Hiking Poles | Wonderfarr

How To Bring Hiking Poles On A Plane

Flying for a backpacking trip can be stressful with all the gear needed to bring on each trip. It is hard to know what to pack (leave the fuel canisters at home) and how to pack all of your gear safely.

Hiking poles are a piece of equipment that many people have difficulty with because they are inflexible, large, and awkward pieces of gear, making them difficult to pack in any bag. Although these are essential pieces of equipment for protecting your knees on the trail, they can be challenging to bring on a plane if you have never traveled with them before. Here are some basic things to know to make it easy to bring your hiking poles on a flight:

Hiking poles must be checked-in on a flight.
Collapse them down as small as possible.
Remove tip protectors
Pack inside your pack if they can fit. It’s the safest and most secure way of packing your hiking poles.
Do not overstuff your hiking poles in your bag.
If attaching to the outside of the pack, buckle clips through straps.
Use elastic cords to fasten down poles as tightly as you can

Can I Bring Hiking Poles In My Carry On?

No.

According to the TSA, you may NOT bring hiking poles in a carry-on bag, meaning that you have to find a way to pack them with your check-in bag. Unfortunately, this rule applies to hiking poles across the board, including collapsible poles. The most likely reason these cannot be brought as a carry-on during a flight is that they can be viewed as weapons, so the only option we have is to pack them with our check-in bag.

How To Pack Hiking Poles For A Flight?

Although helpful, hiking poles are pretty cumbersome to pack due to their lack of flexibility and awkward size. Here are some tips to make traveling with hiking poles as easy as possible

Try to get them to fit in your pack.
Collapse them down
Remove tip protectors
Clip buckle through poles straps
Use elastic cord to sinch down poles to your pack
Do not try to overstuff your poles into your bag

Make Your Poles As Small As Possible Before Packing Them:

The first and most obvious thing you want to do to your poles before packing them is to make sure they are packed down to their smallest size. To do so, you want to make sure they are fully collapsed and remove the tip protectors. Although tip protectors are helpful on the trail when packing, they serve no purpose other than to get caught in the most inconvenient places. You can remove them easily by just twisting them counterclockwise off of your hiking pole, then just screw them back on to reattach.

Do Everything You Can To Fit Your Hiking Poles In Your Pack:

After you break your poles down, you want to pack your poles in your pack. Again this is the safest way to travel with hiking poles because it eliminates the risk of it becoming detached from your bag. When packing, you want to ensure you do not overstuff your sticks in your backpack because you risk puncturing a hole in your bag with the trekking pole tips. One precaution you can take to prevent this is wrapping your tips in foam or bubble wrap.

Best Way To Attach Your Hiking Poles To Your Backpack For A Flight

You want to inspect your backpack and see if it has any dedicated straps for attaching your hiking poles to for flight. If you do not see any, you will want to keep them as adhered to your backpack as possible. You need to sinch your poles down wherever you can using the elastic cords of your pack and point the tips pointing in a pouch or one of the water bottle holders. After this, as a final precaution, you should clip buckles on your backpack through your hiking pole straps to prevent them from getting separated from your backpack.

Hope This Helps!

Packing for a backpacking trip that requires flying can be stressful. Hopefully, this article helped making packing your hiking poles easier for your next flight. If you have any other tricks or tips for packing your trekking poles, be sure to leave them in the comment section