[pct-l] Trekking Poles

[Christine Kudija" <cmkudija@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Christine Kudija)]

Pappy/Don Asper wrote: <<We plan to carry poles on the PCT this year. We may
possibly try to adjust
to one pole each.>>

Pappy, unless there's a really good reason (and I can't think of one) for
you & Granny to adjust to one pole each, I don't think you should.  First,
you've both accustomed yourselves to double poles.  Second, Granny's knees
and even  yours will benefit far less from one pole than they will with two.
I know that once I went to double poles (started with ski poles years ago,
graduated to Leki Makalu in '97) my knees and overall balance improved
tremendously.  I've had surgery on both, and am missing about 2/3 of a
patella in my right knee from a 1978 car accident (intimate contact with the
steering column...).  Poles have been my hiking salvation.

Besides, if you each have a pair, you have backup in case one breaks.  Just
as an example, last year doing the section around Glacier Peak in WA, my
husband Chuck broke one of his Komperdells coming down Fire Creek Pass - not
a serious "accident" -just a posthole, grabbing the pole in midshaft and
snap!

YMMV, etc -

Christine "Ceanothus" Kudija

"Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top.
Then you will see how low it was."  Dag Hammarskjold

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