You might be wondering “Why there is even a blog post about it?”. You might be thinking It is obvious that the trekking pole is a must for trekking. But here I am just trying to share my experience with you.
Two years ago, I was on a trip to Gosainkunda, a sacred lake located at 4400+ meter height at Rasuwa district. It was a solo trip and I have to pass through dense jungle sometime. As I had no defense tools, I used to pick wooden stick laying around the trail and used to carry them as both as a support and as safety tools from wild animals. The last day what happened was It snowed so dense and I had to walk the whole day on the snow. Maybe because of the snow, I started to feel pain in my knee. The pain got so intense that I have to struggle to put bodyweight upon it. As I don’t have dedicated trekking pole again I have to rely upon the makeshift wooden stick, I cut from wood. It worked as good support for my hurting leg and I can push myself a little bit faster. The pain became so intense that during the last climb of 4460m pass, I rely fully on the stick and I was just dragging my hurting leg.
On another incidence, I was trekking with a trekking pole and when I had to walk in the dense forest, I walked with the trekking pole out, which gave me confidence that I can distract if any animal tried to attack me using that pointed end of the pole. I didn’t have such encounters but It was definitely as a good morale boost.
Another use case is to walk on snow. You might not always have shoes with special grip and you have to walk on slippery snow. In this case, trekking pole you give you stability and support. It also helps you measure the depth of snow to determine where to place your next step.
From this experience, I came to the conclusion that the trekking pole is a most if you are doing moderate or more than the moderate type of trek. It will act both as a safety tool and as body support. Not only for painful knees but it will also help you get some grip on a slippery surface or know the stability of surface on snow or bushes. As we can easily get various types of the foldable pole, always having one on your trekking backpack looked like a good idea to me.
