REI Flash Carbon Trekking Poles

Poles absolutely make hiking easier.

These are my first poles and I really find them useful on the trail. They adjust easily to your height needs by telescoping in and out, which can be important going up and down steep slopes as you might want to change the length.

The poles take a lot of pressure as I not only use them to help propel myself forward, but on more than one occasion they prevented a fall on slippery rocks. On one particularly rocky downhill climb one of the baskets came off in the rocks and I didn't notice it until I had hit softer ground. If I were doing any long distance hiking I might bring an extra basket.

My biggest concern was for the occasional hiker the price is four times what you would pay for a cheap adjustable set of poles in a box store.  I was hiking with someone who had poles that sold for under $40 and we traded, I didn't notice much difference in the short half mile I used them. 

One annoyance was when the poles are packed small, the polls are loose and sometimes slide out longer. The fix is simply tightening a small screw, but then you need to loosen it when you go to expand the poles out. It takes a minute and a dime or pocket knife screwdriver to fix, but I expect better for poles that cost almost $150.