Your knees do not hurt on the way up Snowdon. They hurt on the way down.

For that job the LEKI Makalu Lite AS is the pair to buy. It is the only one of the three here with a shock absorber built into the shaft.

Every figure below is quoted from the maker’s own product page, read on 15 September 2026. We compile and explain public route and safety information. We guide nobody and sell nothing on the hill.

The links to Amazon on this page are affiliate links. Buy through one and the site takes a small commission, and what you pay stays the same.

The three at a glance

Read the last column twice. Two of these makers are not weighing the same thing.

Poles	Locking system	Adjustment range	Packed length	Published weight
LEKI Makalu Lite AS	Speed Lock plus lever	100 to 135 cm	67 cm	253 g, basis not stated
Black Diamond Trail	Dual FlickLock levers	100 to 140 cm	64.6 cm	480 g, stated for the pair
Trespass Stryder	Qiklock	Not published	Not published	Not published

LEKI Makalu Lite AS

Best for anyone whose knees already complain on the long descents.

LEKI Makalu Lite AS trekking poles 253 g, packs to 67 cm, adjusts 100 to 135 cm Speed Lock plus lever, DSS shock absorber, 12 mm tip Read the full specification on Amazon

What LEKI publishes for them:

• An adjustment range of 100 to 135 cm in the standard size
• A pack size of 67 cm, in three segments of 16, 14 and 12 mm
• A stated weight of 253 g
• A Speed Lock plus lever locking system, on HTS 6.5 aluminium shafts
• A Dynamic Suspension System in the tip, with a 12 mm DSS tip and a trekking basket

The shock absorber is the reason this pair heads the list. LEKI says the system reduces impact force by around 40 per cent, and attributes that figure to a study at the University of Tübingen.

That is LEKI’s claim about its own part. This page quotes it as LEKI’s claim, not as a measurement of its own.

LEKI also writes that the grip head is fully rubberised for control when descending. That matters because the way down is where you grip the top of the pole rather than the handle.

One point of detail is worth having straight.

LEKI’s specification table gives a single weight of 253 g and does not say whether that is one pole or the pair. The price on the same page is quoted for the pair.

Where it is the wrong choice: if the poles will spend most of the year in a cupboard. It is the most specified of the three, and a specification does nothing in a cupboard.

Black Diamond Trail

Best for a tall walker, and for anyone who wants a lever lock they can work in gloves.

Black Diamond Trail trekking poles, pair 480 g the pair, 64.6 cm collapsed, adjusts 100 to 140 cm Dual FlickLock levers, snow baskets included Read the full specification on Amazon

Black Diamond publishes this:

• A weight of 480 g
• A collapsed length of 64.6 cm
• A usable length of 100 to 140 cm, in three adjustable sections
• Dual FlickLocks, an EVA foam grip and a Variwidth strap
• Recycled aluminium shafts, snow baskets included, and a two year warranty

The 140 cm top end is the highest figure published on this page, and length is what a tall walker runs out of first. The LEKI stops at 135 cm.

Black Diamond names the product as a pair, so the 480 g covers both poles. Set against the LEKI’s unlabelled 253 g, the two figures cannot be lined up as they stand.

There is no shock absorber in this model. Black Diamond’s own range lists separate Shock models, and the Trail is not one of them.

Where it is the wrong choice: if the knees are the whole reason you are buying. That is what the LEKI’s suspension is for.

Trespass Stryder

Best as a first pole for someone who wants to find out whether poles suit them.

Trespass Stryder lightweight walking pole Aluminium shaft, Qiklock adjustment, double EVA foam grip Carbide tip with rubber stopper Read the full specification on Amazon

Trespass publishes this much:

• A lightweight aluminium shaft
• Qiklock systems for height adjustment
• A double EVA foam grip and a padded strap
• A carbide tip with a rubber stopper

Trespass gives no weight, no adjustment range and no packed length for these anywhere on its product page. There is nothing to compare them on except the feature list.

There is a second thing to know before ordering.

Trespass names the item “Lightweight Trekking Poles Stryder” and its own features panel calls it a twinpack. The product title, the reviews on that page and the Amazon listing all say “each”.

Read that as one pole until the basket says otherwise.

Where it is the wrong choice: as the pair you take up Snowdon every month. An unpublished weight and an unpublished length range are not faults on a valley path, and they are on a long descent.

What the makers are not telling you the same way

A weight is only a number once you know what was on the scales.

LEKI prints 253 g. Black Diamond prints 480 g. Read those side by side and the LEKI looks like half the weight of the Black Diamond.

It may not be. Black Diamond says its figure is for the pair, LEKI does not say, and Trespass gives no figure at all.

A figure you cannot act on is not a specification. It is decoration.

Two numbers on this page survive that test, because each has only one possible reading.

Packed length is one. A pole that packs to 64.6 cm goes inside a day sack. One at 67 cm is close enough that you should measure your own sack first.

Adjustment range is the other.

Set a pole so your elbow sits at a right angle with the tip on the ground. If the top of the range falls short of that, the poles are wrong whatever they weigh.

How they earn their place going down

The British Mountaineering Council puts the mechanism plainly. Stepping down, it writes, squeezes the cartilage of the knee joint “dry of its lubricating fluid”.

That is why the soreness arrives after a day of long descents rather than during the climb. Poles move part of that load into your arms.

The Council’s own descending technique is three things, and it is worth learning before the first steep step:

• Put your hands on top of the pole handles rather than around them
• Lean forward, and plant both poles on the step below you
• Take some weight through them, and step down lightly

Beginners are welcome here, and nothing on this site assumes you have done this before.

There is one safety point that is not optional, and it cuts the other way.

On boulder fields, scrambles and stream crossings, take your hands out of the straps. The Council’s reason is that a pole must be droppable in a slip.

Straps that hold your hands to a pole can stop you reaching for the rock you need. That is the one place where poles make the ground more dangerous rather than less.

The other trap is at the point of purchase.

The Council is blunt that Nordic walking poles are not suitable for hill use. A UK search for walking poles returns a great many of them.

When you do not need a pair at all

If your walking is lakeside paths and the lower valleys, poles are a preference rather than a fix.

The British Mountaineering Council says the same in one line. “If you’re only taking a short walk with a light pack, leave the poles behind or save them for the steep descents.”

Poles used constantly also take practice away from your own balance, which is the Council’s other caution about carrying them everywhere.

There is a second honest answer here.

If you already own one pole and use it happily, a second one is an upgrade rather than a necessity.

Buy the pair when the descents start hurting, or when you start carrying a heavier sack.

Where each of these three belongs

If the descents are what hurt, buy the LEKI. It is the only pair here with suspension in the tip, and the only one of the three whose maker publishes a full specification table.

If you are tall, or you want a lock you can work in gloves without thinking, buy the Black Diamond.

The 140 cm top end and the collapsed 64.6 cm are the two numbers here with a single clear meaning.

If you have never used poles and want to find out, buy the Trespass, and order it expecting one pole.

A pole only helps on the descent you actually use it on. That means getting it out at the top, not at the bottom.

The descent is also the part of the day people underestimate, and that is worked through in how long it takes to climb Snowdon.

It is the same stretch that turns up again and again in why walkers need rescuing in Snowdonia.