Trekking poles - Merco

What do the trekking poles consist of?

Strap 
As mentioned in the introduction, the trekking poles have different wrist straps than the Nordic Walking poles. However, both kinds of straps must be firm, soft, anatomically shaped and also easily adjustable. 

Handgrip                                                                                                                        Handgrip is the essential part of the pole for your comfort. The handrips are mostly made of foam, cork or rubber. Foam handgrips are non-absorbing, light, anti-slipp and absorb vibrations. Cork handgrips combine the advantage of the foam and a natural material which is anti-bacterial. However, they are slightly heavier and more expensive. The rubber handgrips are the cheapest option but they are quite heavy and if your hand sweats a little the pole can slip out of it. 

Body
The material the trekking poles are made of has already been mentioned. Other qualities are the firmness and flexibility. The poles must be firm, resistant and flexible to resist  the arising impacts and pressure they are exposed to. 

For your better comfort you can get poles with dampening parts (anti-shock system), which dampen the pole strikes when touching a hard surface transferred into your arms. The dampening system is convenient for those ones who suffer with joint and elbow pains. 

Ending (tip)                                                                                                                Tips made of wolfram carbide are mostly used, at cheaper variants these are steel tips (they have a shorter lifetime). An integral part of trekking poles should be rubber tip covers. They are convenient not only for transport of poles but above all on harder surfaces where they prevent the pole slipping, reduce impacts and unwanted noises made by the pole tips striking into a hard surface. It is possible to put on also a plates instead of covers which are used on softer surfaces such as snow, mud or sand. 

We choose the correct pole length

The lengt of treking poles is indvidual someone preffers longer ones, somone shorter ones. The rule is however that when walking down a steep hill the poles should be longer, when climbing a hill the poles should be shorter. 

If you have firm poles which cannot be adjusted the correct lenght can be counted with an easy equation: your body height x 0,68 (e.g. if your height is 170 cms the ideal pole height will be 115 cms). To make it easier keep the following rule: if you stand straight and take the pole which touches the floor the elbow angle should be about 90°.