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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

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I Need Cams ! 30-Sep-2003 At 1:15:31 PM dodgy

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Yes, bit overstated that they don't ever break, sorry...
The original solid stem friends had a high chance of breaking if loaded over a horizontal edge, but if properly designed and constructed the cables and swages should be at least as strong as the cam rating, and almost invariably stronger than the placement itself. Obviously there are an infinate number of variables, such as the cam walking to a "less appropriate" place, where the cam may be loaded over an edge etc.etc.
But for anything other than a small cam to fail from the forces applied in a fall, where the cam meets spec and is correctly placed, seems very unlikely. Remember that the highest forces generated in a fall must be less than 12kN, and are normally well below 9kN, so it just shouldn't happen...