Walking Equipment and Accessories

Craghoppers Treklite Carbon Poles | Review

OM editor Will puts the Craghoppers Treklite Carbon poles to the sword. They might be good value, but can they hack a rocky hike through the Rhinogydd?

If you want a pair of poles that aren’t going to weigh you down, carbon is often the way forward. The catch is that carbon poles nearly always will come at eye-watering prices. Enter Craghoppers with their Treklite Carbon walking poles which cost just £70 for a pair.

The Top Line

These are simple telescopic poles that weigh a pretty lightweight 175g (each) thanks to their carbon shafts. They can be adjusted quickly and easily from 100cm all the way up to 135cm and their packing size is 36cm. They might not be as high spec as, say, the new Leki Skytera FX carbon, but they do at least offer reliable performance at a fraction of the price.

Buy The Craghoppers Treklite Carbon Poles: £70 at Craghoppers.com

Will Renwick during his tests of the Craghoppers Treklite out in the mountains of Wales. Photos: Dave Macfarlane.

How I Tested The Craghoppers Treklite Carbon Poles

These came in handy during our Outdoor 100 gear testing trip where we had to lug numerous duffels full of gear up steep mountain tracks. I also used them over the course of a three-day hiking trip in Eryri during some route planning for a guidebook I’m working on. Not only did I use them for hiking and gear hauling, but I also used them as a prop for the Alpkit Tarpstar, a tent that’s pitched using a trekking pole.

Buy The Craghoppers Treklite Carbon Poles: £70 at Craghoppers.com

Design

These have ergonomically-shaped foam handles that extend down the shaft, making it easy to adjust your grip on the fly during steep ascents. In my experience, the material feels comfortable, dries quickly, and, crucially, keeps its grip even when wet. I also really rate the broad, smooth-edged top of the pole as it sits nicely in the palm when you’re descending and leaning into it.

The ends have tungsten tips. These have held up very well for me, even after the mileage I’ve done with these poles over hard rocky surfaces. They come with rubber tip covers, which can be useful for saving everyone’s sanity when you’re hiking on tarmac, and there are snow baskets that can be screwed on easily – a useful touch that makes these usable for snowshoeing.

The Craghoppers are pictured here attached to the Rab Protium backpack in the Rhinogydd. Photos: Dave MacFarlane.

Related: Best Walking Poles
Related: Best Walking Boots
Related: Best Hiking Backpacks

Adjusting the pole height is quick and easy to do. You just need to make sure that the screws on the levers are tightened correctly as this will ensure both an easy adjustment and a reliable hold.

Durability

The Craghoppers Treklite Carbon poles seem very durable to me. On a couple of occasions since I’ve been using them, most notably on a hike through the bouldery mountains of the Rhinogydd, I managed to accidentally jam them in-between two rocks, but they flexed nicely and didn’t seem too near to breaking. I’ve also found that the poles still look pretty new and smart, despite having been bashed about quite a lot. Lower cost poles tend to get scratched and marked very easily but that’s not been the case with these.

Verdict

The downside to telescopic poles is that you can never be fully confident that they’re not going to collapse on you during a steep descent. This hasn’t happened to me yet but it’s always something to be mindful of, and its perhaps the main reason why telescopic poles tend to be cheaper than Z-shaped ones. That, and the fact their packed length tends to be longer too – which is the case here. Still, I’ve found these fitted well onto the front of my Osprey Talon 35 harness and also onto the back too.

All in all, a good value set of poles that do the job they’re supposed to.