KORE Summit Success Story: Developing the World’s Lightest 3-Piece Trekking Pole
By Jayme Moye
As soon as Cam Shute heard Dan Durston’s presentation at the inaugural KORE Outdoors Summit in 2022, he knew they had to meet. Cam is a designer and product development consultant who owns Dark Horse Innovations in Nelson, British Columbia. Dan is a designer and founder of Durston Gear, based in Golden. They both self-identify as dirtbags.
Cam was impressed by Dan’s down-to-earth stage presence, his authenticity, and his stratospheric business success. “He spent years contributing on forums as a gear expert—establishing integrity in that space—so when he went and launched his company he had all these people who already believed in it,” Cam says. “Now he’s selling thousands of tents.”
Cam made it a point to introduce himself to Dan at the Summit. Not long after, the two began exchanging ideas, advice, and connections. The next time they met in person, at the 2023 KORE Summit, they decided to collaborate on what would become the Iceline, the world’s lightest three-piece trekking pole.
“Durston tents are ultra-light and minimalist; they use trekking poles instead of tent poles,” Cam explains. “So Dan had been wanting to offer an ultra-light trekking pole, and I knew I could help make that happen.” The two leveraged Cam’s extensive outdoor industry experience to retain Komperdell, a best-in-class pole vendor based in Austria. Then they went to work dissecting components.
They found they could shave grams by leaving the raw carbon finish on the poles, instead of adding lacquer. “And we think it looks better,” Cam says. Dan weighed the glue inside the pole handle and determined that it was in excess by four grams. They also reduced the size of the plastic pole tip, which Cam says was way overbuilt for its function, and replaced the lower adjuster with a simpler, lighter, and more reliable quick-connect mechanism.
Not every design consideration was a subtraction. When Dan discovered a slight rattle in the prototype, at the place where the two pole pieces joined, they created an innovative solution by adding O-rings.
The total time to market was about eight months, with half spent in design and half spent in production. The first run of Iceline Trekking Poles, launched in 2024, sold out quickly but Cam says they’re expecting a second batch in December. In the meantime, Cam and Dan will be brainstorming their next collaboration at the 2024 KORE Summit.
