I Only Use Trekking Poles that Can Fold Up Into My Pack. Here's Why

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Downclimbing is harder than ascending. Sure, you may work harder, cardiovascularly, while heading up. But heading down is far more dangerous. Your body is no longer finding a hold, grabbing it (with a hand or a foot) and then going from asserting very little force on the hold to increasing the force as you pull (with hands) or push (with feet) upward. On the way down, the force equation is inverted. You come to the hold with momentum already applying force and you are trying to arrest that momentum rather than create more momentum. That’s why it is so easy to slip and fall on downclimbs.

Think about it like this: imagine you are shooting a basketball. You have the ball in your hand, you raise it up over your head, and with a final push you snap the triceps and your wrist to project the ball towards the basket. Now imagine you have to bat the ball towards the basket rather than shoot it. Someone is holding the ball in place, over head high; you walk up to it, and you swing your arm like a volleyball serve and smack the ball towards the hoop.

Which is easier to control? With “shooting” the ball, you start with zero momentum and gradually increase the forces you apply to the ball until you have enough force to send it away. With “volleying” the ball, you apply an increased amount of momentum at the moment of contact. That lack of control is what can send your feet sliding over the rock, or force your hand to lose its grip, or - heck - send the rock itself shooting free of the mountain.

Downclimbing is also harder because you have to use more muscle contraction on the weighted limb. When you climb up, you can grab a hold above you and hold it with a straight arm while you move your to a higher position, basically hanging off of the hand hold. When you are downclimbing, you have to grab a hold that is, by definition, below your maximum reach; so you need to grab that hold with a bent arm and then isometrically extend that arm as you move downward.

Okay, what the heck does this have to do with trekking poles?

Well, in the video, I talk about nearly having an accident on a downclimb. And my point is that downclimbs are easy places to have accidents. When you are already moving awkwardly, for all the reasons I just described above, it doesn’t take a lot to through you off balance or out of rhythm. Getting a trekking pole snagged behind you, catching your back at a point above you while you reach a foot downward to a hold that is just within reach can mean that the hold becomes just out of reach; unable to move you waist downward - because your pack is caught - can make that next foot placement nearly impossible to engage with, properly.

So, that’s why folding trekking poles have become such a staple of my gear choices. I don’t want to just manage this problem. I want to eliminate that problem, entirely.

I’ve been using the Leki Micro Vario Cor-tec TA AS poles for a few years, now, for just that reason. Maybe, if you are getting into scrambles and the like, these poles (or some other folding style pole) could be a useful addition to your equipment stash.