Jamie DeBenedetto
31 year old female
Height: 5' 11" (1.80 m)
Weight: 160 lb (73 kg)
Email: jdeben AT hotmail DOT com
State/Country: The Grand Canyon State - Arizona, USA

Background/Experience

I've spent much of my thirty years hiking, camping, fishing, backpacking, rafting, and more recently kayaking, all over my home state of Arizona. I've also done a small amount of hiking in the neighboring states of Colorado and California. In January of 1999 I founded a local outdoor club called the Canine Hiking Club of Arizona. I lead one or two single or multi-day hikes per month with the club in various locations around the state. I also day hike in local recreation areas near my home a couple of times a week and my family and I sneak away for camping trips whenever possible.

My backpacking style definitely leans more toward lightweight, but I wouldn't consider myself to be anywhere close to an ultra-light hiker. I use a hammock instead of a tent most of the time and I try to keep my pack's base weight below 15 lbs (7 kg) for 2 to 3 day trips. I'm always looking for ways to stay comfortable in the field and for gear that has more than one function.

Background Relative to this Test Series

About eight years ago I began to experience some minor pain in both my knees (primarily due to my spirited involvement in too many contact sports as a child and young adult). For the most part I just dealt with it until about three years ago when I became pregnant with my first child and I started having some balance issues and increased pain while hiking. I began exploring options so I could stay on the trail without putting the "little bun" and myself in harms way. That is when I discovered the benefits of walking with a pole, or in my case at the time, a stick. I have on many occasions since used a homemade walking stick for trails with creek crossings, long descents or unstable terrain.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Mountain Safety Research
URL: http://www.msrcorp.com
Year of manufacture: 2004
Listed weight per pole: 8.5 oz (241 g)
Actual weight per pole as weighed on a U.S. Postal scale: 8.1 oz (230 g)
Listed length: 25.6 to 55 in (65 to 140 cm)
Actual length: 26 to 56.5 in (66 to 144 cm)

Product Description

The Mountain Safety Research OverLand Carbon Telescoping Poles are primarily black. The shaft is comprised of three sections, which as the name suggests, slide one into the other locking and unlocking with a twisting motion. According to MSR, these shaft sections are made of carbon fiber and use a LockJaw™ expander to keep the pole at the user's desired length. The "Carbide Flextip" makes up the lower 2.5 in (6.5 cm) and is outfitted to accept a removable "quick-change" basket, which was included. The top of the tip, closest to where it connects to the shaft, has two small cylinder shaped knobs that hold the basket in place. Further down, at the very end of the tip, is an asterisk shaped semi-sharp point. The grip, which is also black, is made of foam and according to the MSR website has a seven degree natural angle. There are several little grooves cut into the foam on the palm side of the grip and a separate indent for the index finger on the finger side of the grip. The top of the grip, for lack of a better way to describe it, is egg shaped and slightly convex. The straps are black on the outside and off white on the inside where they meet your hand. The outside layer is made from what I'm assuming is a mix of nylon and a stretchy Spandex type material. I'm not sure what the inner layer of material is but it's very soft. They measure an inch and 3/8th (3.5 cm) at the widest point.

Field Report Preface

Due to my inexperience using telescoping poles I felt more than a little unprepared to set out on my first real hike with the MSR OverLands. As I stated in my Initial Report I had questions about choosing the correct length for use on level surfaces and on up and downhill grades. I also wanted to know how best to hold the poles for maximum efficiency and energy conservation. After all, I was hoping the poles would be an aid regarding my knee issues. Furthermore, Mountain Safety Research lists the OverLand's straps as "anti-shock", which seemed strange to me because the way I was initially using the straps, around my wrist as you would with ski poles, I wasn't putting any weight on them and thus they could not possibly absorb any "shock". And finally, there was the basket removal mystery. Luckily I was directed by another BGT tester to a wonderfully informative website created by Mr. Pete Clinch called Pete's Pole Page. This page was extremely helpful and with the exception of the basket removal, the page answered all my questions and then some. After my Internet tutorial I was excited to get on the trail with the OverLands and see what they could do.

As for the basket I prematurely attached to one of the poles (see my Initial Report) try as I could I was not able to budge it with my hands so naturally I did what most married women do in these circumstances, I asked my husband for help. Amazingly he was also unsuccessful. Apparently the basket did not want to be exorcised from the pole but before I gave in and called for a young priest and an old priest I headed to the garage for some tools. Eventually a pair of pliers and a vice did the trick so we didn't need spiritual reinforcements after all.

Field Report

Weekly Morning Hikes 2-4 miles (3-6 km)

My first few opportunities to use the OverLands were on some local Sonoran desert trails near my home, which range in elevation from about 1,400 ft (430 m) up to 2,100 ft (640 m). All three trails are loop hikes up to a summit then back down to the trailhead. While they are located in different mountain parks they are very similar in terrain type - mostly a mix of slippery pebbles and larger rocks dispersed on hard packed dirt. The one exception is North Mountain, which uses a one-mile (1.6 m) stretch of paved road as part of the route to the peak. Summer days are not hospitable for hiking here in the Southwest so all of these shorter hikes took place in the wee hours of the morning when the temperatures were still hovering around 90 F (32 C). I did not experience any rain or other inclement weather on any of these morning jaunts.

Overall the poles performed well on these shorter hikes whether on the desert terrain or on the asphalt road and I was glad to have them. I felt like I was able to move up the mountain more easily using them. The Carbide Flextips did slip a few times during one of the uphill sections when I would inadvertently place a pole on top of one of the larger rocks peppered along the trail but the slides were short lived and no harm was done. In situations where the opposite happened and the pole ended up imbedded between rocks the OverLands flexible shaft would take over allowing the pole to give slightly as I put weight on it but not enough to damage the pole. I also noticed that several times, if I was not careful, I would clip rocks as I walked and the poles would bounce into my legs. I don't know if this is because the OverLands are so light or if it is normal for trekking poles to stray. Either way, it made me pay closer attention to pole placement.

Pretty much right from the parking lot these trails start to climb so immediately I could feel the straps stretching a bit to take the pressure. This really contributed to my overall hand comfort. The white inner material of the straps began to absorb my sweat right away and was soon completely saturated. Drying on the trail was pretty much a lost cause so they stayed wet to the touch for the duration of each of the hikes.

Sweat was also a factor on very my first outing with the OverLands when I encountered a bit of a problem with the LockJaw™ expander. Let me digress one moment and say that up to this point I had not had any trouble extending or retracting the poles. After about forty-five minutes of hiking uphill I found a sliver of shade created by a sickly looking little Paloverde tree at the top of the mountain. I started to adjust the poles to a longer setting for the descent, of course my hands were quite sweaty and it became clear pretty quickly that I was not going to make much headway with the LockJaw mechanism. With wet hands I couldn't get a sufficient grip to twist the expander enough to loosen and then re-tighten it. With some regular hand wiping on my shirt I was finally able to get the poles into my downhill setting but it took a few minutes. This was a frustrating discovery because with temperatures as they are in Arizona I know this problem will come up again in the future.

Kendrick Peak 9.2 miles (14.8 km)

In the few months I have had the Mountain Safety Research OverLand Carbon Telescoping Poles I have used them on three longer dayhikes but I will only be referring to the Kendrick Peak trip for this section of my field report as it was the most significant regarding testing.

The Kendrick Mountain trail starts around 7,900 ft (2,400 m) and tops out at 10,400 ft (3,170 m), which makes it the fourth highest in Arizona. The trail itself is pretty much what you'd expect from a forest biome - some rocky sections but mostly dirt littered with leaves and pine needles. The temperature at the trailhead was 79 F (26 C) but by the time we reached the fire tower on the summit it was a breezy 63 F (17 C). A summer storm was rolling in toward the latter half of the hike but unfortunately no precipitation fell while I was on trail.

As I packed my backpack the night before my trip to Kendrick Mountain I thought about where I would place the OverLands in my pack during transport and in the event I did not want to use them on a given section of the trail. My backpack is an Ultimate Direction Rampage and while it has a few outer pockets none of them really worked well for the poles. Due to the sharpness of the Carbide tips I decided to place the poles in the main compartment with the tips sticking out of the top so they wouldn't damage the pack material. Although this solution worked okay, in my opinion tip covers would be a nice extra for travel with the poles, storage, and on terrain that does not require the Carbide tip.

By and large the OverLands have performed well to this point. The Kendrick Peak trip, however, started me worrying a bit about the longevity of the LockJaw mechanism. At the trailhead I was unable to get the middle section on one pole to tighten. My friend eventually solved the problem by fully extending the section past the line that says STOP then sliding it back down and twisting the pole until it tightened fully. I do not know why the mechanism would not tighten, it was the first and only time I have had a problem.

I had the OverLands in my hands for well over five hours on this trek. The grip and strap combination worked fine, both appeared unaffected by the sweat from my hands and in fact, I would say the grip material became even more "sticky" when it was wet. The straps continued to stretch and provide their original "anti-shock" function. The soft white fabric on the inside of the straps, which took the brunt of the moisture, stayed pliable and comfortable. The color is now more of an off white but they do not smell and are still very soft to the touch. Additionally, I never had to readjust the straps. Once they were set to my desired length they stayed put.

Other than the initial problem with the LockJaw expander the shaft of the poles also performed fine on this dayhike. The OverLands felt balanced and were steady with each swing and plant combination I made. When properly tightened I was very confidant the telescoping sections were secure enough to take my full force even on the steepest portions of the descent. Unfortunately, I added a few more scratches to the bottom of the shaft near the tip on this outing but no serious damage was done and the poles appear to have weathered the abuse well.

Jamie J. DeBenedetto
Aug. 16th, 2004

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