1. Biographical Information:
Name: Michael Jay Lissner
Trail Name: (The) Chemist
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Height: 201 cm (6' 7")
Weight: 88 kg (195 lb)
Email Address: yourmothership (at) hotmail (dot) com
City of Residence: Berkeley, California, USA
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2. Backpacking Background:
I have been backpacking for the greater part of my life. I started with traditional backpacking while a Boy Scout, but my current style is a highly minimalist one relying more on skill and discomfort and less on creature comforts and toys. Although my backpacking style is an evolving thing, at this point I usually clock in 27.4 k (17 mile) days with a base weight (without food or water) of about 4.1 kg (9 lb), including my tarp, frameless pack and down quilt. My usual stomping grounds are any of the terrain within three hours from here including Desolation Wilderness, Emmigrant Wilderness, Point Reyes National Park, Yosemite and others.
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3. Product Information:
Manufacturer: Gossamer Gear
Manufacturer's URL: http://www.GossamerGear.com
Product Name: Lightrek Poles
Size Tested: 130 cm (51 in)
Measured Size (from end to tip): 133 cm (52.3 in)
Year of Manufacture: 2004
Suggested Retail Price: 95.95 USD
Advertised Weight: 60 g (2.1 oz) each (115 cm [45.3 in] size)
Measured Weight: 74 g (2.6 oz) each*
*Weight was measured on a Sunbeam digital scale that claims accuracy to 1 g or .1 oz. Le Handle

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4. Product Description:
Each of these poles consists of three basic parts: The handle, the shaft and the tip. The handle of each of these poles is made of EVA foam, and is shaped to make holding the pole less of a strain on hand muscles. As can be seen in the picture at right, about 80% of the way from the top of the handle section, it flares out to give better hand support. The circumference of the middle of the handle is 9.5 cm (3.75 in). The circumference of the flared section is 13.5 cm (5.3 in). On the part of the handle that rests inside of the thumb, small grooves have been molded into the handle, and on the front there is a bump that sits beneath the first finger. Unlike traditional poles, these do not have wrist straps, but instead sport small Spectra loops at their base to be used to hold something small such as a mini-compass or to thread keeper wriststraps through. As is explicitly stated on the Gossamer Gear website, these are not meant to be weight bearing. When I first saw these poles at the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kick Off Party, they did not have a cap on the top of the handle, and the carbon fiber was exposed. Since then, these poles have officially been released to the public, and lo and behold, they now have caps on the top.

The shafts of these poles are made from carbon fiber, that is wound around a mandrel from one end to the other as one might wind a spool of ribbon if they were excruciatingly careful to overlap it just so with each wrap. I do not know a whole lot about carbon fiber, so I won't pretend to, but I do know that it is incredibly strong for its weight, and these poles are just that. As of the time of this report, there is a good deal of information about the construction of these poles on the Gossamer Gear web site. I will reprint it here, as it explains the shaft construction better than I possibly can. From the Gossamer Gear site:
The tubes are made using a roll-wrapping technique where the wall is built up by laying up layers of fabric around a mandrel. To meet our specifications, special 0.15 mm fabrics had to be used instead of the standard 0.3 mm fabrics. The poles are constructed of 3 layers of carbon fiber at 0 degrees (running down the tube) and 1 layer of glass fiber at 90 degrees (running around the tube) in an epoxy resin."

Le Tip

Upon first inspection, the tips on these poles appear very similar to those on other poles, but when compared to all of my other poles, the tips on these poles are significantly smaller, and thus, lighter. When these poles arrived, they did not have their baskets on, but in the user manual that comes with them, it explicitly recommends using the baskets so that the poles are less likely to get jammed deeply into cracks and break. As far as I can tell, the tips are glued onto the shaft of the pole with some kind of resin. I have not determined how they are replaced, and I hope I don't have to learn. To get an idea of the tip construction, see the picture at the left. The very end of the tip is made of carbide, and from what I have seen, that is a material that is pretty much invincible (of course, testing will be the judge of that).
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5. Initial Impression:
My initial impression of these poles is of course that they are amazingly light. At a combined weight of 148 g (5.2 oz) together they weigh less than the single pole I was using. I was pretty entertained by the size and weight of the box that they ended up being shipped in -- Because they don't collapse, they had to come in a long, skinny box that was about as tall as I am. They arrived in fine condition, and required very minimal unpacking or assembly. As mentioned before, I did have to put the baskets on them. I'm not sure why the baskets were not put on them by the manufacturer. Also inside the box was an envelope containing a shipping invoice and the Lightrek Poles User Manual. The Manual is a one page sheet of paper that explains about the poles and about how they are prone to breakage. It says explicitly in capital letters, "KEEP IN MIND THAT BREAKAGE OF THE POLE IS NOT CONSIDERED A MANUFACTURING DEFECT UNLESS THERE IS SPECIFIC EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY." This worries me. I am a big person, and after having played with these poles for about an hour around the house, I am sad to admit that these poles bend a whole lot when I put much of my weight on them. Even sadder is the fact that while playing with them, I managed to bend one of them to the point where it made cracking noises. Eyes widening and mouth dropping, I immediately took my weight off of the pole, and inspected it. It appears to be okay. I hope I haven't damaged it prematurely, but rather learned a valuable lesson: These poles are very light, and they are not meant to hold a whole lot of my weight!!!! CAUTION MUST BE USED!! I am already getting a feeling that I am going to break these poles. It is not a good feeling.
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6. Further Testing:
In the next six months, I plan to use these poles on all of my trips. Given that it is now nearing the end of August, I will probably end up using these poles in both hot and cold weather, in rain, sun and probably snow. I like varying my trips as much as possible, so I will probably end up using these in elevations as high as 3,000 m (10,000 ft) and as low as 0 m (0 ft).

In the past, I have experimented with using two poles during a hiking trip, but it always proved to be too much stress on my mind to do this. However, because these poles are so blessed light, I think I will be able to use two of them without feeling all clunky and awkward. The advertising on the Gossamer Gear site says that "after using these poles, every other pole you own will seem clunky." I hope this is true because I am not used to carrying two poles at one time. I do however, want to carry two poles, because another tenant of my test plan is to use these poles while setting up my tarp, which requires two vertical objects to set up properly. In the past, I have used one pole and a found log, but I interested to see if these work better. The only worry I have about setting up my tarp with them is that their fixed length will be a problem.

I usually carry a small quantity of duct tape on my pole, and I plan on putting some on one of these poles. I am interested to see if the adhesive from the tape has a negative effect on the resins used to make the poles, as I have seen it do bad things to carbon fiber bike parts in the past. Glen Van Peski, owner of Gossamer Gear tells me that this should not be bad for the poles.

Above all else, I want to see if these poles will work for me. I have a fairly strong upper body, and I am capable of putting a lot of weight on these poles without even meaning to. After nearly broking one of the poles, I have been babying them like nothing else, but I am pretty worried that I will get into my motions when hiking and as a result will break one or both of the poles. On a similar note, I am interested to see if I don't mind the fact that these poles do not have supportive wrist straps. I have long been a believer in these straps, and giving them up may not come easily to me.

As I mentioned before, I first saw these poles about four months ago, and since then I have really had my eye on them. I am very interested in seeing how well they work in the field. I hope they hold up, and I hope that I can use both of them without constantly paying attention to my hands. I have high hopes for these poles, but I do worry that they might break.
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7. Current Conclusions:
These poles are amazingly light, but seem to be dangerously breakable already. The grips seem comfortable, but I worry about the fact that they do not have wrist straps. If these poles hold up well, I will be very pleased with them.
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Read more reviews of Gossamer Gear gear
Read more gear reviews by Michael Lissner

Initial Report

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