[pct-l] pole maintance

Thu Nov 4 22:27:51 CDT 2010

Good evening,

I’ll second Tortoise’s comments about the possibility of being hurt when a
pole buckles rather than just slipping a bit.  It happened to me.  I
mentioned earlier that I had had a pole fail on Fuller ridge.  I was
crossing a side-hill rock face that was coated with sand and fine particles
of decomposed rock when my up-grade foot slipped.  When I leaned heavily on
the up-grade pole it buckled to 45 degrees and my lower leg went to the rock
face where I gained a magnum-sized patch of road rash.  Fortunately I didn’t
break a leg bone or kneecap.

At the time I was hiking with Lime-Green Jellybean and she took a photo
showing the bent pole and the hide missing from the front of my lower leg,
but I don’t have a copy.

To add insult to injury, I soon had to descend that long hill to the Snow
Creek Water Fountain, a miserable piece of trail overhung with chaparral and
all manner of sticker-brush.  That didn’t feel so good on my bare, wounded
lower leg.

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 9:53 PM, Tortoise <Tortoise73 at charter.net> wrote:

> Worse yet, a collapsing pole turning a stumble into a serious fall.
>
> My old Leki titanium poles do slip a little but then I readjust and tighten
> again. I also bent one lower section last year when I stumbled and fell
> climbing over and thru some blowdown. Straitened the section and it is still
> going strong, though maybe not quite as strong as before I bent it.
>
> Tortoise
>
> <> Because truth matters! <>
>
>
> On 10/28/10 19:41, CHUCK CHELIN wrote:
>
>> Good evening, all,
>>
>>
>> I have a different view of pole section locks based upon the aggravation
>> of
>> twice having lower pole sections buckle badly, then break when I attempted
>> to straighten them.
>>
>>
>> Over the years I’ve often had twist-locks slip a bit when I have to lean
>> on
>> them heavily over rough ground.  The slippage was usually only an inch or
>> two, and rarely as much as 6-8 inches.  It was no big deal; I just quickly
>> readjusted and continued on the trail.  There was never a structural
>> failure.
>>
>>
>>
>> A couple of years ago I bought a pair whose manufacturer claimed for them
>> an
>> enhanced twist-lock mechanism to resist any such slipping – and resist
>> slipping they certainly did.  I leaned heavily on one pole on Fuller Ridge
>> and indeed it did not slip – instead the lower section buckled to a 45
>> degree angle.  The same thing happened again north of Tehachapi Pass, but
>> this time it was complete breakage.
>>
>>
>>
>> I view the locks as a stress limiter; a safety valve, if you will.  I
>> would
>> much sooner readjust occasionally – seldom more often than once a week –
>> than have the lower section suffer a catastrophic column failure
>> necessitating replacement of the section or possible the entire pole, or
>> pair of poles.
>>
>> Steel-Eye
>>
>> Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
>>
>> http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
>> http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 6:56 PM, greg mushial<gmushial at gmdr.com>  wrote:
>>
>>  Message: 7
>>>> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:10:22 -0700
>>>> From:<ned at mountaineducation.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: [pct-l] pole maintance
>>>> To: "Amanda L Silvestri"<aslive at sbcglobal.net>
>>>> Cc: PCT MailingList<pct-l at backcountry.net>
>>>> Message-ID:<BC790FDBB2974E49AE87BF6564D654BA at PacificCrestPC>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8";
>>>> reply-type=original
>>>>
>>>> The twist-lock poles we product-tested this spring failed miserably,
>>>>
>>> where
>>>
>>>> the cam-locks held every time we fell against them in time of need! You
>>>> should have seen the inventive ways other hikers used to keep their
>>>> twist-locks from compressing--even denting them because the duct tape
>>>> slipped.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> This was the only way I found to keep the twist-locked poles from
>>> collapsing - which they always did at the most inopportune time
>>>
>>> http://www.harborfreight.com/150-piece-hitch-clip-assortment-96243.html
>>>
>>> either a small hole through both poles, pinning the together, or a small
>>> hole through the lower half, with hitch pin as a stop, keeping the upper
>>> portion from descending past it. Both were suboptimal, but "worked" -
>>> pinning them together was somewhat stronger. (a scribed line aroiund the
>>> bottom half at the bottom of the top half helped in reinserting the pins
>>> if
>>> one had to collapse the poles for shipping - this is assuming pinning the
>>> two halves together; with pins in the lower half as a stop this wasn't
>>> necessary.)
>>> TheDuck
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Just remember, Be Careful out there!"
>>>>
>>>> Ned Tibbits, Director
>>>> Mountain Education
>>>> 1106A Ski Run Blvd
>>>> South Lake Tahoe, Ca. 96150
>>>>    P: 888-996-8333
>>>>    F: 530-541-1456
>>>>    C: 530-721-1551
>>>>
>>>
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