I used to use one pole when out coon hunting. We crossed a LOT of very small creeks, that were often times not much more than a little water flowing over a rock bed. Those type of rocks are VERY VERY VERY slick. There would be times of the group of 5 or 6 of us, I would be the only person to not fall in a creek. We also climbed a lot of very steep hills that had no trail what so ever. I found that as long as there wasn't a bunch of brush/briars in the way or it wasn't a situation where you needed to grab onto the rocks to get over them, the pole was always nice to have. It also made a good shooting stick a few times. In my type of situation I think two sticks would have been a liability, because we were in totally unimproved areas, and often one ahnd was needed to move limbs out of the way and stuff like that, but on an improved trail, two seems like a good option.