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Why Poles Take a Beating in the Glens

Walk into any Scottish glen and the ground underfoot tells you what your poles are in for. Wet peat that swallows a foot to the ankle, granite boulders slicked with green algae, loose schist on a steep descent into a corrie, and the endless abrasive grit of a path that has seen ten thousand boots. Your poles are doing two jobs at once: taking weight off tired knees and stopping a slip turning into a tumble.

That sort of work wears components out quietly. A twist lock that slips half a centimetre on every step feels fine on the flat, then folds under you on a wet descent off a Munro. Tips that have lost their tungsten carbide bite will skate on wet rock. None of it fails dramatically — it degrades, and the degradation is easy to miss until the day you need the poles most.

Check the Locks Before Every Trip

Locks are where poles fail first, and they are the cheapest thing to keep on top of. Get into the habit of testing them indoors, before you pack, not on a windswept col.

• Twist locks: extend each section, twist it tight, then push down hard with the pole vertical. A good lock holds firm with your full body weight behind it. If it creeps, unscrew the section completely and clean the expanding plug.
• Lever locks: check the cam closes with a firm snap. Most have a tension screw or a small adjustment nut — turn it a quarter turn at a time. Too loose and the pole collapses; too tight and you cannot close the lever with cold hands.
• Look for scoring: deep scratches or a polished shiny band on a section means the lock has been slipping and grinding. That section is on borrowed time.

Clean the locking mechanism with warm water and a little mild soap, using an old toothbrush to get grit out of the cam teeth or the twist plug. Rinse, dry thoroughly, and apply a thin film of silicone spray or rub the plug with a candle end. Never use oil or grease — it attracts grit like a magnet and turns a smooth lock into a grinding one.

Tips, Baskets and Ferrules

The tip is the only part of the pole meant to touch rock, and it wears out faster than most people expect. On a typical season of Scottish hill days, a carbide tip can lose a noticeable amount of its point. A blunt tip is a slipping tip.

• Replace tips when the carbide is rounded or when the tip wobbles on the shaft. Most are a push fit over a metal insert. Soak the new tip in hot water for a minute to soften the plastic, then push it home firmly — a vice helps, but a firm hand and a block of wood will do.
• Keep baskets fitted in peat and bog. A basket spreads the load and stops the pole plunging to the handle, which is exactly what happens in the flow country and on the peaty approaches to many a glen. Rubber feet are for hard paths and tarmac; swap them off for the hills.
• Inspect the ferrules — the metal or carbon sockets at the base of each section. Hairline cracks there will snap without warning. If a ferrule is cracked, retire the section.

Cleaning Mud, Grit and Water Out of the Sections

Every few trips, take the poles apart. All the way apart. Wipe each section with a damp cloth, and use a length of dowel wrapped in cloth to clean inside the wider tubes — that is where the abrasive grit lives. Peat water and coastal spray are both corrosive, so rinse after any trip near the sea or through bog, then dry every part separately overnight indoors.

Do not store poles wet, compressed in a hot car, or leaning in a damp shed. Damp plus grit equals seized sections, and a seized pole in a bothy at dusk is a nuisance you can easily avoid. Store them dry, loosely assembled, somewhere with airflow.

Field Repairs and a Small Spares Kit

Things break on the hill, so carry the means to bodge them. A small pouch weighing almost nothing will save a trip:

• One spare carbide tip that fits your poles.
• A metre of duct tape wrapped round an old pencil.
• Two cable ties — perfect for lashing a split basket back on or holding a lever lock closed.
• A small multi-tool with pliers, for adjusting lock screws and pulling reluctant tips.

If a lock fails completely, extend the pole and tape the joint firmly — it will not adjust, but it will still take weight. If a section snaps, keep the upper half as a single usable pole. And resist the urge to use poles as levers to haul yourself out of a bog or to probe across a burn; that is how bends and cracks begin.

A Routine That Keeps Poles Reliable

None of this takes long if you spread it out. Wipe and dry after every outing. Check locks and tips before every trip. Strip, clean and lubricate the sections every few months, or more often if you have been in peat, sand or salt air. Replace tips before they go smooth, and keep baskets on for soft ground.

Do that, and your poles will still be biting into wet granite on a steep descent when your knees are telling you to stop — which is precisely the moment you bought them for.