I bought a pair of the REI Ascent Shocklight Trekking Poles. They cost almost $100 when I bought them.

I was constantly adjusting them because the twist "locks" kept slipping.

I took them back to REI and a salesman asked me what problems I had with them. I told the locking adjustments slipped and they felt brittle as hell.

He told me that I was putting too much pressure on them. "Trekking poles are only used for ballance."

Well, I could see this knucklehead didn't know what he was talking about....... so I asked for a refund.

To their credit, REI gave me my money back. No questions and I didn't even have a sales receipt and had used them for about 9 months! So I'm not knocking REI....... just this product.

Well, after I got my refund, I read some reviews on these POSs! Evidentally I'm not the only one who had problems with these. BTW - They are NOW selling for $35 (down from the original $100).

Now I'm looking for some new trekking poles. Considering the Leki Carbonlite Antishock Trekking Poles.

They claim 140kg. lockup and weigh 15 oz. per pair. But rather pricey.

Anybody have an opinion of these or other lightweight anti-shock trekking poles?

I won't use "anti-shock" poles in difficult country for various reasons. I use Komperdell C3 carbon poles and have for three years with total satisfaction. I weigh well over 300 lbs. with a full pack and can put my entire weight suddenly on these without failure, BUT, you MUST ALWAYS double-check your pole adjustments.

They are light and non-intrusive in a hunting situation, I won't go without them. Most REI/MEC gear is pretty mediocre, they aim their products largely at the "weekend warrior" hiking crowd. I have been a member of both for well over 30 years, but, my hunting gear comes from other sources.

Komper-C3s are not "cheap", but, you get what you pay for.

I've had several sets of poles and have a couple to recommend. I've given up on Leki/Komperdeli/REI twist lock because the &^%$^&%$^&%$ SOBs all slip, usually when you need them the most. I have a superlight pair from TiGoat that haven't let me down yet, but if you really want the bomb-proof ones, get the Black Diamond's with "flick-lock" adjustment.
BD alpine cf poles
The bent BD pole in the photo below is all that kept me out of the NWT's Caribou Cry River below.

I second Don B on BD flintlock's. I have BD ski poles for backcontry skiing and they are great no slipping. On the other hand the Leki antishock I have have not failed me yet so I cant diss them.

I concur with the others. Twistlocks just don't cut it. I just returned from a back country elk hunt, where skiis &/or snowshoes were in constant use. When skiing aggressively, I simply tightened the screws on the Black Diamonds. They worked perfectly.

Thanks for the advice everybody.

I went with a pair of Leki Carbonlite Anti-Shock.



I'll tell you if I have "buyer's remorse"!

My high dollar Lekis.....made in China!

I took them out for a quick test run today and they seem pretty satisfactory.

Lightweight, low noise (vs. aluminum), and locks seem to work ok.

Time will tell.

I've had 2 sets of the twist locks get destroyed by crossing glacier streams. The fine silt seems to have worn away the plastic locking mechanism. Each set only lasted 1 hunt. Now I have been using a set up Black Diamonds that have a cam over locking set up which have done just fine. I buy all my stuff at REI and they have always taken the stuff back that crapped out. They get all my business!

I used a set of the BD carbon fiber poles last sheep season and loved them, never had a failure and the carbon fiber acted as a shock absorber. Did everything from ascending and descending mountains to crossing glacier rivers and the flip locks worked flawlessly. Well worth the money in my opinion.

Been using the BD carbon fiber poles for two seasons now and like them alot. The locking levers work great. The only thing I did was to unscrew the levers and hit the screws with real locktite as I did have one of the lever screws back out on a hunt and lost part of the locking mechanism which basically made the pole worthless.
Have used Leki poles extensively but for some reason have had problems over time with the locking machanisms not functioning correctly.
I did have a hunter come with BD oval aluminum poles once and they were real loud in the rocks and I know he was frustrated with the poles especially after trying my carbon pole.

quote:

Originally posted by DaMan:
My high dollar Lekis.....made in China!

Time will tell.

Do we make any thing anymore???

Another vote for the BlackDiamond´s - I love mine...

Never had an problem with locking or so - just superb...

You guys convinced me that the BD are the way to go and I happened to get an email today from REI-Outlet. Lucky for me they had the BD Alpine CF for only $89.93 so i bought them. Here's the link in case anyone is interested.

http://www.rei.com/REI-Outlet/product/784401

Another option Petzel makes a teloscoping ice pick that is a great item and weighs next to nothing. There's lots of fine thread so it doesn't come undone so to speak.

Brett

BD also makes an pole with an icepick called "whipped" I have the old version and it works.

Bought a pair of Black Diamond carbon poles last week due to the responses here and tried them out yesterday and I'm impressed!