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Sportiva Akyra banana boots and Black Diamond walking poles
For years I disdained walking sticks: they were for pensioners. But with the passing years my attitude has changed. When my knees started clicking and then collapsed under me, something had to be done. I first tried injecting them with Go-On hyaluronic acid which was quite effective. Then I tried losing weight which was even better, though more painful. But finally I had to resign myself to walking sticks. Not just one but two. So there I was, shuffling around on four pins: two shaky legs and two walking sticks. I felt like a Zimmer frame. Soon it would be the real thing.
But then last summer I was overtaken by a group of Americans who were walking the Pyrenean Haute Route. They were young and racing along. Surprisingly, they also needed two sticks – No, we call them walking poles. And how come you walk so fast? Look at our feet…
So I did. They were wearing trekking shoes, not walking boots.
It’s all a question of weight. The American army, it seems, has calculated that any excess weight on your feet is five times as tiring as the equivalent on your back.
But what about weak ankles? Don’t boots reduce the risk of twisting them? That’s where the poles come in: like stabilisers on a child’s bike they stop you crashing into the undergrowth.
So now I have two walking poles and a pair of trekking shoes. I have cut 20% off the time it takes to climb my favourite mountain. My Zimmer frame has sprouted wings!
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Footprints on the mountains