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Home > Reviews > Small Camming Device > The Best Small Camming Device Friday, February 5, 2010 The Best Small Camming Device Small Camming Device Review | Best-in-Class Search Gear Reviews Go

Overview Editors' Picks Ratings Overview Buying Advice How We Test

Overview We took six of the best camming devices and put them in head-to-head competition in hundreds of placements. We scored them on how well they did in four main situations: parallel cracks, ﬂared cracks, tight placements and horizontal placements. We also scored them on how prone they were to walking and how durable they were. After months of tests we picked our Editors Choice for small cams for aid climbing and free climbing.

Top Picks Review Photos All Tested Products

Metolius Master Metolius Ofset Cam Master Cam $60 $60

Ammon McNeely looks down at a couple Aliens in a sweet corner in Horse Chute, El Capitan.

Wild Country Credit: Chris McNamara Zero $60-70

SuperTopo Editors' Hands-on Review Flared Cracks Flared cracks usually come in the form of pin scars in Yosemite and Zion. However, they are found just about everywhere to some extent. By far the best cams for ﬂared cracks are offset or hybrid cams. The CCH Hybrid Alien with its soft metal and narrow head width scored the highest. For pin scars, it is pretty awesome, especially because the ﬂexible stem helps it get inside deep "boxed out" scars. A close second Recent Best-in-Class Reviews is the Metolius Offset Master Cam. It's harder aluminum was not quick as sticky in The Best Big Wall Gear Sling pin scars as the Hybrid Alien. However, it is also more durable and had a narrower The Best Climbing Harness - Men's head in the smaller sizes that made it sometimes more secure. For Yosemite routes The Best Climbing Harness - Women's we would bring a set of each. Most other cams did about the same with the TCU Battle for the Best Big Wall Ascender

scoring the lowest because with only 3 cams they were not as stable in ﬂares. Best Climbing Helmet for Your Dome

The Best Nuts and Stoppers Horizontal Placements and awkward placements Picking the Best Ice Axe Cams with the flexible stems and narrow stems did the best in horizontal cracks or The Best Climbing Belay Device weird pods. The Wild Country Zero had the most flexible stem and narrowest stem The Best Big Wall Hauling Devices and did the best. It's the Gumby of cams: it cam bend to get in just about any The Nuances of Nut Tools orientation. The CCH Alien was a close second. The Master Cam was stiffer and View more best-in-class reviews > had a piece of metal in the stem that held back it's performance just a little. Cams with stiffer stems caused the cam to be more levered out. They also got more Recent Gear Reviews battered when either weighted or fallen on. For example, when bounce testing Metolius Climbing Glove TCU's, their cables got warped faster than other cams. All cams get a little worked Homemade Fingerless Climbing Glove when you bounce on them, but flexible stems did better. Black Diamond Zodiac Gear Sling

Metolius Big Wall Gear Sling

Tight Placements Fish Double Gear Sling

Cams with the narrowest heads got in tight placements the best. A clear standout is Yates Big Wall Rack the Black Diamond Camalot C3 that was 10-40 percent narrower than the rest. In PMI Fingerless Glove spots like The Nose's Great Roof, you can really show them up in tiny little spots Petzl GriGri and feel secure. Second place was was the Master Cam and Offset Master Cam that Petzl Elios was just a little better than the Alien in the crucial small sizes. The TCU's were the Vibram FiveFingers KSO widest and really didn't get in tight spots that well. The Wild Country Zero was one Metolius Safe Tech Waldo of the wider cams in bigger sizes. However, it was also the smallest cam in its smallest sizes. You really need to hold the smallest sizes to believe just how tiny Black Diamond Mondo Pad they are. CAMP Quartz CR3 Mad Rock Alpha Harness Walking CCH Alien View more gear reviews > The clear winner in this category is the Wild Country Zero. Not only does it have a very ﬂexible stem, it has a sling that can be extended. Of course you can always attach a runner to any piece, but having this sling means it is much faster to make the piece safe (and you have to carry less draws and runner). Second best was the Alien with it ﬂexible stem and longer sling. The other cams has either stiffer stems or shorter slings which meant they walked more. The C3 and TCU, with only three cams, stiff stems, and short slings walked the most.

Durability All cams eventually get beat up, but the Aliens showed the most wear the fastest on the cams. Their soft metal caused the cams to lose there teeth and become difﬁcult to open. Their stems, however, were well protected with a protective sheath and even after a ton of bounce testing, the stems usually stay in shape. The Wild Country Zero stems, on the other hand, are much more delicate with their exposed cables. We found you really had to take care of them. Most other cams were about the same for durability. The TCU was the most burly because it had a beefy cable and just lasted the longest. The Master Cams have a very durable stem and cams but their Kevlar cam "wires" are still of unknown durablility.

The Bottom Line All the cams we tested had something they were best at: Metolius Ultra TCU - lightest Wild Country Zero - smallest cam and best for horizontal placements Black Diamond Camalot C3 - best in tiny spots CCH Alien - best in Yosemite and Zion pin scars

But overall, if we could only have one device it would be the Metolius Master Cam and its offset sibling the Metolius Offset Master Cam. They scored high in every category, were bomber, durable and also one of the cheapest cams. In fact, if it hadn't won our Editors Choice Award, we would have given it the Best Buy Award. It's tricky to decide how many offset pieces to carry versus regular models. We usually carry two sets of regular cams and one set of offsets in most applications. However, on a wall, we would bring two sets of offsets and two sets of regular, especially in the small sizes.

For aid climbing, we still carry a set of the CCH Alien and CCH Hybrid Alien because their soft metal helps them stick better in certain situations. The future availability of Aliens is always in question so we would say buy a set of these, especially the hybrids, now while you still can.

We also really liked the Wild Country Zero. We carry the smallest sizes because they are hands down the smallest cams and can really help, especially in clean aid climbing. The bigger sizes are great too and scored just behind the Master Cams.

Review by: Chris McNamara Last Updated: January 27, 2010

Ratings Summary Get the complete small camming device testing results summary. We tested 7 small camming devices which have received a total of 42 reviews (including our own) for an average score of 4.0 out of 5. Learn how we rated all the products, and how customer-reviews stack up...

Buying Advice What should you keep in mind before buying a small camming device? Find out...

How we Test Here's what we did to stress test and evaluate small camming devices...

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Jan 29, 2010 - 08:34am PT Ahh I found the place I wanted...

hoipolloi I will put my reviews about small cams here. climber A friends backyard with the neighbors wiﬁ

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