I heard it on the jade vine

Over the years I've often wondered about people use walking poles, even at university a few people in the student hillwalking group were using them but I wasn't sure why they bothered. I always had the impression that they didn't give much benefit and that somehow they detracted from the hill walking experience. The various problems I've had with my ankles and knees over t he last few years d ue to my flat feet have made me reassess walking poles. They certainly seem to be more popular than ever and I've seen numerous articles in magazines such as Trail extolling their benefits. There is now also some scientific evidence that walking poles significantly reduce muscle damage during mountain walking. So, I have finally given in and I recently bought a pair of Leki Makalu Trail walking poles from Tisos (my favourite shop for outdoor kit and, no, they're not paying me to say that...). They cost £56 and were by no means the cheapest poles they had on sale (which I

Route http://www.munromagic.com/RouteInfo.cfm?RouteID=47 Distance 17.4km Munros Carn Mairg, Carn Gorm, Meall nan Aighean & Meall Garbh After my previous total washout on 26th June I wanted to get straight back out there and complete the Carn Mairg round so the next chance I had on Sunday 24th July saw me taking on this route for the second time. The weather could not have been more different from my previous outing. The sky was blue, the cloud was very high (not even close to the tops of the hills) and the temperature was warm without being too hot. To me this is the ultimate summer walking weather, as long as I remember to apply the sun cream it's as good as it gets. As before I took the clockwise approach to the round starting with Carn Gorm and then heading over An Sgorr to Meall Garbh , I then took in Meall a' Bharr to reach Carn Mairg . Rather than going direct to the final munro - Meall na Aigean - I also took the chance to visit Meall Liath . I