Hiking poles are a must on your Annapurna trek. If you enjoy having knees that work at the end of your trek, you need to take them. The Annapurna Base Camp trek is tough! There are many stone steps that you will need to walk both up and down and the poles help transfer this weight from your legs to other parts of your body. As silly as you might feel when you first start using them, you won’t regret taking them.
There are two different types of hiking poles, telescopic and folding. Which pole you choose will be a very personal choice as I’m not sure there’s much difference in the actual performance of the poles. However, storage of the poles is where you need to make a choice. My personal preference is folding hiking poles. This is because they pack down shorter than telescopic ones meaning they pack easily into a suitcase or backpack.