I've been using the three-section PacerPoles for about a year now, with most of my use being concentrated in Yellowstone this summer. I love them. They are extremely sturdy. They are convenient to use as shelter supports. They are comfortable to hold, and I never notice the weight. Most importantly, I feel that they greatly increase my stability and my ability to push myself more efficiently through all kinds of terrain.

But they do take some getting used to. I initially had to spend time rethinking how to use the poles, i.e. not putting them up in front of me and using them like handholds for pulling. Once I did, they were a boon; now I just swing and piston my arms like I would if I were not holding poles, and look at me go.

However, I'm not unwilling to think that the advantages I feel these poles have over traditional ones are totally subjective and the result of a combination of my own physiology, body type, marketing hype, whatever. I would really like to see a thorough, fair, and well-designed scientific analysis of these poles that judges them based on something more than weight, "traditional" trekking pole use, and "Hey, these feel kinda wonky/right on" to see if what I'm perceiving correlates to any hard data. Of course, that's no easy experiment to design, perhaps even impossible... so I'll leave it up to the staff!

For now, I know what I like. I like PacerPoles. (Imagine that to the Frito's advertising song, please.)