Leki  Spirit Lite Trekking Poles - Pair

Light weight and very strong. Easy to set up. My wife and I used them on the trails of Yosemite, Grand Canyons, Sedona Arizona and the ring of fire in Nevada. I love the straps and the grips. Best I have found.

These are easy to adjust and lightweight. However, the grip is not cork (as stated on the REI website). It is either a synthetic material or coated with a synthetic material. My hands sweated a lot on my first (and last) hike with these. I returned for poles with natural cork grips. I'm not a sweater and had used my old Leki poles for 30+ years. They were the old twist to adjust and had plastic (?) grips but never made my hands sweat.

These poles are lightweight and SO comfortable to use! I recently began using hiking poles (watched YouTube to get a good idea how to best use them) and I LOVE these. I feel so much more stable when hiking especially in rocky terrain, uphill climbs and steep downhill walks. They are also great for stability when crossing streams of water. I leave the poles in my car so I always have them. I recommend them!

Most important is whether they remain stable. When poles collapse, they are useless. Used them on a hike today. They remained as I adjusted them at the outset of the hike.

I've done a few strenuous hikes without poles, but when I turned my eyes to San Gorgonio, the highest peak in SoCal, I decided I needed to try them. Did they reduce my knee soreness? I think they helped. I was still sore on the way down, but it seemed to start later and not last as long after the hike was over. However, having never done that same specific hike without poles, I don't have a scientific control trial. The poles are lightweight and the handle was comfortable, even with sweaty hands. I was on the trail for 9 hours without feeling like the poles were an obstruction. However... I don't know if this was a QA issue with my poles specifically or a problem in the model, but my poles slipped from the height I had set them from at the start. And yet, I only noticed this slippage 5 hours into my hike, on my way down, when I went to look at them to consider lengthening them (as I heard you are supposed to do on the descent). What does it mean that the poles severely slipped in height but I didn't notice until I looked at them? Is "ideal arm angle" a myth? Was I just not noticing what I was missing? My shoulders definitely had a hint of soreness some moments the day after the hike - was it due to the poles being at the wrong height? The poles slipped in height numerous times after I adjusted them, though I was never able to see it happen. There is a handscrew on the latch I need to try tightening. I'm not going to return them just yet - I live too far from an REI to bother. You can roll the dice on it if you like - I saw a review say their pole stayed at the correct height for them.

After only using these poles less than 6 times, one broke during a fall! Too bad a am past the return window!