Small Cam Doubles

Here is a question for all you experienced trad climbers. If you were given the option between these racks of small cams which would you choose, and possibly why?:

- A double set of alien style cams of your choice (Totem Basics, Fixe Aliens, X4's, Mastercams, etc.)
- A single set of aliens paired with a single set of TCU's
- A double set of TCU's
- Other (Please describe. Cams only please, I'm not looking for answers like, "Just use nuts.")

In this scenario money is not a variable. I'm curious what people would choose to carry based entirely on experience, rock type, biases, superstition, and whathaveyou.

Thanks all.

Variety is always nice, fits more cracks, gets you more used to different brands when you borrow other peoples gear, so I would go with some form of option 2

Metolius ultralight TCUs are cheap and still the lightest in many sizes, the stiff stem is really nice if you have to push a cam into a sweet pod

Totems are better than Fixe in a lot of ways if price is no deterrent, aliens never go out of style

Other option I would recommend is to get a triple or quadruple rack of small cams...

a rack of x4's and metolious mastercams sounds dreamy.

I have x4's and c3's (mostly use yellow red and green c3)...pretty good combo!!! the c3s supplement x4's nicely and can fit in some tiny little nooks because they are 3 lobes, not 4.

One set of alien-style (totem basic my favorite ) second set for me is usually some 3-cam unit (metolius or c3), or masterc offsets for most granite and j-tree funk.

Have one x4, don't care for it as much as totem basic and metolius mastercam

1 set of Totem (not basic) and 1 set of Basics or Mastercams

Nathanael wrote:1 set of Totem (not basic) and 1 set of Basics or Mastercams

Are you implying that standard Totem's qualify as small cams in your opinion? Just clarifying.

Totem basics.

I vote for mix and match. For small cams it just feels like having more geometry options makes a difference (not as much for larger cams).

I carry one set of (four) normal Totem Basics plus the 0.1 X4; and one set of (three) offset Totem Basics plus the 0.1/0.2 X4.

I like it and my partners like it because not many of them have Totems or offset cams, and we can add variety to the collective rack as needed for the climb.

I'm not a huge fan of TCUs; I climbed with a guy who loved them, but I found that in the small (0.3 and below) sizes the wire terminations made the "width savings" from having only three lobes moot vs. Aliens/Mastercams. Occasionally the three lobe shape was "just what the doctor ordered," but most of the time it just walked more.

Totem basics plus tcus

Or totem basics plus tcu or mastercam offsets

CornCob wrote: Are you implying that standard Totem's qualify as small cams in your opinion? Just clarifying.

Well.. in my mind "small cams" is roughly Orange Metolius and smaller. Standard Totems cover blue-orange Metolius which are the sizes that I use the most. And they're my favorite pieces in those sizes by far. You'll need to pick something else for the 0/00 sizes.

Brassmonkey wrote:Totem Basics and Mastercams. Dont drink the Kool-aid about the X4's.

Agreed. I do like my .3 X4 but the .4 is constantly feeling "gummed up" and just feels cheap. YMMV.

Totem Basic + C3's

I rock Basics, a black alien, and x4s

I feel like the kool-aid is actually hating X4s...I love mine. They pair very nicely with Totem Basics, as they fill in a lot of gaps in each others' respective ranges.