Crossing the North Fork of the Popo, Wind Rivers, Wyoming.
We’ve been using trekking poles for years. To us they’re usually known as “ski poles” and used during approach hikes for ski mountaineering. But we’ve used ’em for pure hiking as well, and still do. The dedicated trekking poles from folks such as Black Diamond are specific to hiking. They’re light, collapse short, and have ergonomic grips that help when you’re moving through uneven terrain (AKA terrifying glacial moraine).
During our Wind River backpack we used a pair of Black Diamond Contour trekking poles, one each (with two for Dad during steeper downhills). The Contours were brilliant — durable, light, comfortable…
BUT, nothing in the Dawson compound shall remain unmodified. Our goal was lightweight backpacking in the Wind River mountains of Wyoming, with a dose of fly fishing. Medium to large size trout on light line require a net. Why not use the trekking pole as the net handle, thereby eliminating a bit of weight by eliminating the net handle, as well as providing a longer reach for scooping those lunker cutthroat out of alpine tarns? So that’s what we rigged.
Trekking pole fish net mod. The completed and assembled TrekNet is basically a collapsible fishnet that inserts in the upper shaft of a Black Diamond Flicklock trekking pole.
Collapsed net before insertion in shaft. Note adapter that we made for the net. It’s just a chunk of ski pole tubing JBwelded to the net.
Net being stuffed for travel. It worked.
Backcountry skier gets fed summer sushi.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.