UKC

I am considering supplementing my standard rack of Dmm Dragon cams with some Totems to fill the gaps, given that totems are quite expensive and there will obviously be some overlap with the Dragons I was wondering which size totems people generally find to be the most useful ? Obviously this may depend on the grade/rock type/ability etc etc but if you were to buy just one or two, what size do you find yourself using most frequently?

In reply to GravitySucks:

Yellow totem seems to get me out of trouble a lot, that or the little blue one. 

mainly climbing lakes rhyolite.

In reply to GravitySucks:

I use my black Totem all the time, it feels much more secure than the equivalent yellow Zero Friend which I also carry by default. Similarly for the blue Totem. By contrast, I don't think the large Totems offer anything over the Dragons.

In reply to GravitySucks:

Agree with both the above.  I carry totems in the three smallest sizes; if I saw a purple #4 I'd probably give it a shot but it's at the small end they really excel.

And yellow #3 is the magic one.  Somehow always gets me out of trouble!

In reply to GravitySucks:

Black to purple they're head and shoulders above other small cams, particularly black and yellow. Above that less so

In reply to Jamie Wakeham:

Yellow has literally saved my life, or my legs if things only went mildly tits up.

I reckon I use yellow most often, follow by blue then black. I don't leave the ground without those.

Purple / green are good and particularly so on some rock types. Red and gold, I generally prefer BD, especially as the totems age they get a bit stiffer on the springs / action so they feel a bit more floppy and can be awkward to place in extremis.

In reply to GravitySucks:

If you have dragons down to 00 I would get the black first and work up to purple as the budget allows. If it were me I would try and sell 00, 0, 1 dragons and use that money to get black to purple totems. 

In reply to GravitySucks:

If anyone finds they aren't using their black totem I'll trade you a kidney.

I have the full set Blue-Orange. The orange is a bit floppy but not as bad as everyone makes out, and it does make for very secure placements in sometimes-flared breaks (grit, lime etc).

Red / Purple / Green I just use as doubles of my C4's. Blue and yellow have taken over from X4's as primary with the X4's becoming the doubles if needed.

In reply to GravitySucks:

Definitely the smallest and work up. However the major drawback of totems, is that once you start using them you'll quickly realise you want to buy a full rack, which is rather expensive.

In reply to neuromancer:

Hold on to your kidney! Totem delivers within 2-3 days. I just received the three smallest ones to complete my rack. Ordered Sunday received Tuesday. Looking forward to this weekend at the local crag!

In reply to all:

Many thanks folks, as I suspected it is really the smaller sizes that are the most useful (not to say that the larger ones aren't without merit) and so I will start my collection with the 'yellow' and work down in size.  Food and heating are overrated anyway !

In reply to Stefan Jacobsen:

Wow, which UK shop is that?! great service.

In reply to neuromancer:

Where has the idea that black totems are really hard to get hold of come from? In stock at dicks, needlesports, v12 and outside

In reply to joeramsay:

No, I just want a secondhand one as I can't bring myself to spend £90 on one cam. I haven't paid more £45 a totem and even my massive BD size 6 was only £50 new on ebay. 

In reply to neuromancer:

How knackered are your kidneys?!

In reply to GravitySucks:

I concur with everyone else on this thread. I have a full rack of Totems other than the largest orange one, and while they're universally fantastic, I think they're particularly beneficial in the smaller sizes. I've yet to find another cam that feels so reassuring in placements that it has no business feeling reassuring in, and those sort of placements are very often at the smaller end.

In reply to GravitySucks: as others have said and i agree, the Yellow is my fav, but all the smaller ones are better,  i have Black to Green. i wouldn't bother with red or orange.

  

In reply to Euan McKendrick:

Sorry, not an UK shop. I ordered them directly from Totem's web page, totemmt.com

In reply to GravitySucks:

Black and Blue were key to getting up the final crux A4 pitch of North America Wall on El Cap... 

https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2018/08/27/north-america-wall-trip-report/

... Whilst that might seem a bit tangential to the original question, it's these tiny Totems I turn to (from a whole array of similar toys on my harness) when I'm guaranteed to be weighting them, and significant harm would result from failure.

It was also a Yellow that saved my life when a broken hold and an over-casual attitude resulted in a 20m plummet in Pembroke last year...

https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2020/08/02/deep-throat-and-a-monster-whipp...

I was especially impressed as the fall knackered one of the trigger wires and Totem in Spain repaired it in super quick time and for a pittance. 

Well worth the extra few quid!