UKC

Has anyone had chance to use totem cams in anger yet? How do they fair to more tradional options?

In reply to mmmhumous: Yeah. I am very curious how they fair on limestone. They advertised it to be the best in limestone...But I have not seen any reviews or comment relating their performance on limestone.

In reply to duzinga: The one time I've weighted mine, it popped. On grit. I put it down to being a poor placement

In reply to Ander: I hope it was!

In reply to mmmhumous:

This video might me of interest: youtube.com/watch?v=iM6D8Kw2prg&

In reply to mmmhumous:

Used... yes. Fallen on... no. Dangled on... yes.

Good Impressions: Really lightweight (especially teamed up with a set of DMM Phantom wiregates), ridiculously flexible, very easy action, wide placement range per cam, much narrower headwidth than anything else on the UK market so really good for pockets. The sizing and colour coding is virtually identical to Camalots, Dragoncams etc so they fit in with my other rack.

Downsides(?): I suspect that with all that flexing and plastic coated thin wire they may not last as long as some of the rigid Friends my climbing partners have on their racks still. They need to make a large gold one (Camalot 2 equivalent).

In reply to mmmhumous: hi,i bought a full set of these after much reading ont tinternet and no-one had much to say against them apart from the outdoorgearlab review in which the reviewer was slated and corrected many times.
ive used these a lot since i replaced all my cams(apart from my c3's),i thought my camalots would be my go to cams but im reaching for these more.
they really do inspire confidence and just generally feel bomber when placed,they are uber flexible,lighter than camalots in all sizes,and have a head width about i lobe narrower in all sizes,similar to 3 cam units but with more stability.
they are supposed to load more evenly in flares and although not reccomended for trad use cam be loaded on just one half of the cam.
ive fallen about 3m on one and a guy i was climbing with last weekend used one and fell maybe only a meter or so on one,i have soon learnt to trust these cams and they def give you confidence when placed.
they are expensive although needle sports will match the 10% discount that totem will do.
i think the drawback will be durability,especially repeated falls in horizontal breaks(which is where they excell),falls on cams in vertical cracks i cant see any reason why they would wear out any quicker,i havent seen any issues yet,i think they have been out 2 years,but even though im a big fan of them i cant see then lasting as long as normal cams,ive even wondered whether i should save them for the awkward/narrow/flared placements to look after them a bit more but i like how they place too much, so only time will tell.
to be honest if i got 5 years out of these i would be happy for how usefull they are.
i really cant see how one popped under body weight alone unless it was a terrible placement,every placement ive made as felt super bomber.

In reply to mmmhumous:
That's a pretty crap vid really, you could have got a nut in half of those placements and I'd be happier with that.
Also, not usually one to pick up on grammar and language, "holded" is not a word (58 seconds in)

In reply to gethin_allen: they are spanish.....

In reply to gethin_allen: I think the idea is to show some really marginal placement.

BTW, I have one, bought it to try them out. Haven't climbed that much trad since, so I have still not decided wether to get the full set, but I'm leaning towards that.

In reply to cliff shasby:
I did think there may have been a language barrier.

Anyhow, oh the days of buying a whole new rack of cams! did your numbers finally come up?

In reply to mmmhumous:
I've got the blue (smallest) totem cam and like it a lot. I've bounce tested it but not taken a fall onto it.

In reply to cliff shasby:

Awesome, thanks for the reply Cliff. I need to fill in a few gaps in my rack, and having trouble deciding between a C4, totam and zero, at the smaller end of the spectrum.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

cheers.