Patent ID: 6938927

Claim:
A telescoping, hand held pole for use as a ski pole or walking stick comprising, in combination: a plurality of telescoping pole segments including a handle pole segment, a ground contacting pole segment and at least one intermediate pole segment located between said handle pole segment and said ground contacting pole segment; a plurality of lock members including a lock member for locking said handle pole segment and an intermediate pole segment engaging said handle pole segment against telescopic movement and a lock member for locking said ground contacting pole segment and an intermediate pole segment engaging said ground contacting pole segment against telescopic movement; lock release mechanism including a manually engageable member located on one of said telescoping pole segments for initiating unlocking of all of said lock members allowing telescoping of all of said telescoping pole segments responsive to opposed end-wise forces being applied to said pole, at least some of said lock members comprising release arms, each release arm being pivotally connected to a pole segment and having a detent, each of said release arms being pivotally movable between a first position wherein the detent thereof is positionable in a hole formed in an adjoining pole segment and a second position wherein said detent is removed from said hole; and a biasing element cooperable with each of said release arms to continually bias the release arms toward the first position thereof.