Many have already discovered the reasons why poles make for a better outdoor experience including Plas y Brenin National Outdoor Centre whose instructors use LEKI and who also offers LEKI poles to their guests. However if you’re yet to be convinced, Dave Cheetham, marketing manager, at Plas y Brenin gives five reasons why a good set of walking poles is a wise investment:
- Walk for longer: by distributing the weight between the upper and lower body muscles you can walk for prolonged periods of time. What’s more, recovery is faster too.
- Walk faster: walking to a rhythm increases your pace and can help maintain your speed on tricky terrain - more of that great British outdoor air and all with less perceived effort.
- Inject some power into your walk: poles are like a 4-wheel drive for humans. Walk tall: using poles brings the posture upright, especially if using a pack when the tendency is to stoop forward. An upright silhouette also helps open the lungs and improve breathing.
- A handy companion: trekking poles have other uses too – use them to swipe away stinging nettles and brambles; for testing the depth puddles before ploughing through them and clearing away the cobwebs on early morning walks.
If Plas y Brenin's five reasons aren't enough for you a trekking pole, or two, can be used to support a tarp or lightweight tent, or even to support a bothy bag if you need to escape the wind. A shock absorbing pole can, and does, spare you from embarrassing falls and on scree descents they're the only thing that can save your knees.
If one of your concerns is they’ll get in the way when you need to use your hands for balance on steeper sections or scrambling there's a range of folding poles available that can be stashed easily when not in use. Last month our Running Editor reviewed the Leki Micro Trail Pro poles and the Micro Vario Carbon has become one of the company's top sellars.