Totem Cams or Totem Basics?

Just picked up the Green and Blue Basic Totems to go along with my X4s.

Hoping they're as good as everyone says they are!

ChrisN wrote:Just picked up the Green and Blue Basic Totems to go along with my X4s. Hoping they're as good as everyone says they are!

The basics are good but you are not going to be too amazed. The Regular Totems are the ones that really shine in funky placements. I have doubles in the Regulars Totems and triple in the blue since that seems to be the one I use the most.

Ted Pinson wrote:Are they black Basics, or regular totems?

Regular totems. It seems totem must have recent shipped out a bunch to various retailers in the US.

They might be a great product but a manufacturer that names the make and model the same for one product, and then uses the exact same name with a "basic" on the end for a different product really suffers from a lack of vision IMO. Like, how many customers trip over this?

And, what the hell is about anything resembling a black alien that makes them so hard to make and keep in stock? Seems like small black cams are cursed.

Doug Hutchinson wrote:They might be a great product but a manufacturer that names the make and model the same for one product, and then uses the exact same name with a "basic" on the end for a different product really suffers from a lack of vision IMO. Like, how many customers trip over this? And, what the hell is about anything resembling a black alien that makes them so hard to make and keep in stock? Seems like small black cams are cursed.

Agreed. Not the best product naming. Even "Tiny Totems" would be better :D

Doug Hutchinson wrote:They might be a great product but a manufacturer that names the make and model the same for one product, and then uses the exact same name with a "basic" on the end for a different product really suffers from a lack of vision IMO. Like, how many customers trip over this? And, what the hell is about anything resembling a black alien that makes them so hard to make and keep in stock? Seems like small black cams are cursed.

Yup. Makes it really hard to find info about the correct product when "totems" can refer to 2 different cams. Definitely not good to have one of your products and your company have the same name. It seems like there are quite a few outdoor companies that make good products but are severely lacking on the business side of things.

I know the names are similar but when you look at them they are totally different and its obvious.

Totem Regular:

Totem Regular

Missing are the newer Black and Orange. The Black are the size below blue.

Totem Basic:

Basics

Interesting that no one has mentioned what I find is the best feature of the Totems - that they place in a fraction of the time of other cams. You just grab one and put it in the rock, not even looking where it is going, and it is perfect, weirdest thing ever and happens every time with these cams - makes placing cams dramatically easier, which allows you to get less tired, to climb harder, to have more fun, etc. I lend my Totems out all the time and I find that folks can usually onsight two letter grades harder with the Totems compared to C4s or Friends/Dragons, because they find it so much easier to get a bomber piece in - really, really genius shit these Totem cams!....but yes very sad that the same model has been around for so many years and they can not come close to keeping up with demand......

The Totem patent is up in 2022, I believe. (I mention this because in the late 90s and early 00s all the other cam makers would talk shit about how it was unfair that Dave Waggoner, Alien inventor, refused to license the internal-spring technology that would allow them to make a cam that could compete with the Aliens. The Alien patent was up in 2007 (I believe Dave died in 2009, RIP ;), and somehow we had to wait until 2011 for X4s and Totems - cams with a flexible, narrow head and decent cam range).

Woot!
Erik
Rockclimbyosemite.com

Erik Sloan wrote:Interesting that no one has mentioned what I find is the best feature of the Totems - that they place in a fraction of the time of other cams. You just grab one and put it in the rock, not even looking where it is going, and it is perfect, weirdest thing ever and happens every time with these cams - makes placing cams dramatically easier, which allows you to get less tired, to climb harder, to have more fun, etc. I lend my Totems out all the time and I find that folks can usually onsight two letter grades harder with the Totems compared to C4s or Friends/Dragons, because they find it so much easier to get a bomber piece in - really, really genius shit these Totem cams!....but yes very sad that the same model has been around for so many years and they can not come close to keeping up with demand...... The Totem patent is up in 2022, I believe.

There were a few moves on a wall in Zion that required a blind placement, I couldn't get a Master Cam to stay put but easily placed a yellow Totem and it was bomber from the get go.

Doug Hutchinson wrote:And, what the hell is about anything resembling a black alien that makes them so hard to make and keep in stock? Seems like small black cams are cursed.

My completely uneduated guess is that There is a higher demand specifically for the black Totem due to the fact that they started manufacturing it less than 1 year ago. Many of the folks that already have the blue-red Totems are now trying to add the black and/or orange to their rack.

Metolius has the same problem w. the 2 new UL mastercam sizes they introduced last year. Sizes 1-6 are readily available, but #7 & #8 are hard to find.

Yup. If I bought another cam, it'd be that.