Complimenting Cams

I'm looking to expand my rack for more sizes (dubs and trips), a wider variety of placement styles, and just to have more shiny toys.

So it's been said that alien cams compliment the bd camalot well. I was curious how this is determined and for my case, I don't have any camalots, what brands compliment metolius ultra light cams.

I have the metolius tcu's from 00 - 3 and then the ultra lights from 3 to 8. I also have a full set of metolius stoppers and some small camp tricams.

What would you add to the party and why?

I used to love my TCU's until I got some Aliens, I haven't looked back. Camalots are easier to place and remove than the Met. cams in my opinion. For starters get a Yellow ALien and a Green (.75) C4 camalot and see if you like them. Those are the two most used pieces on my rack.

the BD C3s are pretty awesome and were made to compete with Aliens, and while I love my aliens the C3s have a smaller profile and place in the same placements better. Although the C3s don't have the smae flexiblity in the stem.

I used to frequently carry two sets of Aliens (green, yellow, red).

Now I generally carry one set of those aliens, and a set of C3s (also green, yellow, red). And I'll throw in the purple C3s if things look like they might get small.

I love the Aliens, and I love the C3s... and I find they compliment each other well. Like Ladd said the C3s head is narrower, so they fit in tight spots.. but the rotational security of 4-cams (i.e. not walking) can't be beat.

The C3s, despite having the same colors, all come in slightly smaller than their matching Alien.

Me, I'm a fan of the old style bd micros (both ustem and singles for the .5 and .75) and metolius for everything up to their #6.

For anything bigger than that, i recommend wild country, despite simply loathing all their smaller stuff. Their big gear is awesome for 2 reasons that other cams can't seem to deal with:
1-Wild countries larger cams are WIDE. They don't tip out like the big BD camalots and metolius stuff.
2-they don't rotate when you pull the triggers.

That said, I've yet to find a placement that I couldn't fit with either a BD cam or a metolius, but far too many I couldn't get WC smaller stuff to fit right in. Yes, i know that a chunk of it is me, but the cam angles just never seemed right for me.

As to small stuff, Aliens get a huge amount of press and have some real die hard followers, but I've never liked the feel of the stem and triggers.

Your milage may vary, but if you've found a set of cams you like, why not stick with it?

me, I have 4 sets of small metolius, triples of bd cams from .5-#2s. Bds cams are simply awesome for cam range but do weigh a ton compared to others (and are more pricey-but well worth it).

Cheers

Great responses guys thanks a lot. No ones using any trango cams? Seems all bd, met, and alien? There's a bunch more stuff out there right...

• "Your milage may vary, but if you've found a set of cams you like, why not stick with it?"

As to this statement Charles, I'm mainly looking for other designs of cams to compliment what I have and like already. Are you saying that this complimentary relationship doesn't exist or doesn't need to exist?

Two things i just learned about C3.

They made five units to cover the range that most other brands made four, so they take a little practice to choose for a placement at first. No biggie.

The C3 supposable can be loaded on just two lobes, i.e. the middle and either of the outer.

We've all been very complimentary of the cams we like, but have we filled in the gaps in the OP's rack? Try the Virtual Rack at Spadout.com if that's what you're looking for.

Whoa, that graphs pretty cool, if only if could be brought out of the stone age area of look and user experience that thing could be really useful. A bit painful to use but really informative.

for desert climbing, i use a combination of friends and camalots. the overlap is pretty much perfect from fingers (ie #1 friend and .5 camalot) up to big hands (#3.5 friend and #3 camalot are pretty much the same). the pieces between these sizes really compliment each other well. i don't use metolius above orange tcu, but one of my partners has the light purple one that is between #2 and #3 camalot, which is a handy size.

for routes that are small cam intensive, i usually take a set of offset aliens and a set of tcus. this combo really seems to work really well, particularly at areas where the placements can be tricky (platte, eldo, lumpy, vedauwoo, squamish,...).

hope this helps some.

icsteveoh wrote: No ones using any trango cams? Seems all bd, met, and alien?

I've used Trango and HBs, both are fine. Even manhandled some of the "double cams", which didn't impress me in the least. I love the idea, but the implementation only allows them to fit a really limited selection of placements

• "Your milage may vary, but if you've found a set of cams you like, why not stick with it?" As to this statement Charles, I'm mainly looking for other designs of cams to compliment what I have and like already. Are you saying that this complimentary relationship doesn't exist or doesn't need to exist?

For me, it comes down to never really finding a placement on a route that wouldn't take a metolius cam or a .5, .75, #1, or #2 camalot that I normally rack. I did have that problem all the time when I tried using WC stuff *shrug*.

As to the relationship, you'll find that most people here will suppliment small stuff, and are pretty devout about their larger brand. Small stuff you'll find that the new c3's get a bunch of hype, as do aliens, and metolius. In the medium catagory, most use BD, metolius, or WC. Big stuff tends to be BD and WC.

Again, you may find a brand that works for all your needs. If I'm racking small, I run a single set off mets and nuts. If it's an unknown route, I drop in a few camalots (see above). For wide stuff, i really prefer a completely different brand.

That said, i know people who use WC exclusively. Or BD. Or mets. Or HBs. Or Rocks, or even Trangos.

Can't say that there is one brand that compliments any one brand better, it all comes down to personal taste. Me, i'd much rather sit on 2 lobes from a met tcu, then 2 lobes from a c3. And given the choice, I won't rack with aliens as I don't like the triggers. Doesn't mean they wouldn't fit my standard placements, not that they are somehow unsafe. It's just i don't like how they feel.

It's similar to racking. Do you rack drawns on one side, gear on the other, or gear front and draws in back. Biners with gates in or out? 1 cam to a biner or several? Big in back or front?

That said, if you're bored and want to try a full set of BDs or metolius, let me know, and we can rack up sometime. I can even get some HBs and trangos if my friend is in town.

Good answer. Thanks.

I find it unbelievable people are still 'recommending' Aliens.

Don't get me wrong, I have 10 of them and love them. But, I also hate them, because, especially the newer ones, I don't have 100% confidence in, yet I paid a bunch of dough for them.

Anyone who hires welders who inadvertently quench thousands or tens of thousands of welds (a cardinal sin) without sufficient quality control to catch such a thing should not feel good about making climbing gear for sale to the public. And talk about crappy service.

Hold out for the Metolius master cams!

No kidding, Avery. I would just stop recommending buying newer Aliens and just get something else. I have older ones and trust them, but to Hell with the new ones.

http://www.spadout.com/wiki/index.php/or_show_summer_2007_images#metolius

looks pretty sick...