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Hiking Poles

 

 

Why and How to use Trekking Poles

Photo: @asoggetti

Life is all about Balance and Support

We often begin our days on the trail by offering guests to borrow trekking poles. Why would you want poles, you ask? You’ve been hiking for longer than you remember, and you never needed them before. Why start now?

As an early guide in the Canadian Rockies, my mentor looked directly into my awestruck eyes and shared this pearl of wisdom, “If you want to hike for the rest of your life, then you need to take poles with you every single day.” This meant a lot coming from him. He’s an incredible mountain guide, still pushing it hard when many his age have hung up their boots and retired to lawn-bowling.

I wasn’t a hard sell. After already a decade spent hiking all over the world, I realized the importance of added stability and support. Hiking staffs or trekking poles are easily accessible pieces of equipment to help ease our joints through-out a long day.

Trans Alps Adventure
Think about your normal day

The majority of people typically walk on flat, engineered surfaces, like sidewalks. They’re not used to their ankle changing direction. What is your normal day? Do you walk uphill? Do you ever walk downhill? Do you walk through grass? Or over roots and rocks? Think about all this terrain with different textures to explore.

Tracy Laval, a master Osteopath, says, “Walking is often called controlled falling. Our head falls forward and our body rushes to catch up. It is basically keeping our body up against gravity and a lot of muscles are used in that.” If you are using all of these muscles while hiking for a long day out on the trail, that can be really exhausting. A hiking stick can ease our pain by 30%!

Tracy also goes onto explain that there are 26 joints in our foot. That is a lot of movement potential! Like anything, we should be training our feet, but often our busy lives or the places we live don’t allow proper preparation and a pole really helps with stabilization. Yet, many hikers wear stiff shoes to compensate for all this foot movement. In my opinion, way too stiff of a shoe, which leads to heaviness, being uncomfortable and blisters. (Yuck!)

Take control

Photo: Megan Dunn and Jeff Bartlett

Things You Don't Want to Miss

Body Systems

The other major system in our body we need to think about is our spine. We have this natural built in system for shock absorption including our discs, vertebrae and spinal segments. This fantastic mechanism for shock absorption may work wonderfully, UNTIL we add a backpack to it! Extra weight means added compression. Trekking poles will help to re-distribute some of those extra pounds when our spine becomes tired.

I am not a believer in suffering, and I don’t like watching guests suffer unnecessarily. If you have bad vision or suffer from a concussion, please consider poles. You're making things hard for yourself if you don’t use them. 

Everything that you see as life, everything that you see as yourself, is beautiful only when it is in balance

Someone Famous
Tour and Stopovers

Types of Poles

If you're new to using a pole, all the different types may seem overwhelming – so let’s narrow it down.

Materials – Metal or composite is the biggest choice here and quite a simple one. Buy one you can afford, and which is not too heavy. The less weight you're swinging around many times a day, the better. (Or if you kick it old school and cool - you can always find a sturdy tree branch.)

An adjustable pole for hiking is fantastic. It will mean you have more options as we move through different terrain.

I’m a big fan of a quick lock system as opposed to one that screws tight or loose. The quick lock system is more field manageable and seems to have less problems.

Foldable and Collapsible options are out there. Make sure you can pack it in your suitcase and bring it to the Canadian Rockies!

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How to fit your poles?

Wrap your palm around the handgrip and make sure it's comfortable. You want your arm to be at a 90 degree angle so adjust the shaft up or down as needed. As we move through the mountains, your guide may suggest shortening your poles about 10 degrees as we go uphill, or lengthening them as we go downhill.

Take a look at the suggested Pole Sizes

Your Height

Pole Length

Less than 152cm / 5 ft

100cm / 39 in

152cm to 170cm / 5 ft to 5ft 7 in

110cm / 43 in

172cm to 180cm / 5 ft 8 in to 5 feet 11 inch

120cm / 47 in

Over 6 feet

  Go Big or Go Home! :)

 

Two poles or one?

Bring two poles - then experiment with your body.

Two poles will help with balance and symmetry. You've now become a four legged animal! Although, I totally understand if you like to take pictures or write down all your bird sightings, two poles may feel clumsy before you're used to them. But I promise, it won’t take too many hikes down the trail until grabbing your sticks is second nature.

Your guide will help you tailor your poles to your individual body and needs. Guides are great at helping you feel good and customizing the experience.

How to Use Poles

Take a look at the wrist strap and then put your hand up through the bottom of the strap. The strap should support your wrist and hand so you can have a relaxed grip.

Adjust the strap so it allows you to let go of the grip when you need to take that incredible photo of the Canadian Rockies, write down that Loon sighting or eat a granola bar.

As you walk, alternate your poles and legs. Left pole with right leg. Right pole with left leg step. This rhythm should begin to feel natural.

Sometimes on uphills, we will move with a Double Plant which means planting both poles in front and then step up to them.

GUIDE TIP

Don’t forget to use your gluteal muscle (bum!)!! Make sure to invite it to the party and feel it as you hike. This is a large muscle which will also help our legs if we use it more.

Use your body in new ways. All these will make you so much more comfortable. And being comfortable can make or break a trip. Bring it on Big Nature!

Poles are also great to add to your first aid kit skills, to help make a brace, support a fellow friend or hold up a tarp.

Final thoughts

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Here, in Big Nature, not all the guides are as obsessed with poles as I am, and not all the guest that arrive are either. But the option is there. And we rely on your individuality. We welcome your own decisions.

Just don’t change your mind halfway through the day and take my poles! :)

Ask your guide

When should you keep the baskets on your poles or take them off?

Here's a video from  Chase J Tucker

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* Big Nature Guides are Awesome! But we learn from other incredible guides AND guides sometimes embellish. I know! Crazy Right?! They don't lie, but maybe they stretched the truth. We try to get it right, but really - You're now a four legged animal??? - Actually, that seems like the truth to me. Want to find out? Call us

 

Written by: Katrina Rosen
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