In 2013 I hiked La Cloche-Silhouette, an 81 km trail in Ontario on the edge of the Canadian Shield. It was my first multiday (and solo) trip through extremely rugged terrain so I knew hiking poles would be a necessity. I scored a pair of Komperdell\u2019s on clearance for $40 and off I went. They did the job but boy were they heavy — my arms were just as tired as my feet. By day 6 I was going to throw them off the top of \u201cthe Crack.\u201d but since I needed them for the descent I vowed to replace them with an ultralight model instead.<\/p>\n
Initially I considered carbon fiber but reviews of early products weren\u2019t encouraging. People were reporting broken poles from minor flexing and they were quite expensive to replace. Other steel\/aluminum models weren\u2019t designed for ultralighters and were only marginally lighter than what I was already using. For a long time it seemed there wasn\u2019t a good middle ground. After quite a bit of research I came across the Helinox Passport series. Many backpackers are undoubtedly familiar with Helinox\u2019s line of camping chairs, but what isn\u2019t well known is they also make ultralight hiking poles using an exclusive alloy from DAC. DAC is the OEM for pretty much every tent pole out there so it\u2019s fair to say they\u2019re experts in high-strength aluminum.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2018\/01\/Poles-e1515108915140.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n