Carbon Fibre Technology

Our trekking poles are made entirely from carbon fibre reinforced resins giving the pole compression strength and rigidity. The advantages of a carbon fibre walking pole over an aluminium design is greater stiffness, lighter weight and greater vibration absorption.. that has got to be good news for your battered wrists!

Weight saving

The carbon pole sections are up to 30% lighter than equivalent aluminium pole sections, however once you have added up all of the other fittings the actual weight saving over high quality aluminium poles will be between 10%-20%. Since the majority of the weight is in the handle, and this is in your hand during use, the kinetic energy produced when using the poles is much lower, making them feel much lighter to swing around. This weight saving converts into greater manouverabilty and less muscle fatigue.

Absorbing the shock

The whole point about using walking poles is to keep you moving into the late evening with as much energy as a Duracell bunny. Our CarbonLite poles are 'unsprung', there are no hidden springs inside the handle or in the shafts which would make the poles heavier. So what about the shock? Fortunately one of the specific properties of carbon fibre is that it has a greater capacity to absorb shock than aluminium. The shock absorbtion is all there, it is just all tied up in the fibres. Pretty sweet. Another reason why some people shy away from sprung poles is a slight feeling of instability when pushing off from a pole. Here again carbon poles appear to exhibit some advantages, their greater stiffness providing a more assured platform. Trekking pole guru Ken Ledward states in his tests..
"In our test sessions we found no advantage over the non-sprung pole..; there is little noticeable cushioning effect for the arm joints at initial pole impact against the ground, and there can be sufficient movement in the length to create a small problem if making a delicate balance push off the spring loaded pole."
Source: KLETS

Collapsable sections

For many people their first introduction to poles will be through a cheeky skiing trip. Dedicated trekking poles are a little different because they are telescopic. This makes them easier to stow away when not in use or attach to your rucksack when you need your hands free to do other stuff. The pole sections slide inside each other like russian dolls. At the end of each section there is a widget that expands as you twist the pole. This causes enough friction on the inside of the pole to lock in place. Thanks to their in built telescopicy you can adjust the length of the poles to suit either your height or the type of terrain you are walking on.

How strong are carbon poles?

This is a question we get asked a lot, unfortunately there is no stock answer. When using a set of poles they receive compression loads, torsional forces and bending loads. All day pounding, pounding, pounding you name it they receive it. If you really really want to snap them you can. Jim subjected them to an Alpkit test rig to give you some idea of how they resist bending but discovered that he needs to find a bigger rig! We tried this same test with a £25 Leki Makalu brought from Decathlon. It didn't break either but the deflection was almost twice the amount of our carbon poles.

So why wouldn't you choose carbon fibre trekking poles?

Despite the greater stiffness of the carbon shafts they are more fragile than their aluminium cousins. Our own tests have shown that it is difficult to snap the shafts but it is still more likely than with aluminium. One fact about carbon is it doesn't bend, it breaks! People have asked us "what happens if I am descending a steep slope, put all my weight on the pole and it snaps". Rarely would anybody put all their weight on to a pole unless they have poor coordination, have a serious limb disability or are in the early stages of recovery after hospitalisation. If this is the case you should not be using modern style sectional poles.

The most likely scenario for causing a snapped pole is getting the tip trapped in a notch (such as frequently found on limestone paths) while pushing forward on the handle. Your awesome strength combined with some serious mechanical advantage is going to really stress out the lower shaft, and unless you back off the chances are something is going to snap. If you were to load the majority of aluminium poles on the market with your full weight, the pole would almost certainly bend too much to be of use in supporting you. However you may be able to carry out a field repair to it more easily than a carbon pole.

As with all things life is a compromise, using carbon poles you will save a considerable amount of weight, but they aren't as tough as high quality metal poles.

Other Benefits

As well as being lighter than most other materials carbon fibre walking poles have some other characteristics that make them appealing. Your hands won't freeze to them if you accidentally grab them with out any gloves on at -10C. If you forget to disassemble your poles to let them dry out after use carbon poles are completely inert. This means the insides of the tubes won't oxidise making them hard to adjust. This isn't to say you shouldn't look after your carbon fibre walking poles with the same loving attention you would have given a set of aluminum poles.

Product comparison

Brand	Material	Weight/pole	Sections	System	Length (cm)	Price
Alpkit CarbonLite	Carbon fibre	200g	3	Twist lock	60 - 131cm	£60
Alpkit CarbonLite	Carbon fibre	220g	4	Twist lock	55 - 131cm	£65
Leki Carbonlite Aergo	Carbon fibre	193g / each	3	Twist lock	61 - 135cm	$180 / pair
Leki Carbonlite Makalu	Carbon fibre	184g / each	3	Twist lock	61 - 135cm	£130 / pair
Pacer Pole	Carbon fibre	209g / each	3	Twist lock	65 - 132cm	£105 / pair
Trekmates Carbon Ultralite	Carbon fibre	220g / each	3	Twist lock	69 - 140cm	£70 / pair
Brasher ProVolution	Carbon fibre	183g / each	3	Flick lock	68 - 140cm	£100 / pair