Why?
Is it so you can flail them around and be a menace to your fellow walkers? That's what all but a few do. There may be some benefit, if you know what you're doing, but most seem to regard them as a must have fashion accessory. Do they really help? No? then put the darn things in the bin please.
JH
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Yes, I go hiking in the alps a lot and wondered the same thing. Following a football injury the other week though, I've actually been advised by a doctor to use walking poles when hiking to preserve my knees. Especially on steep downhill bits and when carrying a rucksack full of rainproof clothing, water and whatever else, using walking poles apparently takes a lot of stress off the knees.
Still not tried them, the biggest risk I see is buying them and then leaving them somewhere.
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can you not get your mam to put some elastic through the arms of your anorak so you cant leave them anywhere?
actually im quite looking forward to needing a walking stick
boy am i going to have some fun...........
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>> can you not get your mam to put some elastic through the arms of your
>> anorak so you cant leave them anywhere?
LOL. My wife has suggested doing that with my gloves. I lose at least one pair per winter.
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"the biggest risk I see is buying them and then leaving them somewhere"
jammed sideways up the user's botty with a bit of luck
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Never tried them, but I suppose the theory is that you can bring your arms to bear on the walking/climbing effort, and they could be useful for balance.
I always fancied a blackthorn thumbstick, but it might be the same sort of impulse that results in people taking up pipe smoking or wearing Harris tweed hats so I'm a bit wary.
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I've never been out without a traditional walking stick when hiking. I find it very useful, even though I sometimes just hook it in my belt.
For some years I was deputy volunteer co-ordinator of the deer park rangers in a National Trust property.
It was very useful for pushing discarded fag ends and sweet papers into the ground to let them rot there, rather than stuffing my pockets full.....lazy beggar !
A traditional hooked walking stick is good for pulling yourself up a slope by hooking it round a branch or root just out of reach. Or rescuing a rucksack dropped in the river !
Walking poles sound a bit strenuous to me..........if you're seen with them, you have to be seen to make an effort.
Not very keen on effort !
Ted
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Use properly walking poles can ease the load on knee joints. Not really necessary on a 5 mile lowland stroll. German walkers can't seem to progress down a paved street without them. In my opinion in the hills a walking stick of some description in a virtual necessity. Best of all as I learned from the mountain guides in Madeira is a pole of approximately your own height.
The sooner you start using a stick when out walking the longer you won't need one.
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I used to live on the south cornish coastal path and would often see peeps with their poles,
I used to think they were nutters until a friend told me they use them on the moors,
I can quite see that they would exercise the upper body when walking.
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I was once given a lecture on walking safety by a fully-kitted professional. I was strolling up Ben Nevis wearing ordinary clothes and shoes and carrying an umbrella and shopping bag with my sandwiches.
He was wearing hi-vis thermal jacket, back-pack with emergency rations, and those irritating boots that have hooks instead of holes and take half an hour to put on.
And of course a stick, or pole as they now seem to be called. It seems to be a sort of badge of office, a bit like Black Rod or Dipstick in Waiting.
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>> Dipstick in Waiting. << :)
I like that, I'd almost been persuaded to get one for the downhill slopes and artritic knees, but no way now!!
Pat
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SWMBO invested in a couple due to knee problems - we walk quite regularly on the South Downs and she has problems coming down slopes rather than going up them.
As for you Cliff - Shame - I thought more of you - I'm sorry to have to say this but walking on Ben Nevis in ordinary clothes without taking any waterproofs or emergency rations is just plain stupid.
I have experienced just how quickly a gentle stroll in mountains on a sunny day can change into a fight for footing in fog , rain , gales or snow within minutes.
Have you never watched helicopter rescue?
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>>
>> As for you Cliff - Shame - I thought more of you - I'm sorry
>> to have to say this but walking on Ben Nevis in ordinary clothes without taking
>> any waterproofs or emergency rations is just plain stupid.
>>
I know that. I was young. That's what people did before the Ministry of Fun nationalised careless happiness and substituted sensible risk assessments.
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Very useful as an adjustable walking stick to improve balance etc. What I cannot fathom is their use in pairs and the adoption of a cross country skiers gait,
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I often see someone going off to the newsagents in the morning walking briskly with pair of these walking poles - Bonkers is my reaction.
I don't know where or how she holds the paper on the return trip of all.....mmm....say 300 metres.
We are very trendy down here in this salubrious suburb.
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They're probably a good idea for general fitness if you don't mind people thinking you're bonkers.
I might get some. And the blackthorn thumbstick.
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I began using a pair in July '97! It was an extended high altitude trip with lots of steep up/down, and I have used them ever since. Too much squash in my teens and twenties , sometimes two games a night, 5 nights a week, cannot have done my knees much good and for uphill plods in the Dales & Lakes I think they help immensely, especially downhill.
My prefered ones are 'pacer poles' with specially angled specific left/right handles. Because of them I continue to be an active member of the Long Distance Walkers Assoc.
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Ah. Not BBD and his family when the Polski Fiat is giving trouble then. More like a broken Zimmer frame for people who think they are still active.
Got it.
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Learn all about Nordic Walking (with poles)
tinyurl.com/3xfpcw5
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Beware the grumpy geriatric armed with a stick!
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"Speak softly and carry a big stick". Truman?
JH
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>> "Speak softly and carry a big stick". Truman?
>>
>> JH
>>
Theodore Roosevelt
The USS Roosevelt is known as the 'big stick' for this reason.
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Ian, rats! I was on a 50:50 and I went for the wrong one. I should have phoned a friend! :-)
JH
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I used to have a pair of hollow ski poles with corks in the top. You could get quite a lot of whisky mac in each one when in the Cairngorms or something more topical such as schapps or grappa when in the Alps. Not sure where I lost those......
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Aye well, maybe,....... it was certainly somewhere in the sticks.
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Walking poles - Bagpuss
