Buzz Burrell is the co-founder of Fastest Known Time, and was manager of the La Sportiva Mountain Running Team.
He's American, though, which he thinks put him at a disadvantage when it came to learning to use trekking poles for running. Europeans, he writes, "come from a mountain culture, ski in the winter and climb, while many of us [from the United States ... and Asia!] come from road or track backgrounds and are learning how to run in the mountains—and how to use trekking poles."
Here Buzz offers a terrific and concise guide to using poles, deciding when to use them (or not), and to buying poles. Check out our Zenone poles in the shop if you're in the market; we were thrilled to see Kilian Jornet using them on his most recent trip to Everest!