trekking pole tent maybe I'll find the poles useful if I'm going down a hill, or something, right?

I like them. I went for a few years with no poles, and just this winter picked up a pair.

They're pretty great, and I was surprised how much I liked them. I first used them in winter on a pretty steep and rocky trail. The extra stability was nice, and they helped a lot on the slick downhill parts.

I'm sold on them, I use them for a porch mode on my tarp as well.

Some people may not like them, and that's cool. Hike your own hike.

>>960440
I'm one of the most footsure walkers you'll come across (thank you martial arts), but I still use them. I like it when I don't have to risk busting my knees by simply taking weight off of them.

Also handy for testing soggy ground or ice. Removes spiders webs in a pinch, too.

Never in my life have I used a "trekking pole"

-hiking for 20 years
-extensive wilderness experience


Are you 85 years old?

>>960751
I get into state parks for free thanks to a few ieds. A few months ago i was at brazos bend state park in texas and saw a woman go full pack 2 ttrecking poles down a 2 mile long loop trail.

These trecking pole morons can only be defeated through shameless ridicule. They literally spend 200 dollars on what nature provides for free: a fucking stick.

>>960770
kek.

but i got you beat: by where i live there are literally "classes" where people pay to "learn" to use trekking poles, and there will be groups of 20 of them walking together on the SIDEWALK NEXT TO THE BEACH. fucking pathetic. i don't see how any self respecting human being that honestly thinks they're competent moving while /out/ could use these. the safest, fastest, easiest way to move on uneven, loose, wobbly, or slippery terrain is to KEEP MOVING, not add 2 more appendages to have to try to place effectively. the one exception is steep snow, but if i'm going to encounter that i'm going to have an ice axe, which is better suited and more versatile in those conditions.

>>960875
Go ahead, try and cover 2000 altitude meters in a single hike, then head back down, all the while carrying a pack. I'll do the same thing with hiking poles, and we'll see whose joints feel better. :3

>>960875

Maybe they do Nordic Walking and not trekking sticks. There is a technique to NW to maximize the excercise.

>>960886
i live by the sierra, so i do that repeatedly every year. and my pack is heavy as fuck because it's full of climbing gear. plus i'm 36 years old. no knee, hip, or ankle problems ever. sorry i shatter your narrative of what's possible by training my body properly to handle rough conditions. but hey, if your sissy sticks make you feel good by all means kerp using them. just don't expect any sympathy from me when one fails and you blow an ankle in the first mile because you don't know how to walk without them.

>>960890
spin it however you want, it's still gay

>>960925
>sissy sticks

Kek'd

They can save you from busting your ass on descents, they make carrying an overloaded pack much nicer, and they work great in steep snowy conditions.
The first time I soloed Shasta I used my old ski poles, and they sold me on using sissy sticks. Used the same poles for years until they annoyed me enough to get some collapsible units. $60 from Hamazon for some carbon fiber beauties.

>>960987
Yea but a stick is free

All us haters arent saying hiking sticks are dumb. We are just saying that you who spent 200 dollærs in sticks. You are dumb.

>>960925
Wait another 10-20 years. Unless you're a competitive athlete, my system's probably experienced at least as much, if not significantly more, wear and tear despite being a few years younger. With or without sticks, I'm on par wih the most footsure people I know - professional mountain guides - and if 'sissy sticks' diminish the wear on my joints, I'll be happy to let you ridicule me as much as you want. I've seen enough people go overboard in their twenties and thirties, only to have joint replacement surgery in their fifties not to make the same mistake if I can prevent it in any way.

Sure, maybe you'll turn out to be one of those few lucky people with near indestructible joints, but even with perfect walking technique your joint will suffer less with sticks, and that's what they're all about. There's a reason why I've yet to meet mountain guides who go without them.

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I can never decide if these threads are bait for stabilizing muscle fag, or started by stabilizing muscle fag so he has an excuse to be stabilizing muscle fag and argue with people.

>>961037
If you don't want to use a trekking pile, then that's fine, but a stick is not exactly a trekking pole. I understand your logic, and at their cord they serve a similar function, but they are not the same.

A Ferrari and Camry are both cars. They are not the same.

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>>961135
Autocorrect fucked me on this post.

>>961102
>take load off joints designed to be loaded (knees)
>move to joints not designed to be loaded (shoulders)
>good for long term joint health
kek

>inb4 some fedora gets triggered by the word "designed"
i don't mean it literally you sperg.

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>>961131

>>960706
>>960457
>>960455
Weak legged liberals confirmed. Please stay out of my outdoors and inside your containment cities

>>961137
More load on your knees means more wear on your knees, simple as that. I've seen plenty of people wear out joints. Knees blow out for the silliest reasons, shoulders usually involve falls. The likelihood of both decreases through the use of silly sticks. That's a win-win.

Seems to me like you don't take joint issues quite serious enough. At this point, I've seriously injured most of mine, and if I can take measures to decrease the chances of that happening again, I'll gladly take them; feel free to flood the board with keks for that, because I aim to be mobile well into advanced age.

>>961135
But for driving on the road both cars are going to be around the same speed.

For normal hiking a stick is going to be the same shit as a carbon fiber pole.

So where's that extra money going to?

Four points of contact on the ground in which you are walking on as opposed to two.

/thread

>>960534
post them please, my dad did that with a few branches and they looked really cool. Would post those but younger siblings fucked them up by hitting then against bricks allday.

>>961320
liberal, small mountain town here. Trail run all the time. No to the shitty sticks, unless you are hiking with a obese/fat person. That is the only acceptable use, they can lose weight without hurting their joints. Personally I like going fast on trails and walking sticks and sissy sticks have always slowed me down.

>>961342

Is this an argument in favor of trekking poles or are you advocating walking on your hands/feet over difficult/steep terrain?

Because the latter has always worked perfectly fine for me.

>>961135
>>961335
Said it about as well as i can. Hey i will never try to take away your right to be a dumbass. And if you like trekkingnpolew then ok i think you are probably an idiot but go ahead.

Me, personally? I got a closet full of hiking sticks.

>>961335
The money is going to the strength of the poles, having an actual grip for your hand, carbide tips, snow baskets, adjustable length, ect ect.

I get it. You leik sticks. I used to always just find a stick and use it to walk with. Then I bought trekking poles. They just work better.

You're continually arguing why sticks are better. Relax. Some people use trekking poles. They work well, there's no reason to sperg out about "Muh walkin sticks".

>>960674
Pic?

>>961325
>i've seriously injured mine
>admit you don't take care of your joints
>expect us to take your advice for joint care
it's okay if you're a feeble cripple with unstable joints. that doesn't make you a bad person. it just makes your opinions suspect.

and if your joints are already bad i'm sure you're not doing your shoulders any favors with the extra extended movement and reverse loading from how they function best.

>>961342
>4 things you have to find stable purchase points for on unstable ground instead of 2
ftfy. if it's so steep i actually need 4 points of contact i'll be on a rope.

When hiking in terrain that is really rocky, snowy or has steep descents/acsents they are really nice.

>>961468
Based trekking bro btfo all the idiots in a paragraph

If you really want a stick the forest is literally full of them.

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"Take these staves. They may be of service to those who walk or climb in the wild"
A modern hiking pole has a greater specific strength than a stick

A pole is telescoping
It can be extended for downhill and exploring
It can be retracted for uphill
It can be collapsed for storage while crossing severe talus and class 3+
And, unless you bring one with you, a good stick is not always available

A pole helps balance and movement
A tripod is more stable than a bipod
An easy 3rd point of contact in the standing position can arrest a fall or increase speed
Used to support body weight, a pole can increase speed

1 pole is superior to 2
Most people do not have the CPU to work 2 poles in difficult terrain, slow down, and look like gay spiders
Before the mid 90s, it was easy to buy a single pole, but now they are almost always sold in pairs
Don't fall for the (2 pole) meme

The main function of the pole is poking things
Poking things, instead of touching them or putting your weight on them, is extremely useful
Also, road apples can also be speared, and then flung

Saying "no one needs a pole because I don't need a pole" is an unsophisticated "one size fits all" mentality
Get /out/ the best way you can

>people on /out/ will tell me I need to wear super light baby shoes and use a pokey stick to help my baby legs walk
>these people also forbid batoning small amounts of wood


Would never, ever go to the woods with any of you

>>961819
a) you're quoting a work of fiction to support your case
b) the staves were being given to hobbits, a race notorious for staying in their little towns and never going into the wild
c) FICTION

>Poking things, instead of touching them or putting your weight on them, is extremely useful
or you could learn to visually identify what's safe to step on, and how to step on it, and keep moving, instead if stopping every time you come to a widdle wock in the woad that might hurt your po' babby ankle.

>no one needs a pole because I don't need a pole
i never said that. i said becoming reliant on poles limits your ability to go /out/

>>961921
>or you could learn to visually identify what's safe to step on,
having x-ray vision must be awesome

>>960412
I like them because I do a lot of river crossings, and boy do poles help with a good ford. Aside from that I feel like they definitely improve my hike, downhill is a lot smoother. Plus there's the whole trekking pole as a tent pole, saves a bit of weight which is nice.

If you're not walking on flat pavement trekking poles are pretty damn nice.

>>962098
>Stabilizing muscles hard as diamond
>x-ray vision
>faster than a speeding trail runner
>more powerful than Imodium
>able to leap boulders in a single bound
>look up on the trail, it's a through-hiker
>it's a bushwhacker
>no, it's stabilizing muscles guy!

>>962098
>i can't do it so no one is able to do it
it's really not that hard. just pay attention to what you're thinking about stepping on
>how big is it
>what shape is it
>what is it resting on
>how is it resting on it

Ha, fucking idiots.

The superior way to walk is barefoot and on all fours. Yep, barefoot and use your palms too.

4 points of contact, plus your nerves to send millions of bits of information per millisecond thoughout your body.

There is nothing more efficient than this.

Oh yeah, its also how almost all animals walk.

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>>960412

I used them several times in the mountains. If used correctly they really help.

Pic related.

>>960886

This

>>962916
The depth of mud or murky water and the stability of cornices and ice cannot always be determined this way

>>962940
Precisely. Have you ever seen a bear get tired? No you haven't. That's cause he's on all fours. It's honestly shocking how much we've lost as a species through becoming civilized. I've totally stopped drinking filtered water and the only thing I eat is raw fish and venison. I also burnt down my house and planted trees all over my yard so that I can live in a more natural environment like my ancestors did. I've never felt better in my life! Sometimes I don't even find tape worms in my excrement!