Hi Di,

Ross from perth here (now in Oman). The BD cams have this double-shaft mechanism which gives them an extra large range of cracks that they will fit. However the tradeoff is that they weight 50% more than other cams. So I would not carry a rack of exclusively BD cams as this will be heavy. I suggest that you get 2 or 3 BD sizes, say #1, #2 and #3(this one maybe later, quite big), and use some other design for (a) smaller sizes and (b) supplementing the BD cams for larger sizes.

I’m not great fan of Wild Country by the way, the solid stem cams are dinosaur designs that cannot be used in horizontal placements. The WC flexible cam designs suffers from many problems. First one was that in ’99 when I bought about 6 of these, they all came in red-anodised colour, so visually the looked the same on my rack, which did not aid quick selection. Secondly, they would often and easily overcam (open too much) which made them difficult to put in and retrieve, in fact a real pain to handle. Thirdly the of the smaller sizes were too wide, which made them hard to place into shallower cracks. Four – the wires wear out as there is no stem stop. I prefer using HB Wales cams in the small and medium sizes, as these have none of the above problems. I use Aliens for tiny ones (tricams are more useful than quadricams in tiny sizes, I think). WC is OK for the really large sizes – any huge cam is a pain to handkle anyway. By the way HB cams in the huge sizes are a pain – the head is too narrow and they flip sideways.

Main point from above is avoid WC unless the design is radically improved and do not buy whole set from one manufacturer as different brands excell in different sizes (despite claims).

I hope this helps.

So many opinions. If you run to Paddy Pallins you might still be able to get some of the larger old style camalots at 50% discount. If they offer 20% be indignant. It worked for the 3.5 _ The old style ones have round machined holes in the cams and are significantly heavier (comparing the old 3.5 with the new 4, which seemed about the same size, but the 4 lighter). I don’t know there’s any difference in the smaller cams. Anyway don’t buy the old cams at the new price.

has anyone heard anything about Rock Empire cams? bought a couple in sydney last year and seem to be ok..just wondering if anyone else knew anything about them…..

nah. you’re better with 1 decent cam and not 3 suss ones.

IMO – camalots are the best by a long way except when you get below finger tip size. then take your pick of aliens, WC zeros or mettolious or whatever you like the look of. true, camalots are heavier. but they offer a much bigger expansion range than alternatives. you’d have to be pretty lame to claim that the extra weight from camalots is what caused you to fail on a climb… since camlots can be brought for the same price or cheaper than the alternatives in perth – the choice is easy.

i’m pretty sure rock empire are made by DMM (or is it wild country… i forget what they look like). google it.

When I was putting together my first bare bones rack, some years ago now, I bought 4 Komrades, (Russian solid stemmed titanium cams), light, very strong and cheap. Eventually all the wires broke and I do have memories of being up a climb putting one of them back together so I could use it. They all worked and some of them at least held falls. They have all now been retired. I also bought my hexes then because as the salesman pointed out, 4 hexes would often replace 4 cams for the price of 1 cam once you learn how to use them. I still use the hexes a lot.

The problem with buying just one good cam is that you only have one cam. It all depends on budgets.

Cheers,

Toc.