Why Poles Earn Their Place on Fell Ground

On a smooth path, poles can feel like extra luggage. On the British uplands they rarely stay that way for long. The combination of broken rock, saturated peat and short steep pulls means your legs are constantly adjusting, and the load on knees, hips and ankles adds up over a long day. Add a wild camping pack and the picture shifts further: a 12kg load multiplies every awkward step.

Trekking poles give you two extra contact points, spreading effort across your upper body and giving your knees something to lean into. Used well, they reduce the impact of descents, stop the small slips that tweak ankles, and let you look up at the landscape rather than down at your boots. Used badly, they trip you up and waste energy. The difference is nearly all in adjustment and timing.

Getting the Length Right Before You Set Off

The classic starting point is simple: stand upright, grip the handle with the tip on the ground, and your forearm should be roughly horizontal. That is your baseline for level ground. Everything after that is about matching the terrain.

• Uphill: shorten both poles by 5–10cm so you can plant them ahead of you without lifting your shoulders.
• Downhill: lengthen by 5–10cm so you can reach forward and place the tip before your foot lands.
• Traversing a slope: shorten the pole on the uphill side, lengthen the downhill one. It feels odd for the first minute and then feels obvious.
• Road or hard track sections: fit rubber tips to reduce wear and noise, and remove them before you hit rock.

Adjust in small increments as the ground changes rather than setting once at the car park. Most poles lock in 5cm steps, so a half-turn of the clamp is often all that is needed. Check the clamps are tight before you weight them — a slipping pole mid-descent is a real hazard.

Use the wrist straps properly. Slide your hand up through the loop from below, so the strap crosses the back of your hand and the webbing takes the load. That way you can push down with an open palm on steep ground, and your grip stays relaxed on long flats.

Technique on Rocky and Broken Ground

Rock demands precision rather than force. Look for the flat top of a boulder or the gap between stones, and place the tip there rather than letting it skate across a slab. A carbide tip on wet gritstone offers little purchase, so aim for texture.

Keep the pole close to your body. Reaching out wide gives you leverage you cannot control, and on a boulder field that usually means a wobble. Plant just ahead and slightly to the side of your boot, then let your weight pass over it.

The timing is the same as walking: opposite arm, opposite leg. When your left foot steps, your right pole plants. Get this rhythm early and your poles start to feel like an extension of walking rather than a separate activity.

On very steep rocky ground, shorten your strides and use both poles as a pair of crutches, planting them together below you on the descent. Two hands on the grips, one pole either side, is the most stable arrangement when you cannot see your footholds.

Bogs, Peat and Pathless Ground

Peat hags and boggy moorland are where poles become a tool as much as a support. Use them to probe ahead: two firm prods, one either side of where you intend to step, tells you whether you are crossing a shallow wet flush or about to drop into a waist-deep hag.

Fit the larger baskets when the ground is soft. They spread the load and stop the pole sinking up to the grip on every step, which otherwise turns a rhythm into a series of small wrestling matches.

On tussocky, pathless ground, precision matters less than cadence. Let the poles find the tops of tussocks and keep moving steadily. Stopping and starting constantly is what exhausts you in this terrain, not the surface itself.

For river crossings, keep one pole planted upstream as a brace while you move the other, and always undo your pack's sternum and hipbelt before stepping into moving water.

Protecting Knees, Especially with a Camping Load

Most of the benefit shows up on descents. The quadriceps absorb a great deal of force on the way down, and a pair of poles shifts a meaningful portion of that into your arms and shoulders. With a wild camping pack on, that difference is often what decides whether the last mile to the valley feels manageable or miserable.

• Lengthen poles slightly and plant them lower on steep descents, so they take weight before your knee bends fully.
• Take shorter steps, especially on loose scree or slate.
• Keep your torso upright rather than leaning back, which loads the knees unevenly.
• Alternate which hand carries the heaviest items if you are not using a hipbelt properly.

If you have existing knee trouble, poles are one of the cheapest and most effective pieces of kit you can carry. They also help you stay steady when you are tired, and tired is when most minor injuries happen.

Looking After Your Poles and Your Headspace

Wipe and dry the sections before collapsing them, especially after a wet Pennine or Highland trip, and check the locking mechanisms for grit. Sand and peat in a twist-lock is the usual cause of a pole that fails when you need it most.

Beyond the mechanics, there is something quietly useful about the rhythm poles create. The tap, plant, step pattern settles the breathing and gives a long climb a pace you can hold. It also frees your eyes from the ground beneath your feet, which is, after all, part of why you came up here.