Pair of PaceMaker Stix Journey Anti Shock Trekking Poles for Walking and Hiking - Replaceable Tungsten Tips - Ultralight and Collapsible Sticks - for Exercise, Hiking and Backpacking

I bought these poles at the over 6 months ago and have used them for two 3+ night backpacking trips and countless day hikes. These are great esp. for the price. Fully adjustable (I'm 5'10", the GF used them for the final leg of a long day 5'5"). The grips are comfortable and the wrist straps work well. These are anti-shock. I first thought that they were not but at a rest stop on one of my hikes I leaned on one pretty heavily and it "popped", since then it has had anti-shock, did the same thing to the other pole and it works the same. The knobby rubber feet work great, I use them 90% of the time. I have used them as tent poles when going ultralight. I have recommended them to friends. I see very little wear. There may be lighter poles, but these are not heavy by any means and are well built.

I'm glad I gave walking sticks a try. Since I'd never used them before I opted for a budget friendly pair. I wanted the sticks to serve a few purposes - provide a more aerobic aspect to my walks, burn more calories and to alleviate some pressure on my hips- 1 is arthritic and 1 was recently replaced. I love using these sticks!!!! I received all the different feet with my order and put the 'paws' on. When walking on level sidewalks I can really speed along. On sandy soil going up and downhill these have helped me tremendously. I find them to be very aerobic ( think the old nordic trac machines or cross country skiing) It took me just a few minutes to get my pace to match arm movement. I do feel a tiny burn in my arms tricep area when I'm done which is great! What over 50 woman doesn't want firm upper arms??? What has been the best benefit though is that my legs aren't tired at all when I'm done and I have no tension or pain in them. I am very long legged and extend the poles to 54". They work fine, but I found I need to wear workout gloves as I got a blister on my finger. However, the cork grips are very comfortable. If you are considering walking sticks, try these.

I started hiking regularly for fitness last August. Since then I've gone almost 400 miles and for most of those miles have relied on these. Some sort of trekking pole is essential, especially if your'e a klutz like I am! - They very rarely collapse on me. It's only happened a couple of times and ONLY after I get the poles tangled in something that catches on the baskets and forces the pole to rotate. What follows isn't a sudden collapse, but one of the poles getting slowly shorter. It's easy to just quickly check the tightness of the segments if I get tangled up in underbrush. I've put quite a bit of weight on them scrambling up snow-covered hills and hopping over small streams. - As other reviewers have mentioned, there doesn't really seem to be any anti-shock feature that I've seen. However, I find they work just fine as-is. - Some people mentioned the straps aren't adjustable enough. I have very small wrists and have had no problems with them. I use them by inserting my hand into the strap in the direction that is going away from my body. I then rotate my wrist to bring my hand back towards my body over the top of the strap. The strap then goes under my wrist and comes up between my thumb and fingers. All the weight is on my wrist and forearm, not fingers. I can easily swing the pole and barely need to grip it at all. So while they straps may not be perfectly adjustable, there are options for using them that work for people w/ smaller hands/wrists. The overall sense of the earlier reviews here is "good starter poles" and I concur completely. Sure, you can get fancier and more expensive poles, but these are just fine if you're getting started and haven't used trekking poles before. They're a good value for the money. They've increased my stride length, decreased my minutes/mile, and given me the confidence to get over slippery and steep terrain. I'd recommend them for anyone looking to start day hiking.

I am SUPER IMPRESSED with these poles. WOW. I am a big GUY (HEAVY) and I highly doubt if you are a heavy man reading this you weight more than I do. People at my weight usually do not usually go for walks or hikes, but if you do these poles should work for you just like they do for me. This allows me to use my arms and exercise my upper body while removing weight from my arthritic knees too! The doctors told me that I would not be able to walk unless I took off a significant amount of weight because my knees are shot, but these poles have let me walk miles a time. The tips are great, I screwed on the small thing I am going to call a mud guard that keeps the tip fo teh pole from sinking too far into dirt, sand or mud. The rubber tips are great for walking on a paved trail or down the side of the road, but if I am on a dirt trail I pull them off so that the metal tips can sink into the ground. It's really easy to transition from dirt to asphalt, it only takes a moment to pop off the tips and put them into your pocket or to pull them out and pop them back on. You can even use these indoors if you wanted on carpet or wood floors with the rubber tips. I was surprised by how light weight these were, but they are very strong. The shock absorber does go down if I lean heavily onto one of them, but when you re walking you will not even notice it. The only negative for me is that one end of the straps pulled out on each of my poles. I don't see anyway to reconnect it, but I was able to simply tie the lose end to the top part that remains connected firmly and it works just fine. I did not remove a star from them for this because of how well the poles are holding up to my daily abuse. The simulated cork (it's not really made from cork) hand grips are very comfortable too.