Skip to main content
Travel Himalaya Nepal
Packs & Poles

Trekking Poles

They earn their place on the descents.

About the links on this page.Some go to Amazon, and as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend: every card here also says who the item is not for, and a few things we think you should simply rent in Kathmandu or Pokhara instead, which earns us nothing.

Black Diamond Pursuit Adjustable Trekking Poles — Aluminium, cork grips, and they will not snap
Best overall

Aluminium, cork grips, and they will not snap

Black Diamond Pursuit Adjustable Trekking Poles

Aluminium, FlickLock, natural cork grip, ~540 g/pair

Aluminium bends where carbon shatters, and a bent pole still walks you down; you carry about 100 g more per pair than carbon for that insurance, and cork grips beat foam once your hands sweat.

Bends rather than snapping — the whole argument for aluminium

Cork grips do not turn slimy

FlickLock adjusts with gloves on

Heavier than carbon

Not the fastest to collapse for a pack

Cork wears where your thumb sits

Not for you if: Gram-counters. Take carbon and accept that a fall on rock can end the pole.

Check price on Amazon
Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z — Folds to 40 cm and disappears into a daypackLightest

Folds to 40 cm and disappears into a daypack

Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z

So light and packable you actually carry them on the days you were not sure you needed them — they are fixed-length, so you must buy the right size, and carbon fails suddenly rather than gradually.

Check price on Amazon
Aluminium, adjustable, whatever the shop hasIf you are unsure

For people who have never used poles and might hate them

Trekking poles, rented in Thamel

Some people find poles transform a descent and others find them an irritation to be carried; a dollar a day answers that question before you spend a hundred on your own.

Rental shops in Kathmandu and Pokhara carry this — about usd 1 per day per pair. We take nothing from that.