The guys on wintertrekking don't bother with poles for the most part. They are hauling heavy, long tobaggans on mostly flat ground, but often through boreal forests around trees so they just use ropes. Check out the wintertrekking website for pictures. They will also lead with the tobaggan on downhills so they don't get run over with it and can control the speed of it.

Rope running through a pole would be helpful if it broke-you could just duct tape it together. When the eyebolt on mine came off, I just used some line I had with me to wrap around the pole and make a loop for a temporary fix. Worked fine.
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