hey guys welcome to RTI Co up you're
good I'm ho tech and I'm Miranda and
today we're talking about the best
trekking poles you can find at REI this
year
so make our picks for best trekking
poles we talked to customers in the
store and we looked at customer reviews
and we took all those recommendations
and we put them to the test on the trail
the first category that we have our best
trekking poles for hiking and
backpacking and for that one our pick
was the Black Diamond trail
ergo cork so when we chose our best
trekking poles for backpacking and
hiking we really just looked at
something that is gonna be durable and
comfortable for long hikes so like the
name implies the trail or go cork has a
cork grip cork is really probably my
favorite material for a trekking pole
grabs a bunch of yeah it's just really
comfortable and it conforms really well
to your hand it's also going to be
breathable and it's gonna work in any
sort of temperature it doesn't get cold
it doesn't get super hot it also works
when it's wet and I mean it's not
slippery works so yeah sweet summer cork
grip on them and then they'd actually
have a grip that extends down the shaft
so if you need to just choke up on the
grip of the pole and you don't want to
mess with the locking mechanism you can
do that really easily on these you also
have a padding on the strap that is also
adjustable the strap is adjustable and
the handle actually angles forward
slightly which again is just gonna add
to more comfort when you're using these
on long hikes the these poles do come in
two men's and a women's version the
women's version is just gonna have a
slightly smaller total length yeah in
total length yeah so total length the
pole in a slightly smaller grip so if
you have smaller hands or you're shorter
you can also look at a women's pole and
then these are made out of an aluminum
material so aluminum is a little bit
heavier than materials like carbon but
it's gonna have some flex to it and so
overall it's just a pretty durable
this guy's got a really simple and easy
locking mechanism so you just flip this
guy up and you slide them up and down it
is adjusted through a screw so that's
pretty easy to deal with you can use
your multi tool but starts getting loose
or a little bit too tight and you crank
that up and down it has a it has a
basket and we can actually switch this
basket out for snow basket so if you
want to use it for snowshoeing or for
some winter stuff you know you got you
can just swap that out and it's a good
all-round Pole yeah it's one pole to use
for everything our next category is
tracking polls under $100 and for that
we chose the Leki legacy light cortex
wrecking ball if you're looking for just
a good first trekking Pole the Leki
legacy light core tech it's a good
option for you it's adjustable it's
decently lightweight it's inexpensive
and it has a comfortable grip so with
these grips you get a cork and rubber
compound grip so benefits of cork as
well as the durability of reverence or
ability bribery yeah totally and these
poles do come in a women's version we
don't have women's version here but
that's just something to note one cool
thing that I like about the grip is that
you actually have this small bump here
and that's designed to go between your
pointer finger and your middle finger
and that's gonna help relieve some
pressure on your hands so these are
really great if you're not used to using
trekking poles and you just want a
little bit more comfort there the way
these guys adjust is with a flip lock
just like the trail ergo cork the
difference is that instead of using a
screw actually uses a thumb screw for
the adjustment so you can just do that
with your hands you don't need a
multi-tool and super easy to do at home
and you can also switch out the basket
on this guy for a snow basket so you can
use it in the winter coop
yeah just good all-around pull and our
next category for trekking poles are
best trekking poles for fast hikes and
for trail runners and our tech for that
one is going to be the Black Diamond
distance Z carbon so we chose the best
trekking pole for trail runners or fast
hikes we looked at something that was
really packable and really lightweight
and so that was how we came up with the
distance Z carbon the reason that weight
is important is that with these poles
it's not only the carry weight but it's
also something that's easy to swing so
you don't want to have to like whip but
really heavy pull out in front of you if
your trail running they're also really
really quick and easy to deploy so the
way you do these guys is you just grab
this bit right here you just pull this
all the way out and you want to make
sure that you see this little silver
spike come up and you feel that click
because that way you know that you're
fully locked in and it's nice and stiff
yeah so otherwise you can have a pole
that's like this but doesn't have that
locking mechanism and it's not going to
stay so yeah these poles don't have a
ton of adjustment have no adjustment
actually within the length right but you
can't actually choke up on the grip
pretty easily
that yeah I think me something like that
you can do this on the grip and then you
do have a strap here and these are
marked as right and left and it has a
little bit of adjustment so if you have
a larger hand or something you can
adjust the strap yep these poles aren't
designed to be used in snow so you can't
interchange the basket and put a snow
basket on them but they do have
interchangeable tips so you can actually
remove this rubber tip and put on a
carbide tip our next category for poles
our best poles for travel and our pick
for that one is going to be another
black diamond pole and it's gonna be
that black diamond distance Z which is
exactly like these poles but made out of
aluminum so we chose a trekking pole for
travel we knew that we wanted something
that would fit into a suitcase and so
the Z poles actually packed down to be
15 inches which was really small but we
ended up choosing a poll that was
aluminum instead of carbon this is a
good time to talk about the difference
between aluminum and carbon there's a
couple of Managed so aluminum it's gonna
have a little more flex in the material
which means that if you bang it around a
little bit or you put a dent in the pole
the pole might not be able to take down
anymore but it's still gonna be there
you can still use the pole if you go of
carbon it's it's actually just as strong
and it's gonna be lighter it's gonna be
a little bit more expensive but if you
exceed the strength of the carbon it's
gonna shatter so aluminum slightly
expensive slightly heavier but it has
more durability because the Flex carbon
slightly more expensive a lot lighter
and can shatter depending on how you're
using the poles you might find that you
get better durability out of carbon but
you do you're up to you yeah our last
category is best hiking staff and for
that we chose the REI co-op hiker stock
okay be real why would you want one
staff as opposed to a pair of poles okay
super good question hoe tech so if you
just want to have a pole for say like
doing river crossings or where you need
some extra stability on certain areas of
the trail you don't want to have to lug
around two trekking poles a hiking stop
it's awesome and the cool thing about
the hiker stock is that this actually
extends a lot longer than the other
trekking poles this goes up to 50 55
inches no so say you're like on a log
and you're crossing our River you can
extend this to a really long length and
have extra stability okay the other cool
thing about this pole is that you do
have an extended grip so you can choke
up on it really easy
and has a cork top on it and the top of
it unscrews and turned into a monopod
that's thinking your photographer on
yeah you could like put it under take a
picture like take a selfie so yeah
overall just kind of a good option if
you're looking for just a little bit of
extra stability without having to carry
around two poles a suite that's it
for trekking poles if you have any
additional questions you can look at our
other videos if you haven't already go
ahead and subscribe and as always feel
free to come into your local REI to talk
to the experts there we'll see you out
on trail