Broken Cam thread

you can tell the SPIs because they will loudly tell you they are "rock guides"

You can tell the full rock guides ... Because they wont tell you they are guides, but regale u of stories of epics

Thats not much exagerated ...

;)

^^^
Some truth to that. But what about Rock Instructors? Always falling between the cracks...

Theyre too busy climbing in good weather to yak about it

And when the weather is bad theyre delivering pizza

;)

"when the weather is bad, they are delivering pizzas."

Actually this is typically done at night. After the climbing....busy life!

Deliver pizza by headlamp

If yr gear sucks ... No one can hear u scream anywayz

;)

^^^ I hope they tipped....

For most subjects... not just climbing... I have found that those who have been "certified" tend to be less competent than those who simply operate in their particular field with out being certified.

The competent crowd can demonstrate their capabilities readily, and need no validation of their abilities, their history of performance speaks for itself. The "certified" crowd have a certificate that detail their abilities, and cite it as their qualification. Many exceptions do exist, but more often than not, I find this to be the case.

Wait... isn't this the X4 failure thread? ;)

Interesting. After 38 years, I've never had that happen on a cam, and yes, I've taken plenty of hard falls. Also, contra Dow, I don't always extend the cam slings, especially when an extra 2 ft of fall is likely to put me on a ledge--common on trad routes of any grade. I am careful with cam placements.

10 years ago there was a broken yellow alien on a crag in New Hampshire--The Vulture or some such name for the route. Elicited the "Alien panic" of 05.

Well, 10 falls on a .3 C4? Sounds like the Cam did pretty well. I wouldn't rely upon a single .3 to keep me off the ground.

Sorry for the drift. Really dont have too much to add as far as the relevant topic. Except now I like my C3's even more...

Jake Jones wrote: This is incorrect. The .75, .5, and .4 have two axles, while the .3, .2 and .1 have a single stacked axle- meaning that the two outer lobes are on a smaller diameter axle and the inner lobes are on a larger diameter axle, but they both are on the same axis.

Oh sorry my mistake. Not that fluent in English.

Guys.... you know you added over a page to the fail thread... imagine the people not reading but noticing the x4 fails have a ton of pages...

bearbreeder wrote:Deliver pizza by headlamp If yr gear sucks ... No one can hear u scream anywayz ;)

Isn't that the usual 11pm Squamish lets go climb by headlamp conga line?

Luc wrote: Isn't that the usual 11pm Squamish lets go climb by headlamp conga line?

But the pizza didnt "fail" when u needed it most

Havent seen many headlamps up the chief this year ... Guess the pizza biznizz aint doing so hawt

;)

Stop the fissy fits.

Hey guys. Sorry to hear about your cam failure. I also had a recent bad experience with a .2 x4 failing on me when I was climbing at phantom spires near tahoe. What happened was I placed the cam very well in a parallel crack with a constriction near the lip and fell when the cam was at my waist height. I will post a few photos of the cam and I want to point out a few things. First notice the large chunk of metal missing. I think that this is a failure of the metallurgy but I can't be sure. Also notice that the damage is all to the middle of the cam lobes. This suggests that it was placed well and simply did not exert enough pressure on the walls to stop. By the way I was placing it into excellent granite. I am really bothered by this fall and I have returned all of my x4 cams to REI. I came to within 4 feet of the deck and I placed this piece very carefully. It should not have failed.

Pete Jacobs wrote:Hey guys. Sorry to hear about your cam failure. I also had a recent bad experience with a .2 x4 failing on me when I was climbing at phantom spires near tahoe. What happened was I placed the cam very well in a parallel crack with a constriction near the lip and fell when the cam was at my waist height. I will post a few photos of the cam and I want to point out a few things. First notice the large chunk of metal missing. I think that this is a failure of the metallurgy but I can't be sure. Also notice that the damage is all to the middle of the cam lobes. This suggests that it was placed well and simply did not exert enough pressure on the walls to stop. By the way I was placing it into excellent granite. I am really bothered by this fall and I have returned all of my x4 cams to REI. I came to within 4 feet of the deck and I placed this piece very carefully. It should not have failed.

so the cam just pulled out? No umbrella or anything?

- even a "well placed" micro cam can pull ... Never trust a single microcam if u can help it

- falls will bang up cam lobes, even short ones especially nearer the ground .... And microcams have even less metal to get banged up ...

Im no fan of the X4s ... But the above holds true for all micro cams

;)

Pete Jacobs wrote:Hey guys. Sorry to hear about your cam failure. I also had a recent bad experience with a .2 x4 failing on me when I was climbing at phantom spires near tahoe. What happened was I placed the cam very well in a parallel crack with a constriction near the lip and fell when the cam was at my waist height. I will post a few photos of the cam and I want to point out a few things. First notice the large chunk of metal missing. I think that this is a failure of the metallurgy but I can't be sure. Also notice that the damage is all to the middle of the cam lobes. This suggests that it was placed well and simply did not exert enough pressure on the walls to stop. By the way I was placing it into excellent granite. I am really bothered by this fall and I have returned all of my x4 cams to REI. I came to within 4 feet of the deck and I placed this piece very carefully. It should not have failed.

What route?

How high were you when you fell(i.e. how much rope was out between you and the belayer)? A short fall with only 15 feet of rope can be very static.

Pete,

I have a few questions about your placement. You said it was a parallel sided crack. Was it a vertical crack or a horizontal one? If it was vertical, was the stem pointing almost straight down? Out at a 45 degree angle? Or?

Thanks.