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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

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What cams to buy ?????


wallwombat

14-Mar-2007
10:57:33 PM

I haven't got any, but Kong cams seem to get alright reviews in the seppo climbing rags.
I've got a mix of cams: Black Diamond , Wild Country tech and forged, HB Fix, Trango and even a Cassin which I've never seen anywhere besides the place I bought it. To tell you the truth I like my forged Friends. They are nice and light and if you rig them with a sling or cord through one of the holes in the stem they are great for horizontal placements.
BD cams are great and have a big camming range but are a tad heavy.
I wouldn't presume that because Kong cams are cheaper, they are crap. I'm sure they are fine and probably a good purchase , especially if you want to double up on a few sizes.


Macciza

14-Mar-2007
11:06:29 PM

Having a good variety of cams is excellent - I have a quite a mish mash - my faves would be the WC
Offsets and these no-name eastern european/ ones got 10 years ago - they rock


wallwombat

14-Mar-2007
11:52:23 PM

I used to have a whole set of 'Comrades' which were super light copies of forged friends made somewhere in the eastern bloc. Unfortunately they were part of my first rack, which got pinched from the top of the old ladders going down to Narrowneck in the Blue Mountains. I miss them. I miss that whole bloody rack! And the rope and the shoes and the harness........Aaaargh!


Macciza

15-Mar-2007
12:00:36 AM

Sorry about that . . . They sound cool - these are flexies
Have you sorted a hand drill yet? They aren't too had to make . . .


nmonteith

15-Mar-2007
9:03:10 AM

I reviewed the Kong cams for chockstone a year ago
http://www.chockstone.org/TechTips/NewProd.htm#KongCams


Pat

22-Mar-2007
12:50:21 PM

I have a whole rack of about 13 or 14 different Cams. Friends, Camelots, Metolius, HB (from Wales), and I think you can too hung up on which brand. Fancy brand new BD flexible stem cams ( which I love) don't make me a better climber. Make sure you know how to place them and that you extend the slings to reduce rope drag and hence walking. Buying a really expensive cam is no substitute for route finding and good situational awareness. Also, I think if you are going to climb anything close to a rope length or multi pitch you are going to need more draws than you are counting on. Even if you use a cordelette ( see the topic on the tech tips part of this site). If you're halfway up a three pitch pants filler on MT Rosea, you may well have three draws used at each end of pitch two. which starts to eat pretty drastically into your ten short draws. Maybe you aren't going to climb this sort of territory, but if you are going to do a trad route, make sure you have more gear than just five cams before you leave the ground.

rod

24-May-2007
9:29:09 PM

Omega Pacific Link Cams: GREAT! After Niel's rave I sourced some via a friend in the States and I've taken them up multi-pitch mixed routes a lot of late; they place pretty much anywhere and are load saving device second to none; look very likely to replace the need for double cams/hexes for this user (I'll know for sure after some mountain route jaunts in coming weeks).

BD tri 0's and 1's getting plenty of use but a wired nut offers as much or more in many a situation.

There are 47 messages in this topic.