Perhaps one of the strongest conversions is that of retired mountain guide Don Roscoe, the innovator who designed mountain rescue’s Roscoe stretcher, who has said: “it was immediately apparent that the handle design was in a totally different class to any other trekking pole ….. Pacerpole handle design is a most significant step forward. We really do need to get the message across as strongly as possible”…..

The phrase Heather returns to again and again is ‘functional anatomy’. The Pacerpole’s unique left and right handles are the result of examining not what poles do, but what the body needs from poles in order for it to maximise performance.
Author and outdoor education expert Colin Mortlock …. believes those left and right handle are the biggest advance since the invention of hiking boots, making other pole handles obsolete ….. “you have maximum control and, for the first time, you have the potential to efficiently use your upper body in the movement of walking”.

So why haven’t Heather and Alan sold their concept to one of the big boys? The truth is they have tried but attempting to convince a company already selling thousands of units that it should admit its handles could be better and scrap its designs to invest in new, expensive moulds proved impossible. Instead, lacking the funds to launch the poles on to the market in a big way … they launched their own website www.pacerpole.com.....Extracts from TGO July 2002 p80-82

John Manning, Deputy Editor TGO magazine - “with Pacerpoles there’s less need for over-dramatic, inefficient arm swings, less temptation to hold the arms away from the body. That better body posture results in improved balance and easier breathing. The walk across Scotland was a success – sometimes walking 30 miles a day, with full pack. I used Pacerpoles throughout – there’s nothing like a fortnight’s tramp to really put them through their paces. The poles came through glowingly.”