Favorite Small Gear for Squamish Granite?

[MarkR]

Just wondering what people find is the most dependable camming unit for our granite cracks. I'm looking to double up on some smaller sizes (I currently have Metolius Ultralight Powercams 1-4 and a .5 Camalot for smaller cams) and was considering Metolius Ultralight TCUs, and was wondering if anyone has any advice about the TCU vs. Mastercam, Alien, C3 and Wild Country Zeroes.

I value cams being dependable over them being lightweight, if that weighs in. Any advice would be appreciated.

[hans]

I like metolius mastercams, tcu's not so much. Have used c3s and I'm not that impressed (but better than tcu's). Aliens seem good. Never tried wild country

[slopr]

My fav's samall cams

1. Aliens (RIP) Yellow Alien is the best squamish cam IMO
2. C3's just getting used to these, they seem wierd @ first but once you start figuring them out they fit in places no other cam will. Red and Green seem really useful with our thin cracks. These cams seem well constructed.
3.Wild country Zeroes


Never really tried master cams but they seem pretty sweet

I'm sure whatever you buy will work good once u get used to it.

[Cloudraker]

I'm sure whatever you buy will work good once u get used to it.

This


But Aliens are/were great IMO

[Lurch]

I have black and blue aliens on my rack, as well as tcu 00 and 0 which i find quite usefull, my new favorite small one would have to be the .5 omega pacific tho.

It doubles from my 0 friend to #1 friend and protects flares awesome. it'll pretty much double your powercams too.

mike

[gnarnaphobe]

I have black and blue aliens on my rack, as well as tcu 00 and 0 which i find quite usefull, my new favorite small one would have to be the .5 omega pacific tho.

It doubles from my 0 friend to #1 friend and protects flares awesome. it'll pretty much double your powercams too.

mike

the mans got a point...

omega pacific all the way

[andypl100]

the mans got a point...

omega pacific all the way

Until they explode... which they have, under bodyweight.

It is a design limitation inherent in the cams.... if the cam isn't aligned in the axis of the fall, the cam lobes can fail. And how often have we placed cams not perfectly in the axis of the fall? Or had them shift after we passed them. It happens....

Based on the 2-3 documented failures out there (and the responses from Omega Pacific stating what I stated above), I took mine off my rack.

[pinner]

.3 (blue) C4 seems to be my go-to piece more often than not

[bradley3297]

yellow alien, blue c4 , yellow c3 are all pretty much the same size but slightly different. all great pieces. i like the combo of small aliens and c3s as was recommended to me by a much better climber than I. and its a great combo. But getting the alien half nowadays is expensive.

[Lurch]

After doing some research last night, i learned what andy said is true. Which is why i always place my cams in a downward direction, clip them long with a long draw or sling.

That being said i consider every piece a link in the chain and back every piece up accordingly.

I have sat on my omegas many times in proper placements and had no issues.

I haven't fallen on any yet, but have heard of other people doing so.

Thanks for the warning andy, i will definitly consider these placements more carefully in the future.

[hafilax]

.3 (blue) C4 seems to be my go-to piece more often than not

I'm not a fan of the .3 and .4 C4s. They have really wide heads relative to other cams of the same size. I've found quite a few placements where a TCU would fit but the .3 or .4 wouldn't.

Otherwise I don't really have a preference for the just under finger size pieces. TCUs are good for pocketed placements. Sometimes they can be places so that they will pivot like a ball joint. C3s are nice for the really tiny sizes and pin scars.

[Dru]

From Tim Emmet's facebook page:

"Link Cams" watch out!! Steve ripped one and snapped the other, then hit the ground from 20ft yesterday. Spicy!

Feel like telling us more if you read this, Manboy?

[gnarnaphobe]

Woah, thats burly .... I retract all previous statements that hyped up link cam, until two minutes ago i never heard of a cam failure do to breaking.