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I just don't take them because I don't like having my hands full and I don't like having things strapped to my wrists, aside from my watch. I dislike these things so much that I've never even tried poles, so take my opinion on those with a grain of salt.
I do sometimes take a crooked single walking stick like this if I know I'm going to be doing a lot of elevation and/or hopping over small bits of water. You can vault over smaller streams and not get your boots wet with one of these. If you're going uphill you can lean on it, and if you're going up a really steep hill you can use the crook to grab tree trunks and pull yourself up. And at the top of the hill, you can lean on it to rest without sitting down. Bonus points if it has a spike on the bottom, really helps with climbing.
