After e-bikes, there will now also be e-hiking pants. These should get you to the summit faster or allow you to go on longer tours. This has advantages and disadvantages.
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- Outdoor equipment suppliers are now advertising so-called e-hiking pants.
- These are designed to take the strain off your leg muscles when hiking, making it quicker and easier to reach the summit.
- This has advantages and disadvantages.
As with e-mountain bikes, which use electric motors to facilitate access to challenging mountain trails, there is now also to be an electronic version for hiking. Outdoor equipment suppliers are now advertising so-called e-hiking pants.
These tech garments have what is known as an exoskeleton, a carbon structure that forms part of the trousers and supports the leg muscles. Electric motors are incorporated into the hiking trousers to help you get to the summit faster or enable longer tours. This technology is familiar from rehabilitation medicine, for example for knee injuries.
Change on the hiking trails is programmed
The introduction of e-hiking pants could have various consequences: On the one hand, it could increase accessibility for people with limited mobility, while on the other, it could fundamentally change the hiking experience by reducing the differences in performance between hikers*.
In addition to the subjective changes, there are also objective risks: Mountain rescuers will have to be called out more often in future if the batteries in the e-hiking pants run out and the muscles cannot cope with the mechanical resistance.
E-hiking pants will also change things in mountain inns and huts. More skin will be on display as dozens of hikers will be stripping off to hang up their pants at the charging stations until they are full of energy again.