@jimmyshand
Serious hillwalker/climber here *waves*.
All the Wainwrights by the age of 17, since you ask, and a great deal of Lakes/Scottish summer and winter mountaineering in the 25 years since then. However I now have (a) dodgy knees and (b) poles to help with them.
To be fair they do more for balance/stabilisation and forward propulsion rather than taking a significant amount of the load most of the time, except on steep downhill steps. On *really* steep grassy descents you can do something like a skier's linked turns, which is entertaining.
They make the biggest difference in winter trudging through snow with a heavier load on, but I've never thought to drag an EMG monitor along with me. Do you think I should?