My walmart poles lasted a good couple hundred miles before i trashed them a few days ago. My biggest complaint was that the straps slipped once wet, and the twist lock system is not my favorite. They still did their job and I did get my money out of them. I fell pretty hard on a downhill during some rain earlier this week and bent one of the poles pretty badly. Now I have an excuse to "upgrade" to something a little nicer. Thanks for the heads up on those cascade mountain tech poles, I might check those out.