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Brand New Camalot X4 Purple waiting to be bootied

Original Post
Kyle Wills · · Whidbey Island, WA · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 1,110

Was at JTree this Sunday, my partner pointed out the gear adrift located a mere 9 ft up the Flawless Fissure route on Lloyd's Rock. Brand new, super shiny, and immensely unretrievable by mortals who don't want to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to bust it out. Its not COMPLETELY cammed, there is some trigger movement but its pretty much 98% and the left lobes are behind a constriction.

Good luck to all the booty hunters out there. It is a bit of an eyesore.

Matthew Navarro · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined May 2011 · Points: 10

heading there as we speak! thanks for the heads up. #parkpirates

Matthew Navarro · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined May 2011 · Points: 10

It's still there. Clear as day...I couldn't get it out...I am assuming whomever left it also left the stone brewery glass bottles all over the place also...we picked up most the trash but cam is still hanging out.

Kyle Wills · · Whidbey Island, WA · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 1,110

So what IS the extreme measure that is taken in situations like this, just curious. I mean cams get overcammed and become permanent gear periodically(no I've never lost a cam myself, but we've all seen those random rigid friend relic abandoned in deep cracks). Yet seeing them is pretty rare. Clearly, therefore, in my mind someone must have some methodology that would fall into two categories, changing the rock or destroying the cam, and with the former being so much easier I wonder how frequently some files the crack a bit wider to pull it out. Just some of the things that crossed my mind while working on that cam.

Thoughts?

Please don't lose your mind because I asked has filed a crack a bit wider. I have not don't anything like that and I have no desire to.

Does someone have some super narrow jaws of life like device to destroy cams?

Matthew Navarro · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined May 2011 · Points: 10

^ curious as well but honestly I think with a few of the right tools this paticular cam should budge, long angled tip pliers and long flathead. The nut tool was just a bit too short but my fingers are just too fat for this one hah.

Shelton Hatfield · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 650

Has anyone ever drilled a stuck cam out (the metal not the rock)? I'd imagined it might do for a cam in a crack too small to fit a hack saw. Although I imagine a reciprocating saw will still be better than a drill in most cases, I can't help but wonder how a drill with a proper bit might do.
Thanks

Steve Williams · · The state of confusion · Joined Jul 2005 · Points: 235

You mean you didn't booty it yet, Fish?????
hee hee hee. . .

Eli Buzzell · · noco · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 5,507

Sawzall. Goodnight sweet cam.

teece303 · · Highlands Ranch, CO · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 596

I always pack a little C4 in the pocket of my chalk bag to remove unsightly stuck gear.

(But seriously, I think the main tools for removal are patience, persistence, and poverty.)

Ray Lovestead · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2008 · Points: 108

awesome.. patience, persistence, and poverty. The requirements of nearly every discovery ever made by mankind in the last 50,000 years.

Using a steel cable looped around one side of the cam lobes and then blow it out with a hammer (think funkness device).

Ray

Muscrat · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 3,625
Ray Lovestead wrote:awesome.. patience, persistence, and poverty. The requirements of nearly every discovery ever made by mankind in the last 50,000 years. Using a steel cable looped around one side of the cam lobes and then blow it out with a hammer (think funkness device). Ray
Dude, your giving away WAAAAAYY too much top secret info....
HA!
Ben Kraft · · Mammoth · Joined Mar 2014 · Points: 99

Anyone else finding purple x4's difficult to booty? Came across a bunch of stuck ones in Yosemite and the Sierras this summer but left empty handed every time. They're kinda hard to manipulate with the nut tool and even the newest ones are often all frozen up.

Anonymous · · Unknown Hometown · Joined unknown · Points: 0

poverty and two nut tools go a looooong way where i come from. and please never hurt the rock, its mother natures brother, brother nature.

Shelton Hatfield · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 650
benkraft wrote:Anyone else finding purple x4's difficult to booty? Came across a bunch of stuck ones in Yosemite and the Sierras this summer but left empty handed every time. They're kinda hard to manipulate with the nut tool and even the newest ones are often all frozen up.
I have noticed that the larger X4s are getting left by users somewhat frequently. I'm sure some will attribute this in part to newer climbers having the "latest and greatest" gear and not knowing how to keep it from becoming stuck, and perhaps they are on to something. But I personally find these larger X4s to have very little, if any, response from the trigger when they are near being fully cammed, more so than other popular cams.

Perhaps it is this dead space that is leading more leaders to get the cam in a difficult to remove orientation, triggering panic-mode. And we all know that panic-mode can lead to thrashing, which can lead to a user even further compromising a bad cam placement.

And yes, I know you can booty a cam without ever touching the trigger. But I'd wager that your average cam monkey couldn't.
Kyle Wills · · Whidbey Island, WA · Joined Aug 2007 · Points: 1,110

still there, slightly different orientation.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Lost and Found
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