[pct-l] Trekking pole tips

[Eric Lee (GAMES)]

Senator wrote:
>
Yep, it's actual wear.  If you think about a few atoms/molecules of whatever the tip
surface is wearing away with each strike, they'll eventually wear away completely.
>

Everyone's experience is different depending on how you use your poles and where you hike, but in my experience (hiking in the Cascades, using my Leki poles pretty aggressively) the carbide tips themselves don't noticeably wear down at all.  Carbide is *incredibly* hard.  What does happen is that the metal and plastic that holds the carbide tip in place wears away to nothing and then the carbide either falls out or gets pushed up so that doesn't make contact with the ground any more.  That seems to happen in about 500-700 miles for me.

Replacing the tips is a simple matter of banging the old ones off and shoving the new ones on.  I usually slide a wrench down the pole and bang on the tip to knock it loose, or yanking the pole upward through a gap in a picnic bench or something should work fine too.

Eric