Carbon Fibre Skye FZ Walking Pole

Staff Review:

I recently took a trip to climb Skarfjellet in the Innerdalen Valley of the Trollheimen Mountains, often called the most beautiful mountain valley in Norway. And it most certainly is a beauty, but the terrain that we picked to pitch ourselves against was certainly testing in the extreme. As an unfit mountaineer with a concerning left knee I knew that I wanted to take trekking poles and the poles that I have been using for the last 34 years were showing signs of coming to an end. So the first question was telescopic or folding? After working at Up and Under for a long time I know that the pluses of telescopic poles are easy maintenance and a vast range of size that such a pole can offer (usually from 65 to 140cm) so you always have the ability to be comfortable whatever slope you are on. But our plan was to climb a 350m rock route during the ascent and a 65cm pole would have to live on the outside of my pack whilst climbing and would undoubtedly get in the way. The pros of folding poles are that they can easily fit in a short climbing pack (36cm long) or on a running vest and I do have ambitions in that direction for the future. You might be surprised to hear that they tend to be slightly heavier than the directly equivalent telescopic pole, but folding poles do only tend to be made within the higher spec. lightweight ranges from each brand, so they are still very light. Run specific poles weren't going to suit most of my needs as gauntlets would get in the way scrambling on boulder fields, I might need to work with snow and  loose moraine so needed a longer tip and the superlight constructions of most just didn't feel up to the task. So I looked at the options that were more trekking or mountaineering specific. I was a little taken by surprise by the height ranges offered Black Diamonds Pursuit Poles (the option I had my heart set on) at 110 to 125cm in the shorter version or 125 to 140cm in the longer version. This gives a range of only 15cm, but also my natural pole holding height on flat ground is 125cm (I am 5'10" and this is with the classic lower arms at 90 degrees to the body and pole stance) and so they were either too short or too long. I needed a pole were I sat closer to the middle and ideally had more range. Leki looked better for me with a 110 to 130cm (20cm range) but I was still not convinced. Then I looked at the Highlander options and they were 115cm to 135cm (20cm again) where I sat right in the middle - result. Not only that for really steep terrain (and there's plenty of that in Trollheimen) the extended foam grip was as long/longer than the rival poles. Weight wise they sat in between the relevant Leki and Black Diamond options so I wasn't compromising here either. Then I looked at price and was blown away by the difference. Now I know that Black Diamond use much more environmentally friendly Algal Bloom Foam in their handles which was a big plus for me, but when the Leki option is £180 for a pair, the Black Diamond £150 for a pair against £80 for a pair of Highlanders then some things begin to creep out of the window. Combine this with the length and weight thoughts above I began to be swayed.
My initial concerns were brought on by the price and brand snobbery; i.e. they won't last as long, they won't feel as comfy in the hand, they are more likely to fail than the more prestigious guys poles. In store the hand strap felt much better than my old ones ever had and whilst not quite as luxurious as the loftier brands they felt perfectly good enough. The handle felt slightly bulky compared to other brands and wouldn't suit people with small hands, but in terms of ease of activation and folding they felt pretty comparable and the components whilst feeling less premium seemed functionally sound. One feature that I thought was good was the fact that they come with pavement tips which screw on and off, these are extras for the other brands are and more prone to coming adrift as they just slide on. Speaking of extras they also come with both mud and snow baskets and a bag and they are sold as single poles so you can get one if that's all you need for under £40! I was sold, in for a penny in for not too many pounds!

In use I really put my new poles through their paces on two days of the hardest terrain that I have ever walked. I was carrying food and water for 2 days, clothing, climbing equipment and bivi kit and I weigh 80kgs so the poles needed to handle all that, plus the ground was up to 45 degrees and after the first few kilometres was on steep scree, loose boulders, snow, debris shoots and boulder fields hidden under blankets of moss and trees. I well and truly punished the poles, I fell over on them, dropped them on rocks, got them caught between boulders, and seriously put all of my weight through them as I leapt from boulder to boulder. They didn't feel at all flexy under all that weight or as though the height adjuster was going to slide or the pole fail at any point. My only minor gripes were again that the handle could have had a slightly smaller radius, the hand straps could have been ever so slightly comfier but I am convinced that they are now bedded in and I won't ever think that again. My only issues and again I'm not too worried about them are based on manufacturing tolerances. There is a tiny bit of play between the pole sections which is only noticeable if you get your pole tip stuck in the mud where the pole sections come apart a few millimetres and you get a click. This happened less than 10 times in 2 days so no big deal. The top section which forms the handle and gives height adjustment is not quite as snug onto the lower sections as some of the more premium brands, so in very dusty environments can get some debris in there which means height adjustment becomes less smooth, this happened once over 2 days, where I just removed the pole top wiped the lower pole on my trousers and put it back together again in a matter of 2 or 3 seconds.
Overall I am super chuffed with my purchase and whilst it remains to be seen if they will get me through 34 years of mountain adventures like my previous poles I am very confident that they will more than repay the cost of them with happy knees and years on the hills to come.