Leki’s Khumbu Lite Trekking Poles are lightweight, 3-piece adjustable aluminum poles with cork and rubber grips. They have reliable lever locks and come with trekking pole baskets and replaceable carbide tips. However, their distinguishing feature is their grips, which have an 8-degree offset that is easier on the wrists, with thumb and hand articulations for enhanced energy transfer when climbing, and an ergonomic top pommel for increased stability on descents. The grips are what make these poles great.
- Gender: Unisex
- Grips: Cork/rubber
- Shafts: Aluminum
- Locking Mechanism: Adjustable Lever Lock
- Maximum Length: 53 in/135 cm
- Minimum Length: 39 in/100 cm
- Collapsed Length: 26 in/67 cm
- Weight (pair): 17.4 oz
- Rubber Tips: Sold separately
- Snow baskets: Sold separately
- Pros: Adjustable lever locks, cork and rubber grips, eight-degree grip offset is lower impact for wrists
- Cons: rubber tips and snow baskets are not included.
Leki’s Khumbu Lite Trekking Poles are lightweight, well-made trekking poles suitable for hiking, backpacking, and recreational walking. While they do cost more than the cheap trekking poles you can get on Amazon, the quality of their manufacturer is apparent as soon as you pick them up and start walking with them. They have a solid feel, are stiff, and bear weight well. They’re also designed for longevity, with replaceable carbide tips if you manage to wear one out or break one.
The Khumbus are telescoping three-section poles with secure lever locks that can be easily tightened without tools if slippage occurs. The shafts are made with HTS 6.5 aluminum, which provides a good balance between strength and pole weight. None of this should be surprising. Leki has a long history of making durable, high-quality trekking poles.
But their ergonomic grips, made of rubber and cork, set these poles apart. The grips are canted forward at a slight eight-degree angle, which relieves pressure on your wrists and requires less upward flexion to move the tips forward. Even if you don’t have sore wrists or suffer from arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome, these poles will be more comfortable for you to use because they require less bending of the wrist.
The grips have a trigger finger rest so you can apply some downward pressure on the poles with your forearms and triceps, which is helpful when climbing hills. There’s also a rest for the heel of your palm that prevents your hand from slipping off the bottom of the grip if you prefer using a looser strap. Lastly, the round top of the grip provides a comfortable pommel to put your palm on, increasing stability when descending a slope. I liken it to using a banister like you would on a steep flight of stairs.
The grips are also relatively narrow, which makes them good for people with smaller hands, including women. The grips have holes cut in them to reduce weight, and they have a lightweight but unpadded adjustable hand strap that feels silky on the skin and doesn’t absorb sweat.
As with other Leki poles, the completely replaceable and interchangeable basket system makes it super easy to screw off/on various Leki baskets for different seasons or uses. The threads are slightly offset, so they will not accidentally unscrew on you while in use. Unfortunately, these poles do not come with rubber tips for walking on pavement or snow baskets for use in snow, although both are sold separately.
Recommendation
Leki’s Khumbu Lite Trekking Poles are stiff and lightweight aluminum trekking poles with cork and rubber grips. Ergonomically designed to reduce wrist flexion and swelling, they have ergonomic grips with an eight-degree forward cant that helps relieve wrist pain and inflammation if you suffer from soreness, arthritis, or carpal tunnel syndrome. They are also designed to recruit more of your arm muscles for climbing hills with an index finger rest to which you can apply downward pressure and make climbing inclines easier.
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