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Masters Trecime Carbon Trekking Pole

If you’ve never used lightweight trekking poles before then you’re in for a revelation, swinging a pole that weighs half of what you’re used to feels remarkably good and these days a lightweight pole will probably do everything you ask of it without letting you down.

These Masters Trecime Carbon Trekking Poles are sub 200g per pole and are also one of the shortest when packed for carrying, but to be successful the poles need to be strong and comfortable to handle. I’ve used these for a couple of trips now as you can tell by the scratches, I’ve been over quite rough terrain and have certainly been in situations when I thought they might snap – but they haven’t yet. I’m 15 stone so when I trip forward there’s a lot of weight imparted to the poles which have caused some serious bending, but no snaps, they just spring back as good as new.

Comfort-wise they are fine, the soft padded handle is fairly minimalist but it’s good enough, the straps adjust easily, which is a pet hate with some poles. When the poles are folded there’s an adjustment ferrule that adjusts the ‘travel’ of the internal cord so you can easily fine tune how well the poles fit together. To deploy the poles you dangle them and pull the top section out of the handle section – when they are fully deployed a push button pops out and keeps them in place – this button is very positive and I can’t imagine it giving any problems.

The poles come with a walking ‘basket’ which are 55mm in diameter, pretty ideal for walking across rocky sections of path, the basket stops the poles from disappearing in between the cracks. You also get some rubber feet, an optional extra with some poles, the rubber feet stop the incessant ‘click’ ‘click’ when walking on roads, pavements or bear rocks. I like the design which allows the tips of the poles to press into the end of the rubber foot without it wearing a hole.

Although new to the UK Masters have been designing and manufacturing poles since 1977, they know what they are doing and it shows – we met them at a trade show and their enthusiasm is infectious.

Mark R