Leki Makalu Ti Ultralite Review

Overview

After many years of using the Leki Anti-shock pole I was of course keeping a careful eye on the total weight of items carried. Whilst the original pole has proved to be amazingly sturdy it is now relatively heavy compared with everything else that I am carrying. More importantly, it felt heavy in the hand. Of course I often don't take any pole with me when out walking but if I am planning to carry a tent or a tarp then I may tend to take a trekking pole with me and use that instead of a tent pole - even a home-made one. It alldepends on the terrain.

This pole now replaces my old Leki pole (which has not yet been formally retired) . At a weight of only 212g it is a third lighter than the pole that it replaces.

Outdoor Testing

The first trip out with this pole was as part of a planned overnight stay with a tarp in the Brecon Beacons. It was taken out with me to help over rough ground. It was used extensively whilst crossing some very bumpy and treacherous peat bog that was cloaked in mist.

The pole is thinner than my old Makalu pole and does seem to flex more when in active use. In practice I found that this extra flex means that there is no real need for an anti-shock device and that the flex in the pole is sufficient for damping ground shock.

The pole design is basically the same through much of the Leki range. In this case we have 3 nesting Titanium alloy poles that lock together using Leki's very reliable twist-lock mechanism.

The top of the pole has a comfortable foam handle and the tip of the pole is a tungsten carbide tip which seems to bite into anything together with a small grass-bucket which is sufficient for softish ground.

There were several times during my trip when I ended up putting my full weight on the pole - as I stepped onto ground that was unstable. The pole would just spring back and happily take the abuse.

The pole feels light to hold and to carry and swings in a nicely balanced way.

The maximum length of the pole is 130cm which is less than the 135cm of my orignal pole but still seems perfectly adequate for me and I am 6ft tall.

Early Conclusions

I like this pole. It's packed height is 10cm less than the one it has replaced and this means that it is a lot easier to stow on my pack and less likely to get in the way when travelling over difficult terrain.

I tend to be loyal to Leki because they do give their poles lifetime guarantees and I have yet to break one. The strength of the poles is important to me because I will tend to use them in difficult situations and for this task I'm reluctant to trade too much strength for weight.

Carbon-fibre poles may well be lighter but carbon fibre has quite different failure characteristics to metal. It will shred rather than bend. Carbon fibre can also be sensitive to abrasion damage - such as rubbing against rocks which metal is not sensitive to.