Stick clip, redux

I broke my Trango Beta Stick this week. And it just kept breaking. It’s in 4 pieces now where sections fell off.

I liked that it was a compact and relatively stiff stick for its size. I hated the head. It was pretty much the most finicky pain in the ass thing I’ve used. Literally every time I climbed I thought about chopping the head off and putting a spring clamp on it.

But it fell apart in less than a year. I can’t justify another, even if I chopped the head off immediately.

So what are my options?

16’ washer pole. Super stiff and burly. Cheap. Easy to find. A bit cumbersome in a Subaru but works everywhere else. It’s about 5’ fully compressed. I wish it was just under 4 and a little shorter at full extension.

Golf ball retriever. 18’, light, cheap, compact. Way flexible, like trying to clip with a fly rod. Total pita past 8-10’. Quite weak too.

Kalais. Seems promising but I’m concerned about it’s durability. Seems too light and compact to actually hold up to use.

Avy Probe or Tent Pole, kind of the same issue as the golf ball retriever, probably really floppy.

So is there another option out there?

Sidenote, I do believe that the durability issue of the trango is entirely related to my 4 year old bending one section and I had to force it in and out ever since. That probably caused a lot more stress on the little plastic bits. Regardless, I hate the head design and would rather not go that route for my next stick.

sorry, no good suggestion for you. but I'm curious: is this the new beta stick with the locking tabs, or the old design with the twist lock?

aikibujin wrote:

sorry, no good suggestion for you. but I'm curious: is this the new beta stick with the locking tabs, or the old design with the twist lock?

Locking tabs. On Monday the end fell off, the thickest section. Broken plastic tabs inside so not repairable. Today the next two sections past that fell off, more inner sleeves and broken plastic gone.

Interestingly, the section with a slight bend my kid got to, is one of the ones that’s still intact.

I used the Kailas for about 2 years and it held up really well.  However, I dropped it while a friend was tossing it up to me once and it hit a rock on the way down.  A dent in the tube prevented it from the bottom expanding after that, but I think that same fall could have broken a Trango as well.  I gifted it to a friend and he was able to fix it though.  I really liked the Kailas and would definitely recommend it.  Very light and compact, though if your local areas have high first bolts then it's not a great option since it's only 8 feet max expansion.

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/120368279/gear-announcement-a-stick-clip-that-doesnt-suck

https://mountaindrifter.com/products/p/the-skyhook-stick-clip

If cost isn't an issue, check out the Pongoose Stick Clip, looks pretty rad.

The pongoose spends its website telling me about the clip, not the stick. For the record, I prefer a spring clip from the hardware store above every commercial option. Some designs are better, some worse, but are pretty much a gimmick.

I’m way more interested in the pole.

Looks like several people are jumping on board with the pole Trango uses. I’ll tell you what though, when it fell apart yesterday, my 2 and 4 year old grabbed sections and beat each other, screaming followed. Maybe that belongs in the climbing parents rant thread.

I’ll probably go with washer pole option. It’ll fit in the Highlander fine and I can lash it on top of the Subaru. I’m not flying with it.

Home Depot extendable painters pole and a superclip off Amazon. Whole setup cost me about 65. Super stiff and seems like I won't be breaking it anytime soon. It's about 10 foot extended.

I found a great pole at Home Despot. It came with one of those hemispherical cobweb brushes. It's not quite as stiff as the purpose-built pole, (Trango?) I have but it's approx. 2 feet longer.

Mine is a painter's pole and diy clip made from bent bicycle spokes. Bicycle spoke wire is strong, stainless steel and springy.

I use a pole that came in a kit for removing high light bulbs from HD plus a super clip.  Stiffer than a golf ball retriever, a little flimsier than a painters pole but also much lighter. It fits fine in the back of my Jetta wagon, and can strap to my pack without being a total PitA. 

I have my 16-ft-pole + superclip in my Subaru without any trouble (you'll see this weekend, It fits very nicely)

I know you said you like a clamp, but the Superclip is pretty fricken cool. It doesn't handle the largest size biners that well, but nobody really uses a giant oval anymore anyway. 

My go to pole is the Mr. Long Arm 6612 12 footer. Not too heavy, and pretty stiff. I can reach about 20 feet total with it. Can reach all of the first bolts at the Red, and second bolts at most other places. 

Edge wrote:

Custom made inflatable cylinder pole.
Just blow it up at the base and clip the chains.

We’ve finally arrived at the alpine stick clip. 

Bryan wrote:

We’ve finally arrived at the alpine stick clip. 

Except you won't have the breath to inflate it, lol...

I found a pole on Amazon called the Doca Pole. It’s a pretty basic extension pole but I really like the joints. They seem very user serviceable.

I got the 3 section version that is right at 5’ and gets me to 12’. A superclip fits on top and I’m learning to use it.

One thought, Doca makes a 22’ monster. 5 sections. Looking at their construction, it seems quite possible to get this beast and cut a bit off each section and reassemble. You could make a more compact but still quite long pole this way. I’m probably not going to do that, but I think it would work.

I have the long Doca pole and it’s great.
too heavy for long approaches, but I’ll take it as far as east quarry. An easy 20-30 minute hike. Would be awkward with heavily wooded approaches.
it is a little more fragile than you’d guess. I dropped mine, dented the first segment and while it still works, it’s definitely harder to extend that segment. So don’t drop it :-)

A lot of the issues with the Trango beta stick clip can be resolved by understanding how it is disassembled and re-assembled. I've attached a photograph of the exploded view of the stick clip, which was made by pressing a thin pointed object to displace the pin that holds the thumb clip in place, removing the thumb clip, and pulling the inner tube out of the outer tube. I used the cut off end of a hose tie to replace the (lost) spacer under the thumb clip. The final re-assembly involves putting the thumb clip back in position for the pin to be driven back into the aligned holes. Works just like new.