Officially sold on Totem Cams

In order for a cam to hold, the coefficient of friction must be greater than or equal to the tangent of the cam angle. So it is combination of 3 factors:
1 the camming angle
2 the smoothness of the rock
3 the smoothness of the cam lobe.

as for flares, cams can hold in a crack that flares less than or equal to twice the camming angle. so, for example, aliens, with an angle of 16, can hold in a crack that flares 32 degrees or less. C4s can hold in a flare of 29 degrees or less. Totems, with a geometric angle of 20.35 can hold in a flare of 40.7 degrees or less.

Hey Jake, sent you a PM a little bit ago. Check your email.

Josh Janes wrote: I just hated how they handled (not as easy to grab off your harness and slam into placements) relative to Camalots. I don't like Dragons (no thumb loop) or TCU's for the same reason. That same bulk can also interfere with finger and foot placements on very thin, technical cracks. Lastly, they hang awkwardly on the harness and tangle in each other.

I just picked up one green totem to try and my feeling over the last year has been in line with this review: andy-kirkpatrick.com/blog/v…

I wouldn't get doubles of them due to the bulk of racking and cost, but having singles they are just bomber in those occasional weird flares and pods that a normal cam either won't go. With the extremely flexible body I've never had a placement of the totem walk and I'm much more likely to place them w/o an extension.

To top all that off the aid features can come in handy. On a finger crack the other week my follower couldn't pull the crux and didn't have the right size gear from cleaning yet (crux near belay). She plugged two lobes in a flare in the crack, clipped a biner on that side only and french freed it. That's a .75 going in a .4 placement.

We sell that same hangboard at work, so I grabbed the following cams to give this a try.

Metolius Ultralight Mastercam #4: Yup! It slid right out.

Black Diamond Camalot X4 #0.5: Also slid right out.

DMM Dragon #1*: It slid a few centimetres and then it held, and I was not able to pull it out.

• NOTE: The DMM Dragon I used was the newest version, where the lobes are wider and the face of the lobes that contact the rock are not anodized

We don't have any Totemcams, so I'll have to bring in mine from home to give it a try.

I haven't had any issues with handling Totems. In fact I can't rememeber having handling issues with ANY brand of cam. It is pretty simple really:
-Unclip cam from harness
-Shuffle cam so fingers are on the trigger and thumb is on the base.
-Insert cam.

It is such a simple muscle memory maneuver that I don't notice the differences between on cam or the other. This includes cams all the way back to the dual stem HB cams with the single finger trigger.

Ok so to go with my theory that it's the slick anodized surface of the C4s, not the camming angle that is the culprit here, here's a well used C4 holding just fine.

Nathanael wrote: Ok so to go with my theory that it's the slick anodized surface of the C4s, not the camming angle that is the culprit here, here's a well used C4 holding just fine.

The camming angle also affects things as does the flared performance. eli poss discussed the various factors.

But you are correct, anodising does reduce the friction. There is a reason why Totem and DMM now don't have anodising on their lobes.

JCBurgart wrote:
"Hey there. It's Jake, your guy in the video. Just want to say I think it's EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL that you posted this video on the Internet without my consent. In BentGate, when I asked you what the video was for, you said the video was "Just for myself." Correct me if I'm wrong. Unbelievable."

Did the 'just for myself' creep you out a little?? What did u think it would be used for? Looks like you deleted your reply.

The totem cams are fine cams .... I own a set

However i feel that they are "overhyped" in da intrawebz

The biggest advantage in my use aint the "flared holding power" but rather the narrow head width and flexibility .... Similar to the old aliens in their day

I dont usually find many downward flares where something else doesnt fit ... And in sideways flares youll probably want actual offsets anyways

Theres 2 disadvantages that i notice

- for service you need to ship em back to spain ... Ill whip on camalots (and even link cams) over and over again anyday as they are cheap and easily services ... I try not to place the totems where theyll get banged up with multiple whips as i really dont want to ship em to spain

- they arent passively rated .... I find myself placing camalots/dragons in placements where the passive rating would help much more than i use the totem in flares ... Basically any internally flaring crack, or any constricting crack where the cam will both cam and act as a nut (the most bomber type of piece you can get)

Totems are good gear, but they wont magically make you into an awwwwsum leader

;)

JCBurgart wrote:

Hey Faulted, this is just a small local shop, can we just go ahead and delete that quote? No reason to get this employee or the shop owners all ruffled up over this.

If anything the video would be damaging, not my simple requote of his complaint. I love my small shops and will gladly take my funny quote down. Maybe a request should be made for the YouTube video to be deleted again.

Faulted Geologist wrote:JCBurgart wrote: "Hey there. It's Jake, your guy in the video. Just want to say I think it's EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL that you posted this video on the Internet without my consent. In BentGate, when I asked you what the video was for, you said the video was "Just for myself." Correct me if I'm wrong. Unbelievable." Did the 'just for myself' creep you out a little?? What did u think it would be used for? Looks like you deleted your reply.

patto wrote:I haven't had any issues with handling Totems. In fact I can't rememeber having handling issues with ANY brand of cam. It is pretty simple really: -Unclip cam from harness -Shuffle cam so fingers are on the trigger and thumb is on the base. -Insert cam. It is such a simple muscle memory maneuver that I don't notice the differences between on cam or the other. This includes cams all the way back to the dual stem HB cams with the single finger trigger.

The only ones I've noticed a big difference on are BD C3s...the action on those is ridiculously stiff. I feel like I'm squeezing a stress ball when I place them, lol.

I just did this on a Rock Prodigy board with a well used X4 .5, a well used Fixe Alien Lite Red, and a not-so-used BD UL .5. I put nearly all my weight on the non-anodized used X4 .5 and Alien Lite without them popping out. The newer anodized UL .5 slid out pretty easily. So whatever that means. I know folks love their Totems, but I'm not convinced of anything with the video.

bearbreeder wrote:I dont usually find many downward flares where something else doesnt fit ... And in sideways flares youll probably want actual offsets anyways

At least in Yosemite and joshua tree and areas in California in between, I've found that though totems may look worse in normal offset placements (because we're used to uneven lobe canning being bad), they hold up better to bounce testing those same placements as an offset.

kevin deweese wrote: At least in Yosemite and joshua tree and areas in California in between, I've found that though totems may look worse in normal offset placements (because we're used to uneven lobe canning being bad), they hold up better to bounce testing those same placements as an offset.

thats VERY interesting as i dont believe totems were marketed as being good for sideways flares, just downwards

anyone have any hard numbers on how they perform ins "regular" flares?

ie as a replacement for regular offsets

;)

kevin deweese wrote: At least in Yosemite and joshua tree and areas in California in between, I've found that though totems may look worse in normal offset placements (because we're used to uneven lobe canning being bad), they hold up better to bounce testing those same placements as an offset.

That has been my observation as well. Not sure about taking a real fall on them, but they have bounce tested very well while aiding in vertical flares.

Don't have anything solid since all my details are anecdotal. I know that Hudon has trumpeted the value of totems over offsets on el cap aid routes which is what got me thinking in that way for my smaller bigwall FAs in the valley.

Also, since I'm on the aid topic, totems are amazing in pin scars as their head width almost seems like they were made with various pin scar groove widths in mind.

Well they don't have to have their lobes cammed to the same degree so they do well. The direct loading of the stem on each side makes that possible compared to a normal cam. I'm not sure how you would test that though?

test it by taking a big whip on a pretty flared placement =P

now in a sideways flare does one clip the main loop, or the one nearest the load (such as when loading on 2 lobes) ?

its funny when i first got the totem cams i kept trying to show it off to folks about how great they worked in downward flares ...

the thing is i generally couldnt get it to hold in those flares unless the angle was fairly mild where even a camalot would work ... needless to day i looked like an idiot when i kept pulling out the totems by hand from obvious flares

last year on lake louise quartzite i had a particular textbook cam placement where i could pull out the cam easily by hand ... dragons and totems, didnt matter ... the rock was that slick at that placement

ive given up on trying to "sell" the totem as being "better" in flares or slicker rock ...

i simply say they have very narrow headwidth and are very flexible

;)