rabthecairnterrier wrote:Had a quick look in the local Lidl (Dingwall). The poles are superficially a good deal, but they did seem to be on the heavy side, though depending how you feel about such things that may be an acceptable compromise given the price. I'd also be wary about durability - I once bought a small cycling rucksack from Lidl on which the zips failed in a rather short time, and once the zip goes ... ; also once a set of AA rechargeable batteries that turned out to hold their charge for all of about five minutes.
The principle that if you buy cheap you end up buying twice still applies to some things, it seems.
There might be 2 different sorts of poles. A few months back they had aluminium poles with plastic handles which had no shock absorbers and were pretty light. They are so similar to the Leki Sherpa poles (although not as strong) that I suspect Leki make them. Most of the poles I saw last week had cork handles and shock absorbers - heavier and not as good IMO.
Allison's been using the aluminium ones for the last few months and apart from the sections coming unstuck (easily fixed with a bit of glue) they've worked well. I bought another pair as spares - the Leki ones I usually use cost £20-odd to replace a single bent section, so worth having.
These would be the ones to go for
P2150259 by
Al, on Flickr