Nordic Mountaineering Pole – Collapsible, Light-weight 7075 Aluminum Strolling Stick for Seniors, Males, and Ladies

ONE pole only; challenging to assemble due to poor instructions
This is a SINGLE hiking pole that telescopes together for travel. It consists of 5 telescoping aluminum tubes. Two of the tubes come inserted inside the top tube; you have to loosen the single plastic clip at the top to pull them when assembling the pole. All the tubes are connected with a steel cord. Another reviewer mentioned that there is a button somewhere that you can press to tight the cord, but I haven’t found it yet and it’s not described at all in the instructions. On the bottom of the pole is a metal tip, covered with a removable rubber tip. In the box you are also supposed to get a round sand baffle to optionally put around the base to prevent sinking in sand. The grip is thick foam rubber with an adjustable nylon strap. Also included in the box is a mesh carrying case and sheet with instructions.I like the color of this pole—it certainly looks great, and the grip feels good in my hand. However, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to tighten the steel cable that holds the tube parts together, so if I lift the pole off the ground, all the tubes fall apart. If you can figure out how to tighten the cable, please send tips or take some photos since that little detail isn’t covered in the instructions. The original product description and photos, and the photos on the instructions, showed this as a pair of poles. I need a pair, and it’s hard to walk with a non-matched set, so I probably won’t ever use this single pole, even if I do ever manage to get it to stay together. The height is also too high for me—at 5’2”, I walk with poles extended to 32”. At minimum extension, this pole is 43”. So it’s meant for tall guys, I guess, tall guys who like to walk with a single, not 2 poles. Overall, this pole may work for some people (if they can figure out the assembly on their own), but it’s not for me.

Decent enough…
This isn’t a bad product. The description states that it’s reinforced aluminum, and while I have no way to test that, I can say that when expanded it does feel quite sturdy while remaining lightweight so I’m inclined to believe the description is accurate in that respect. It was easy enough to expand it, as well as to adjust the height to fit my physical need, and just as easy to re-collapse it. So why only three stars?Well, it lost the first star because the information in the title and description was misleading *when I ordered it*. I don’t believe it was intentional, I suspect it was an issue of translation that caused it, but it still created confusion and frustration for me (and several other reviewers). How? Use of plurals: the title implied this was a pack of two (“hiking poles”), and the description included appropriate plurals as well (“The trekking poles are made of…”), so I anticipated receiving two and was more than a little disappointed when that wasn’t the case. And while both the title and description have been somewhat adjusted to clear up the confusion, that does not undo the frustration it caused (particularly since it altered the intended usage: I was going to use “matching hiking poles!” as a way to motivate my mother into being more active with me).The second star lost, for me, came down to two things. First that the included informational sheet indicates that in the mesh bag the pole came in there should be five additional heavy rubber tips for the bottom of the pole (so including the one already on the pole, a total of six). On the pole is a “rocky surface” tip, the additional should include a second “rocky surface”, one for “light snow”, one for “sand/mud”, and two for “hard surfaces”. My pack only includes the spare “rocky surfaces” and the “sand/mud” tip. (Note: No comment on customer service because I did not reach out to the seller about this as I don’t plan to use it in snow or so frequently that I see it as a massive issue, but it’s something to be aware of if considering ordering it.) And second that the grip just doesn’t quite feel right in my hand. It’s a solid foam piece, which feels physically comfortable enough that I’m not worried about friction discomfort during use, but something about the size just doesn’t quite work for me personally. I tested it with both hands (and each with a set of gloves, one lightweight, one heavier). It fits most comfortably for me in my left hand, ungloved, but that doesn’t help me much since I’m right-handed and want to use a walking stick on my right side… According to my father, my hands are just “too small”, he felt the grip was fine, as did my mother (whose hands are smaller than mine) so clearly there’s substantial variation in how every person grips a handle like that, but since it’s not an adjustable feature in any sense it’s something to keep in mind as there’s no way to know if you’ll find it comfortable until you get it and test it out.All in all, it will work as it’s supposed to, to help keep me steady while hiking without being too heavy or cumbersome, but I probably wouldn’t order another.