[at-l] Re: Gluing on Pole Tips

[m_factor@hotmail.com (Mara Factor)]

Hey Cosmo...

Are you sure you aren't seeing crampon scratches?  Most of the scratches I 
ever see on rocks in New England are clearly crampon scratches (lots of 
parallel scratches in one small area).  Obviously, there are also pole 
scratches but the scratches from two poles of a hiker pale in comparison to 
the 10 sharp points (much sharper than poles) of a crampon sliding over a 
rock that doesn't have quite enough ice for the teeth to bite into.

I agree that the damage pole tips do to softer trail is pretty 
insignificant...  compared to both hikers and mother nature.

I go hiking after work on trails not far from where I live and just 5 miles 
from Boston.  There are times when I go as often as 4 times a week.  In the 
hudreds of hikes I've taken there over the last couple of years, I've only 
ever seen two other people using poles.  But, in the winter/early spring, to 
look at the trail, you would think there were thousands of hikers there with 
sharp pointy poles.

When the muddy trails get into the freeze and thaw cycle, the forming ice as 
the water freezes does more "damage" to the trails than I have ever seen any 
hiking poles do.  The entire trail seems as if it has been roto-tilled.

At the right time of year, this phenomena is evident in many places where 
muddy trails freeze.

Just another perspective,

Mara
Stitches, GAME99

>From: Cosmo.A.Catalano@williams.edu
>Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 20:46:49 -0400
>
...
>What irks me it the scratches carbide
>pole tips leave on the rocks (they won't go away for many lifetimes...

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