If you're getting into traditional climbing, or upgrading your rack, a set of spring-loaded camming devices will be your biggest expense: At $50 to $90 each, you're looking at $500, minimum, for a modest selection of units. The good news is that modern cams offer excellent value: They work beautifully and will last much longer than your shoes, ropes, or harnesses.
Climbing magazine's editors present 2012's best carabiners, quickdraws, cams, and more.
Climbing magazine field-tested the Metolius Anchor Chain for toprope durability and ease of use during leading sport climbs. Here's what we found.
The Friend camming device, introduced way back in 1977, has been completely revamped for the third time in its illustrious history to create Wild Country Helium Friends ($65 to $75, wildcountry.co.uk).
In the three decades since spring-loaded camming devices were invented, they’ve radically transformed the notion of what climbs can be led safely. Here’s a little lore about modern climbing’s most revolutionary piece of protection. The essential brilliance of spring-loaded camming devices (SLCDs) is their lobes’ shape, which is described mathematically as a logarithmic spiral. The same curving lines are found naturally in seashells, pine cones, flower heads, and even in the basic form of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Just when it seemed like thin-crack climbing protection couldn’t get any sleeker or more specialized, the innovators at Metolius Climbing introduced Offset Master Cams, an update to the single-stem units that tweaks them perfectly for flares, pin scars, and other singular placements. The Offset cams come in six sizes.
Single-stem camming devices for rock climbing are all the rage, with a versatile, plug-deep configuration great for the smallest sizes (hyper-thin cracks) and in any case where “walking” is not an option.
Buying rock climbing cams is the most difficult choice you'll make with climbing gear. Over 20 different models in endless varieties: two-, three-, and four-cam units; single-stem and U-stem cables.
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