Ive had numerous walking poles on my trips, earlier versions were made by trekmates and other manufacturers. You can pick some pretty non discript ones for about a tenner, you might be able to pay that and get a pair. And there is nothing wrong with that if you are going on a standard trek in the UK, up and down some moors and the like. These poles are normally sturdy, but there are draw backs. One is the weight, the general rule of thumb here is the cheaper the pole is , the heavier it will be. The other problem which i have found over the years is the question of robustness. Normally I have found that the cheaper poles locking mechanisms that you twist to lock the pole out or the actual rubber tip on the end are the two things that either break entirely or get damaged easily.

So on my last trip I had a fairly robust trekmates pol with a cork handle btu the weight was quite hefty. So when I decided to buy a new pole for my next trip to Russia, after borowing one of my friends leki poles, knew it would have to be a leki.

So when researching the best ones to buyI saw the 'Makali' pole ,the ones pictured, for £28, I decided to get that. The main reason was that it needed to be lighter. I got this one trhough the post and Ihave to say, although lighter then my trekmates pole, its not that much lighter. The Maki weighs about 225 grams, about 100 grams less then my trekmates pole. I suppose this doesnt sound allot but when you are mountain climbing getting as many grams off as possible is paramount to a succssful summit. I know that for around £65 you can get the carbonite lighter pole, but thats quite a lott of cash and having used the carbonite pole its only about 100 grams more off id say and im not sure thats worth another thirty five quid.

You untwist and twist the pole mid way down to realease the lower section from inside the upper section and this is how all walking poles work, the bottom section can add on anything from 40 - 140cm depending on how long your legs are.

You will get a robust build, I have not, so far, had it break on me and I have not heard anyone say that heir leki pols locking mechanism has broken or the tip broke off.

You can also get attachments for these pols such as the very helpful snow cap , for about £5-6. This is just a plastic cap that fits on the end and acts like an umbrella to capture a wider area of snow, compact it when you lean on it and provide a solid base to push off.

Id say for the price this is a good solid pole, I wouldnt bother with the more expensive carbonite pole unless you have quite a bit of cash, and again dont bother with the cheaper 'unnamed' poles, they will break quite quickly.