My wife and I have been very satisfied with our Macpac C3 Trekker walking poles that we have been using for the past 5 years (when appropriate) . However, the shine of satisfaction came off when Macpac advised that replacement tungsten carbide tips are not available as a replacement. What do you mean, $170 for a pair of replacement poles?! I have discovered a $10 solution.
The carbide tip is swaged into a small metal (steel?) housing that is then mounted into the plastic end of the walking pole. After some careful 'feeling' with a pair of plies, I discovered the metal housing has a splined end that is simply pressed into a hole in the plastic end of the pole. Taking a very firm hold of the pole with one hand and plies gripping the metal housing with the other hand, I was able to pull the housing out of the end of the pole. A little rotational back and forth wiggling with the plies helped. The hole in the plastic end of the poles is more than 20mm deep, much longer than the 10mm splined section of the metal housing.
Mountain Design sell replacements tungsten carbide tips for their walking poles that have a threaded metal housing for the tips. Best of all, the diameter of the threaded end of the Mountain Design housing matches the hole size in the Macpac poles. With the aid of a 9mm spanner it's an easy task to screw the MD tip snugly into place. My Macpac pole is fully restored!
The replacement tips are available on the Mountain Design web store. Search for 'Replacement Carbide Tips' $9.99.
I hope this post saves someone from junking their Macpac walking poles for no good reason.