I finally listened to that crusty old guy at a gear shop in Moab who told me to ditch my brand new trekking poles for wooden sticks

He said your fancy carbon fiber poles are just gonna snap in a pinch and you need something you can whittle into tent stakes if things go sideways, and then two days later my pole busted on a slickrock scramble and I made a crutch out of juniper branch - has anyone else had a total stranger save their trip with some ridiculous advice?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan_gibson842d agoTop Commenter

That old guy basically handed you a life hack wrapped in bad breath and free advice... gotta love gear shop oracles who look like they crawled out of a 1970s REI catalog. Now you're out here MacGyvering tent stakes out of juniper while the rest of us are still paying $200 for poles that shatter on the first real rock. I bet your next trip you'll be showing up with a machete and a roll of duct tape like some kind of bearded shaman. Stick with the sticks I guess... pun definitely intended.

david372d ago

Hold on, I'm gonna push back on this whole wooden stick worship thing... modern gear has come a long way for a reason. Those carbon fiber poles are lighter and actually have real shock absorption that saves your joints on long descents, something a juniper branch definitely can't do. One broken pole doesn't mean the tech is useless, it just means you hit a bad angle on the rock...