Gear Reviews Why have a gear review when every thing is already reviewed in the climbing rags? Well for one thing these reviews are just are opinions we do not receive this gear free although some of us receive our gear on pro forms it is still gear that we choose to buy with our own money. Some of us use this gear professionally on a weekly or daily basses. We are not persuaded by the big gear manufacturers by advertisement so you will get a frank and honest opinions on how the gear performs under these working conditions. Meet your reviewers:

Well the 'Big Kahuna' has finally cornered me into contributing to the ol' web. An opinion on camming devices. Now I won't preach the holly grail of divine cam wisdom or quote any tech specs on individual units but just give a hands on review of the wonderful little buggers.

Back in the mesozoic ERA, early '80's, when 'friends' became readily available my climbing partners and I were reluctant to use them, we felt that the new fangled gadgets would reduce the game, heck we couldn't afford them anyways. But upon fortuitously finding a dropped #2 friend, my opinion quickly changed . Now my rack looks like I'm ready for a long hard A2 pitch, (those 5.7's can get dicey). Through the years I've used those early friends pretty hard and still have a most of them. The #1 friends had a nasty habit of getting miserably stuck because the stem size was bigger than the camming range and are the only SCD's I've ever given up on trying to retrieve. But modern friends have this corrected, although in that size range I really prefer the metolius TCU's, my current climbing partners often taunt me about my reluctance towards placing stoppers, been there done that.

TCU's are cleaner and faster to remove than passive gear and if you have to slam one in a blind spot I'd rather trust a TCU over a passive placement.

For years Friends, then Metolius TCU's had the market pretty well sewn up but old Black Diamond wasn't to be caught resting on its laurels for to long. The release of camelots improved upon friends wonderful design by having a wider camming range and a stronger double axle and color coded cams. I feel the camelots are easier to place then friends, when trying to stuff them in over your head by the stem, the only draw back is a few additional grams per unit, it does add up and the triggers wear out much quicker than friends.

Currently I'll carry a rack of camelots up to the routes recommended size range but because of their additional weight I usually double up with other manufacturers gear usually old friends and TCU's and frequently I still might carry a small selection of small stoppers that cover the range smaller than a 00 TCU.

Now there are many manufacturers with camming devices on the market and most of the modern SCD's have clams of improvements over the original Jardine design of the friend but after using and abusing the early friends for 2 decades I have no complaints with the original design. I've used them in horizontal placements and all other "incorrect " ways and have never had cause for blaming the equipment and usually I've been surprised at how far they can be abused.

My only recommendation for improving the wonderful gadgets is that the UIAA or someone would agree on a universal color system and have all manufacturers camming units of similar size be the same color, what an idea... ah?

by Mark Miller

Easy of placement comes with a heavy price and I'm not just talking money here. Although you will pay out the f@#*!*$ ass for them. They have got to be the worst cam when it come to durability. If your climbing season is like ours year around then you might get 1/4 of a season out of them if your lucky before you have to replace those dam triggers. Lets see last week Mark and I replaced triggers on four of my Camelots. Hum... oh ya did I mention how easy it was? Let see Kelle' managed after several days and way too many attempts and a few failures of my own with some needle nose pliers to get her kit on. Mark and I had a little more trouble we resorted to using a vice (Oh I don't think that's good for them, put your head in a vice and see what I mean. Make sure your partner isn't around when you try this no telling what he might do to you in that predicament. Oh ya give it an extra crank for me while your at it.). We also used a special wedge jig, pliers, hammer, nail punch and a chisel. I think Evon would shake his head at us for this. It was defiantly enough hardware to frighten the most suave masochist.

In 12 plus years I have never replaced a trigger on Friends, Metolius, or any other cam for that matter except for Black Diamond. In fact most my cams have really taken a beating, count less falls and other abuses. Once when in fit of rage taken out with speed on my crotch rocket, due to a certain female who just didn't seem to notice that I was the kewlest stud around my entire rack fell off my bike at about 130 plus mph. Um.... I think the hole rack was toast I was supposed to through it all a way and buy new stuff right.... ya right I climbed on all that gear for years before replacing any of it. At that time I only used Friends and I still use those same cams today.(binners are much more susceptible to micro cracks) I don't think there has every been a stronger more durable cam than Wild Country's Solid stem Friends. The new addition of the nylon guard to there flexible Friends really make them much more solid and durable.

On falls the cam head can become quite marred up I've notice this most with Aliens and Metolius FCUs. Where as Friends, Metolius TCUs and Black Diamonds will only become marred up on the hardest of falls. Speaking of falls don't be afraid to fall on those small TCUs. My wife took a 40 footer on a zero Metolius TCU. She fell so long that she screamed twice once when she fell then a second time when she realize that she had ran it out 20 feet on a zero TCU. The cam held and pull me up a good two feet from my comfortable seat. Ah yea the TCUs are Bomber (In good rock)!

On aid; ya just can't find a cam better than Colorado Custom Hardware Aliens. These things are Bomber! Only two lobes in no problem, your good to go just be sure to bounce test them. The Metolius TCU's are the next best thing but definitely second place. With just three camming heads and spaced very tightly together they will fit into the smallest of cracks. This is where the shine shine shine. I don't know of many pitches that I have done be it aid or off width that I didn't place at least one TCU. The other small FCUs camming just wont fit.

Big cams I think that Friends and BD. have the market here as the other FCUs seem to remind me of that U2 song " walk away walk away walk away I will follow" no matter how long of a runner you put on them. But I'll leave the wide stuff to the off width master Jay Anderson.

So what's my standard rack? Well we use two different ones. A) 1 set of rocks, 2 sets of Aliens for the small stuff, 1 set solid Friends and 1 set flexible Friends. B) The other rack is 1 set of rocks, 2 sets Metolius TCUs and 2 sets Black Diamond Camelots JRs and 2 sets of Camelots up to size #2 with 1 size #3. If the route calls for more bigger stuff then we look at weight and distance to decide on more Camelots or yuck.... hexcentrics oh god I hate cow bells. And really it just depends on our mood on which rack we grab. So how do they rate?

Camming Units	Durability	Ease of Placement	$ Dollar Value	Aiding	Ease of Removal
Black Diamond Camelots	*	* * * * *	* * *	* * *	* * * * *
Black Diamond Camelots JR'S	* *	* * * * *	* * * *	* * * *	* * * * *
Colorado Custom Hardware Aliens	* *	* * *	* * *	* * * * *	* * * *
Metolius TCU'S	* * *	* * * * *	* * * * *	* * * *	* * * * *
Metolius FCU'S	* * *	* * *	* * *	*	* *
Wild Country Flexable Stems Friends	* * * *	* * *	* * *	* *	* * * *
Wild Country Solid Stems Friends	* * * * *	* * *	* * * *	* * *	* * *

Black Diamond Camelot’s & Juniors

Positives

• Good size range on each cam
• Easy to place
• Easy to remove (ever tried it?).
• Each cam is anodized different for easy selection from rack.

Negatives

• Triggers wear out to fast
• Trigger kits are not that easy to replace

Positives

• Bomber protection. If they’re placed right they feel better than a bolt.
• Never had to replace a trigger kit (knock on wood).

Negatives

• Smaller size range, meaning you have to carry more pieces, which adds more weight and makes it harder to find the right piece on the rack.

• The Solid stem Friends are harder to remove, especially if your partner is prone to stuffing them!

• New Friends are all anodized the same color. What…they get a discount on red paint

• Better than a nut any day.
• Triggers have never worn out; although they do get bent out quite often, especially on Big Walls.
• Easy to remove.
• Place better than any quad-cam in that size range.

These are the cams that I climb with most often. I feel that the best rack is a mixture of all of these cams, using different colors of biners to differentiate between them since each company wants to have their own color of slings.