Could a hiking pole ban protect Hong Kong’s country park trails, some of them rapidly eroding?
One Hong Kong race director is considering a ban on hiking poles to slow damage to country park trails. While preferable to suggestions by the government of concreting over trails, not all runners agree with the idea
A ban on hiking poles could be a way to protect Hong Kong’s natural trails against erosion and damage. So says Martin Cai, race director of The Green Race – a series of long-distance, trail-based races that aim for minimum environmental impact – who has floated the idea of banning poles, or restricting them on certain sections of races, among members of his organisation’s Facebook group.
“Ever since we started The Green Race, we’ve discouraged the use of poles from a green perspective, to make some kind of a difference and set an example for other similar events,” Cai explains.
Seven packable trekking poles to turn a hike into a full-body workout
Cai, a Canadian with a background in resource management, believes that Hong Kong’s natural trails – those that aren’t covered in concrete or stone – are being adversely affected by the sheer volume of hikers and runners that use them, especially those that use hiking poles.
“There’s this perception that the use of poles is highly degrading to the trail – more so than foot traffic,” he says. “[But] banning poles isn’t necessarily going to save or change anything in Hong Kong – in a lot of respects, it’s too late. All the steep places where you’d gain an advantage from using poles are all capped in concrete or stone anyway. It was an idea we wanted to put out there and make people think about it.”
Established in 2015, The Green Race organises a series of Hong Kong runs ranging between 10 and 75 kilometres long. If Cai and his team decide to put restrictions on poles, they will be following the lead of the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC), a 298-kilometre race last held in February.
