Mountainsmith Pinnacle

In a nod to John's review, excellent for the price.

I bought these a couple years ago and I'm fairly happy with these. They are light enough and I love the spring-loaded feature. Once in a while I find I need to adjust the poles again if I've been going down hills repeatedly. The twist lock mechanism has slipped like that only occasionally and usually not on the same hike, so I check them after a few hikes.

The grips are fine for most seasons, but I'm not thrilled with them in warm weather with no gloves. A cork grip would be nice and my next pair of poles might have to have those instead of rubber like these poles.

One thing for sure is you can't beat the price. I found them for $20 on sale. Before this set I had the hiking monopod/pole by Mountainsmith, which I should also review since I've owned it for many years. It's nearly the same construction except for having the foam grip and camera mount.

The aluminum construction is sturdy enough to survive my abuse. On two instances I've cross small bridges on hiking trails where the tip has slipped between the cracks in the wood without breaking. I only used a hiking shaft or monopod for many years and these were my intro into a hiking pole. I have old aluminum Leki X-country poles and find these are close in weight and strength. The carbide tips grip well enough and the rubber covers for fair weather have held up real well.

Would buy again if needed, but might upgrade on my next purchase. Hard to beat for value.

Background

Hiking for decades.

For the money you can't go wrong!

These poles were a last minute buy. I had no intention of even using poles until a friend of mine asked if I had bought poles for my first backpacking trip. Not knowing if I really wanted or needed them I picked them up really cheap and boy am I glad I did.

These poles are great! Very tough. I really abused them.I will eventually upgrade to something with a cork grip, but for the time being these poles will be in my hand for many more years.