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Searching for the best climbing cams? We've bought and tested 24 models over the past 10 years, and our current review features 10 of the best camming devices found on climber's racks today. Our expert reviewers have climbed traditional routes the world over, big and small, and feature a combined 40 years of climbing experience. We used these cams on classic multi-pitch routes in Yosemite and Red Rocks, Squamish, the Bugaboos, and Eldorado Canyon, as well as at the most famous single pitch trad crags, like Indian Creek. Along the way, they took whippers, lent the cams to friends, and assessed each one based on an exhaustive eight different performance metrics. The result is the most comprehensive comparative review, with excellent recommendations for all sizes and levels of climbing experience.
GearLab has its roots in rock climbing, as the website started as an off-shoot of SuperTopo. So it's only expected that we have built an expert team of climbers to field test the best climbing gear on the market. Our in-depth reviews cover other types of protection like nuts and stoppers and carabiners and top quickdraws to clip into them. Of course, we cover the other protection essentials too, choosing our favorite climbing ropes and outlining the best climbing harnesses. And don't forget our best climbing helmet review!
Editor's Note: This review was updated on August 9, 2024, to shed more light on our testing process.
The Black Diamond Camalot Ultralights are everything we love about the original Camalot C4s with a weight reduction of 25%. We were initially skeptical that these lightweight climbing cams wouldn't hold up as well as their predecessors, but after a couple of years of use at this point, they've held many falls, been up quite a few large walls, and are in just as good a shape as when we bought them. Whether you're racking tons of cams for a long splitter or climbing a big wall, these lightweight cams will give you a big advantage. Our testers “oohed” and “ahhed” over how light these cams felt on their harnesses and were amazed that the #4 Ultralight weighs the same as a #2 C4.
Like all other options in our lineup, these incredibly light climbing cams are not perfect. Unfortunately, the range stops at a #4, so they don't come in the super large and heavier sizes where significant weight savings would be beneficial. They're also pricer than regular C4 Camalots, and Black Diamond recommends that you retire them after only five years because the Dyneema (used in lieu of a metal cable) can potentially degrade faster. Still, for climbers intending to tackle big walls, alpine missions, or simple cragging, these climbing cams are positively ideal if you want the lightest rack possible. If you don't need a lighter rack and want to save a few bucks, the Black Diamond Camalot C4s are available in a wider range, including larger sizes.
Flexible and rigid stem design best of both worlds
Narrow head width fits well in shallow placements
Smallest unit smaller than any other cam
REASONS TO AVOID
More expensive than many other small cams
Light, but not as light as others
The new Black Diamond Camalot Z4 was released with much hype around its innovative RigidFlex stem design. Each stem features dual, twisted cables that are flexible in any direction, combined with a trigger mechanism that increases the rigidity as it is pulled. This design effectively combines the desire for a flexing stem when a unit is placed, reducing the likelihood of walking — while also providing the rigidity needed to place and remove the cam with ease. Compared to its BD predecessors, these cams are also lighter, have a far narrower head width for easier shallow placements, and include a new addition, the green 0. Considering these improvements, and their super smooth trigger action and overall ease of use while free climbing, we think these are the best small cams you can buy, and wholeheartedly endorse them as the best small camming devices.
Even though the RigidFlex stem works as advertised, we found the smaller sizes with less weighty heads are more efficient; the larger sizes are a bit wobbly, even with the trigger pulled. These cams are also not the lightest option, so you can expect to spend a little more per unit. Regardless, the price isn't a deal-breaker. The Wild Country Zero Friends are equally impressive with different advantages — two of which are the metal trigger sheaths and extendable slings, which we highly recommend checking out. No small cam is flawless, and there are many inherent benefits in varying small cam designs, but we think the Camalot Z4 are the ideal backbone for any rack in the smaller sizes, especially when free climbing.
The Z4s include new technology including the RigidFlex stem, and use the same BD color coding, thumb loop, and easy trigger pull that make them a favorite choice for free climbing.
Not as good in horizontal placements as less rigid cams
If you're totally new to trad climbing and starting your rack from scratch, we highly recommend you begin stocking it with Black Diamond Camalot C4s. Simply put, these cams not only set the standard for quality and durability, but they're by far the most popular camming units in the world today. They have the widest range of sizes, from the finger-sized 0.3 all the way up to the Monster Offwidth protecting #6 (and the newly released #7 and #8). Their double-axle design also allows for great range of placement for each individual unit. While they aren't the lightest, the newest versions of these cams are now 10% lighter than in previous years, and you can save a decent amount of money if you opt for these cams over the lighter but more expensive Black Diamond Camalot Ultralights.
Thanks to their popularity, building your rack around these climbing cams will accustom you to the color schemes used for different-sized units, making it easy to climb using a friend's rack or to combine the two seamlessly for Indian Creek mega-splitters or Yosemite big walls. As for drawbacks, there are only a few, including the rigid stem. It doesn't easily bend over edges or protrusions, limiting its use for horizontals and tight placements. We found this to be especially true in the smallest sizes, and most individuals will opt for Camalot Z4s, Metolius Ultralight Master Cams, Wild Country Zero Friends, or Aliens when shopping for anything below the 0.5 purple size. For beginning climbers and old trads alike, Camalots are the way to go. If you're shopping for the best cams for tight placements, the Black Diamond Camalot Z4 is one of our top performers.
Durable, reliable, and made in the good ol' US of A, the Metolius Ultralight Master Cam are the best value you will find for finger-sized camming units. They have a more flexible stem than the Camalots and are available in larger sizes than the Aliens. Lightweight and compact, these cams are great for alpine climbing or whenever you need to shave ounces off your kit. While they wouldn't be the first cams we would recommend in larger sizes, for finger sizes and smaller, purchasing a set of these will save you a significant amount of cash over almost every other option.
One disadvantage of the design is the lack of a thumb loop. Although it cuts weight, it makes it harder to grab them quickly and limits the height you can clip into when aid climbing. They also have their own unique color scheme progression, which may require some practice memorizing if you're accustomed to the schemes utilized by BD, Wild Country, or Aliens. In the event of trigger wire damage, you will have to ship them back to Metolius for repair. Luckily, this isn't a huge issue since Metolius is very easy to work with and super accommodating. Whether you want lightweight climbing cams or simply the most affordable, the Ultralight Master Cams are an excellent choice. Another lightweight set we like featuring an ergonomic thumb loop is the Black Diamond Camalot Ultralights.
When it comes to clean aid climbing, the Totem Cams are a total game changer. Thanks to an ingenious and unique design, you can load just one side of the camming unit, engaging only two lobes at a time. In turn, this creates a much stronger, more reliable bodyweight placement in flares or holes too shallow to get all four lobes in. Since each side of the cam is independently loaded, each size can essentially function like an offset. They have narrower heads than the BD Camalots and a more flexible stem, making them very effective at holding in horizontal and shallow placements. While they get an award for their aid climbing prowess, we wouldn't hesitate to bring them free climbing because they can protect pockets and holes better than any other climbing cam.
All these attributes will cost you, as the Totem Cams are pricey. Additionally, they're a little bulkier than other models and can sometimes be difficult to extract. Availability is another issue due to their cult following. That said, no big wall climber's rack is complete without at least one set of Totem Cams. Even so, the price may be out of budget for some. In that case, the Fixe Hardware Alien Revolution is the next best aid climbing option. It's lighter, available in smaller sizes, and will save you some money too.
The Totem cams weren't the lightest we reviewed, but they're definitely the most versatile.
Credit: Matt Bento
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Mike Donaldson linking corner pitches and simul-climbing in the upper classic corners of the Becky-Chouinard on South Howser Tower, Bugaboos. Mike prefers a rack made up of Ultralight Camalots, Metolius Ultralight Mastercams, and Totem Cams for fast and large alpine missions like this one.
How We Test Climbing Cams
Testing cams takes place all year round, as we use these devices every time we go traditional climbing — which is a lot. As hot new devices are released (or old favorites updated), we make sure to purchase a set and start finding out how well they work, comparing them against all of the other cams in this review. Since every different climbing area and rock type places different demands on a camming unit, we make an effort to test devices in as many different areas as possible. Recently, we've put these units to use on steep cracks at the Ophir Wall and Independence Pass in Colorado, catching falls at Trout Creek and Smith Rock in Oregon, and on adventures to Squamish, the Bugaboos, Pine Creek in the Eastern Sierra, and of course, Indian Creek. At each of these locations, we put them through our rigorous testing process to decipher the best from the rest. We compared their weights, tested their range in countless cracks, assessed their durability, and noted any walking action. For more on our test process, take a look at our full How We Test article.
Our testing of climbing cams is divided across eight rating metrics:
Free Climbing (20% of total score weighting)
Weight (15% weighting)
Range (15% weighting)
Horizontal Cracks (15% weighting)
Tight Placements (15% weighting)
Durability (15% weighting)
Walking (5% weighting)
Aid Climbing (5% weighting)
Why Trust GearLab
This review is a collaboration between expert reviewers and climbers Andy Wellman and Matt Bento. Andy has been climbing for the past 24 years, having begun as a fledgling trad climber on the crags around Boulder, Colorado, in the late 90s. He made friends with older climbers with racks as he worked his way through the grades in Eldorado Canyon, Boulder Canyon, and in nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. Eventually, he purchased his own measly, bargain basement set of cams and proceeded to get many of them stuck on his first trip to Yosemite. In the years since, he has climbed all over the world, ascending tough single pitch routes and giant alpine walls alike. He lives and climbs in the mountains of southern Colorado. Matt is a long-time Yosemite Valley denizen, YOSAR veteran, frequent desert rat, and lifelong road dog. Before reviewing cams professionally, he was falling on the cheapest rack he could put together from for-sale ads on the Camp 4 board. From finagling body weight placements in granite to blindly slamming cams in the endless corners of Indian Creek, he's become quite intimate with every make and model over the last 10+ years of climbing.
Organizing the rack and making sure everything is perfectly in order before heading up another classic Smith Rock dihedral while testing Link Cams.
The new C4 (right) features the same lightweight lobes as the ultralight c4. The new C4 weighs 10% less than the older version.
Leaving the ground with a whole rack of hand sized cams for a lead of another long Trout Creek splitter, Gold Rush, which takes a whole lot of gold metal to protect. While they are a bit heavier than other similar sized cams, the largest Link Cam worked well to protect this hands sized crack.
Analysis and Test Results
There are two main types of camming devices included in this review — those with rigid stems, and those with flexible stems. The two types tend to be demarcated into sizes as well, with rigid stemmed designs more common for larger devices, where the rigidity is necessary to hold a heavier head in place, and the smaller sizes almost all having flexible stem designs. The two types often overlap in the middle sizes of the spectrum. Rigid stem designs, which include the Black Diamond Camalot C4s, BD Camalot Ultralights, Wild Country Friend, and DMM Dragon Cam, usually form the backbone of a climber's rack, as there are very few (or no) alternative options for protecting these sizes of cracks. Flexible stem, smaller cams, which include the Black Diamond Z4s, Wild Country Zero Friends, Metolius Ultralight Mastercams, Totem Cams, DMM Dragonflies, and FIXE Alien Revolutions, help complement the larger sizes by offering more options for small, thin cracks that can sometimes also be protected with stoppers.
Indian Creek! The red desert where dreams come true... but not without a huge rack of cams.
Credit: Matt Bento
All of the cams in this review have been tested extensively in the field by climbing many, many pitches on all types of rock, in locations throughout North America. We also add to this extensive testing by analyzing which cams perform best for certain functions and rate them compared to each other based upon eight separate performance metrics.
Ben Hoyt topping out the Furry Pink Arete in the Bugaboos, which finishes directly at the southern summit of Snowpatch Spire. Ben's alpine rack is made up of Metolius Ultralight Master Cams, Ultralight Camalots, and Totem Cams.
Before we take a critical deep dive, it's worth mentioning that tons of research and development have gone into every line of cams. Metolius, Wild Country, Black Diamond, DMM, and Totem have conducted extensive testing and maintain strict quality control to ensure that when properly placed in good rock, these cams will hold a fall within accordance with their specifications. 12KN is a lot of force, quite a bit more than the average climbing fall, and these handy, overbuilt tools are used in countless successful rescue operations every year, where rescuers and patients are reliant on natural anchors built with cams. Recalls on climbing hardware are common, not just due to the litigious nature of our society but also because cams are designed by climbers who know that each cam placement could be the only thing between you and a broken leg, or worse. Regardless of weight, personal preferences relating to ergonomics, or the range of each brand, all of these cams have made traditional climbing safer and more accessible, and for that, we are very grateful. Now on to the nitpicking…
What's the Best Value?
When you need to trust a piece of equipment as much as a climbing cam, it can feel a little counterintuitive to worry about getting a good value, but we know cost is often a factor in your purchase decisions. The Metolius Ultralight Master Cams are a solid choice if you are on the tightest of budgets. Due to their versatility and incredible durability, the Black Diamond Camalot C4s are another option that give fantastic value for the dollar.
Carrying loads of cams can really weigh you down, especially big cams for protecting offwidths.
Credit: Matt Bento
Free Climbing
We all know the feeling of trying to select the correct sized cam from our harness and place it while our forearms are burning, our legs are shaking, and we're looking down at a potentially long fall. For free climbing, cams need to be easy to identify, grab, engage the trigger, and place. To this end, our testers prefer a cam with a thumb loop when they are climbing at their absolute limit. A somewhat rigid stem can also make cams easier to place on the fly, as it's sometimes possible to just shove them in a crack without engaging the triggers. With a floppier cam, you will always have to engage the trigger wires. Familiar color schemes are very helpful for quickly identifying the cam on your gear loops, although this is also dependent on which cams you normally use, and how much you've practiced.
Black Diamond Camalot Ultralights are our favorite cams for free climbing. They are lightweight, easy to grab, hold in your mouth, and easy to place. For pure crack climbing, they can't be beat. They are the easiest cam to place when you're pumped, and their lightweight makes a big difference on those Indian Creek splitters where you may find yourself carrying 10 of the same sized piece. Close behind are the Black Diamond Camalot C4s, which make up the majority of most people's racks that we know, as well as the Wild Country Friends, which have a very similar feel and design. Metolius Mastercams don't have a thumb loop, and that's a big turnoff for most of the free climbers we know, but they can be easier to use for alpine climbers who may be wearing thick gloves.
Stefan Griebel leading into the clouds low on the Becky-Chouinard on South Howser Tower, Bugaboos. His rack is made up of Ultralight Camalots, BD X4's, Aliens, and a couple Link Cams for the belays.
When it comes to the smaller sizes, we feel that the newly released Camalot Z4s are the best choice for free climbing. They are lightweight, have narrow heads and easy-to-grab thumb loops, but even more importantly, they follow familiar color schemes for easy identification and have a wide placement range that makes it easier to simply grab and plug. The newly redesigned Wild Country Zero Friends are another favorite, as they have a slightly stiffer stem overall, follow the exact same color scheme, have a super smooth pulling trigger, and also come with an extendable sling for alleviating rope drag on long wandering pitches.
Sometimes the best cam for free climbing is the one that protects the best and feels the safest, so we wouldn't hesitate to free climb with Totem Cams or Fixe Hardware Alien Revolution when free climbing in areas with pin scars. Since free climbing is what the vast majority of us do with our climbing cams, it makes sense that we rate it as the most important metric. It accounts for 20% of a product's score.
Removing a Z4 cam at the top of the classic pitch Orange Peel in the Cracked Canyon at Ophir. By pulling the trigger like this the stem becomes more rigid, which makes it easier to slide out of the crack, especially in a funky placement where it needs to be wiggled around a bit.
Weight
Light is right for most climbers, whether that means a lighter backpack on the approach, a lighter haul bag on the wall, or just less weight on your harness. The original Friends and rigid stem cams from Chouinard Equipment were heavy and strong. Today's cam manufacturers are in constant competition to make their product lighter while retaining holding power (around 12KN for most of the larger sizes). The average climber will have between 12-20 cams on their harness for each pitch, so even minimal weight savings per unit is important to the bigger picture. If you aren't convinced that weight is significant, try putting on a 10 lb. weight vest at the gym and see how much harder a route becomes.
Comparing the weight of cams is a tricky undertaking. Black Diamond C4s come in sizes big enough to protect cracks over 12.5 inches wide. Comparing these to a line of finger size only cams like the Fixe Hardware Alien Revolution won't result in any useful info when it comes to deciding what cams to buy. Additionally, cams with a more significant individual range can protect more sizes with fewer cams. Metolius Ultralight Master Cams cover the same size range with seven cams that Black Diamond Ultralights do with six. Side by side, the Master Cams are lighter, but the BDs can protect more sizes with fewer cams. If you're free climbing at your limit, you'll probably be happy with more cams; if you're cruising easy alpine climbs, you'll want to go lighter with fewer cams.
Credit: Matt Bento
The lightest cams in our review are the Metolius Ultralight Master Cams; the complete rack from micro cams to big hands weighs 26.7 ounces (759 grams). From the removal of the thumb loop to holes in the aluminum triggers, Metolius has pulled out all the stops to make the Mastercams as light as possible. Right behind the Mastercam is the Black Diamond Camalot Ultralight, covering fingers to fist with seven cams, weighing 29.7 ounces (843 grams). Lightweight comes with a heavy price tag, but folks are willing to fork over the dough when they feel the significant weight savings on their harness. The Wild Country Friends are lighter than the Black Diamond Camalots, and the DMM Dragon Cams are the heaviest at 41.2 ounces (1169 grams). The Dragons offer some weight savings due to their extendable slings, potentially enabling you to carry fewer quickdraws.
Among the finger-size cams, the Fixe Hardware Alien Revolution is just a few grams heavier than the same size run of Master Cams. DMM Dragonflies are definitely light per unit, but a full run is six cams, so the weight savings would depend on how many you plan to carry. While the Z4s are a lot lighter than their X4 predecessors, they still weigh a bit more than similar small-sized competition. Weight accounts for 15% of a product's final score.
Range
For range, we considered both the range of the individual cams and the range of sizes each brand offers. A wider range per unit is convenient because it enables you to be somewhat less accurate when sizing the crack. Covering the same size range with fewer cams can also be a significant weight-saving factor.
The differences between the ranges of different brands can be subtle. A number 2 friend (left) can protect cracks a few millimeters smaller than the number 2 Camalot
Credit: Matt Bento
The clear winner when it comes to range is the Black Diamond Camalot. Their double-axle design allows for larger lobes to be contracted smaller, giving them a greater range. The Wild Country Friends, Black Diamond Camalot Ultralights, and the DMM Dragon Cams all share the double-axle design, but the Camalots are available in the most sizes (12), protecting cracks from tips to offwidths and even squeeze chimneys. This means that with Camalots, you'll be using one familiar color scheme to protect almost every sized crack, making selecting the correct cam much easier.
Cams available in offset sizes like the Metolius Ultralight Master Cam, the Fixe Hardware Alien Revolution all received an extra point in the range metric, though offsets are most often useful in areas with pin scars like Yosemite and Zion. Totem Cams scored well in this metric. Their oblong-shaped lobes and ability to hold in parallel and flared cracks give them excellent range and allow them to fit in some pretty unique and crazy placements. Range accounts for 15% of a product's overall score.
Horizontal Cracks
Back in the days of yore, climbers had to tie off their rigid stem cams to prevent the stem from loading over an edge and breaking while in a horizontal crack. Today, all the cams are designed with stems flexible enough to bend in a horizontal placement toward the direction of pull. We're not even sure if you can buy a rigid stemmed cam anymore. The more flexible the stem, the better a cam will hold in a horizontal.
With an extremely flexible cable stem and the “Alien-style” trigger wire design that includes a flexible, sliding sheath over the trigger wire, these cams are ideally suited to horizontal placements. A rounded edge like this poses little threat to the cam when weighted, as opposed to weighting them over sharper edges, and the extendable sling also allows for placing the cam well back from the edge on a shelf if thats all the rock allows.
Fixe Hardware Alien Revolutions, DMM Dragonflies, and Wild Country Zero Friends perform the best in horizontals because of their flexible stems and optional extendable slings. The extendable sling allows you to extend the clip-in point over an edge. This is important in deeper horizontal placements where the carabiner could be loaded on an edge, making these cams safer and more confidence-inspiring in this type of placement. Next up are the Metolius Ultralight Master Cams, BD Z4s, and the Totem Cams.
The larger hand-sized cams that came out on top in this metric also have an extendable sling. The DMM Dragons have the longest sling, followed by the Wild Country Friends. The Black Diamond Camalots and the Camalot Ultralights will bend in a horizontal placement, but they don't have the extendable sling option. Horizontal placements account for 15% of a cam's overall score.
Each of these purps (and a red and an orange) will protect about the same sized finger crack, but only the flexible stemmed cams (bottom 4) will protect shallow pods and pin scars.
Credit: Matt Bento
Tight Placements
Cams with smaller, narrower heads can fit in smaller, tighter placements, which is a huge advantage. Flexible stems are also nice for tight placements, as they don't tend to lever out on a piece the same way a rigid stem can, especially in shallow pin scars. The DMM Dragonfly is a top scorer, as its green #1 size measures down to 7.8mm, while also still testing at a 6kN strength. The newest green 0 BD Z4 protects down to 7.5mm, but only has a strength rating of 5kN, slightly less than the Dragonfly. The Wild Country Zero Friends are another optimal choice, with the narrowest head width of any small cams, although they don't currently have the very smallest 0 sizes that the Z4 and Dragonfly do. In terms of aid climbing, carrying a rack of these micro cams can mean the difference between relying on bodyweight-only cam hook placement and being able to leave a cam as bomber protection.
Micro Cams vs. Nuts
“Nuts” or stoppers fit in many thin placements where even the smallest cams are too big, and they're quite a bit less expensive than an active camming device. Old trad dads lament the dying art of good stopper placement with the advent of micro cams, and they have a good point. Knowing how to place and remove stoppers on the fly will increase your protection options and make you a better trad climber. However, nuts won't do the trick in small parallel placement since they require a constriction to hold, and ball nuts can be very difficult to remove if you fall on them. A nut that's been weighted often requires two hands for removal, so the second climber could get hosed on their attempt at freeing a difficult pitch. We prefer cams for free climbing whenever possible for this reason.
Metolius Ultralight Master Cams aren't the most narrow in the finger sizes, but they do beat out the Black Diamond Camalots, DMM Dragon Cams, and Wild Country Friends in the hand sizes. The Totem Cams are available in hands and tight hands sizes and fit into unique holes and pods where other hand sized cams are too wide to fit. Tight Placements is weighted as 15% of a product's final score.
The cams placed in the corner have been extended with slings to prevent walking and to reduce rope drag. Wild Country Friends, DMM Dragon Cams, and Fixe Hardware Alien Revolutions all come with a built-in extendable sling.
Credit: Matt Bento
Durability
Depending on how you climb, your cams are going to take a serious beating. Aid climbers are especially hard on cams, bounce testing them in marginal placements, and loading them in awkward positions. This can cause the stems to become permanently bent and trigger wires to fray or even break. Falling on cams, depending on their position, always has the potential to cause some damage. While our testers aren't actively trying to destroy these cams, they were on the lookout for any potential durability issues.
The Black Diamond Camalots are the most bombproof durable cams out there. We wonder if cam innovation is being pushed solely because once a climber has a double rack of camalots, they don't need to buy anymore for quite a long time. Some of our testers have been using their Camalots for over a decade. The only durability concern we have with these cams is the nylon sling, which should be replaced after five years. The trigger wires can fray and break, but they are relatively easy to replace, and you can buy new trigger wires from Black Diamond. Metolius Ultralight Master Cams are also durable, but you have to send them back to Metolius when their kevlar trigger wires wear out. We've sent damaged cams back to Metolius on several occasions, and the company has promptly repaired our cams. The DMM Dragon Cams and the Wild Country Friends are durable like Camalots, but have a lighter Dyneema sling that needs to be replaced more often than nylon.
Dragonflies are made with 6081 alloy aluminum, which is fairly soft by design. Here you can see the lobes of the yellow #3 and blue #4, with some dents and nicks from being placed and fallen onto. This is by design, as the soft aluminum deforms to allow better bite in the rock, and thus a more secure placement.
Smaller-sized climbing cams are generally less durable and more difficult to repair. The Fixe Hardware Alien Revolution have soft aluminum lobes that bite in the rock and grip well but become rounded and break down faster than the harder metal alloys used on Metolius and Black Diamond cams. Wild Country Zero Friends also use a similarly soft alloy for the cam lobes. Totem Cams have trigger wires that wrap around the outside of the middle cam lobes, making them vulnerable to abrasion. Replacing the trigger wires on these cams is pretty challenging. Durability accounts for 10% of a cam's total score.
Walking
Walking refers to the phenomenon where a cam manages to work itself into a different position than the one you placed it in, most often deeper inside of a crack or to a tighter constriction, and not infrequently to a position where it becomes stuck. As the rope slides through the carabiner attached to the sling it moves the cam stem up and down, which in turn moves the cam lobes, creating the walking action by which the cam moves itself. The more outward pull the rope places on a cam, the more likely this is to happen, and thus cams placed under roofs, or as the first piece on a pitch, are most likely to walk. Check out this video of Beth Rodden for a very clear demonstration about how cams walk (as well as a lot of other good info about cam placements). The best way to negate this issue is to extend protection with a sling or alpine draw so that the rope pulls on it less. In the case of the first piece of a pitch, have your belayer stand closer to the wall to reduce the angle the rope runs through this cam.
Cams with an extendable sling deployed walk the least. The DMM Dragonfly Cams and Dragon Cams have the longest extendable sling, and with a little practice, is easy for the second to re-rack on the go, so long as they always pull on the bar-tacked section of the sling so that the sling will slide through the thumbpiece. Wild Country Friends and Zero Friends also feature an extendable sling, but it's a little bit shorter than the sling on the Dragons. The Dragon's special thumbpiece keeps the sling from losing strength when extended, whereas the Friend suffers strength loss of 2KN when the sling is extended, though it's still a very strong 10KN. Black Diamond Camalots and Ultralights are wide and stable, but you'll need to extend them with an additional sling if you're concerned with walking.
A long extendable sling is the best method of preventing a cam from walking deeper into a crack. The Dragonfly cams have the longest of any in our review, on display here on the Testament Crack, at Smith Rock, and also have a very flexible stem that helps dampen micro movements of the head that can lead to walking.
A flexible stem both vertically and horizontally also helps prevent cams from wiggling out of their original placements. Fixe Hardware Alien Revolutions do well in this metric, as do DMM Dragonflies and BD Z4s. Totem Cams are flexible and aren't especially prone to walking, but our testers found that they were difficult to remove if they wiggled into an over-cammed position due to the shape of their lobes. Realistically, a walking cam is often more of an indictment of the lead climber and the way they choose to control rope drag, than it is on the design of the cam, as any cam will walk if placed in a difficult position. As such, walking accounts for 5% of a cam's total score.
Aid Climbing
Aid climbing tests your perseverance, your nerve, and your ingenuity. When you just don't have the guns to crimp and jam your way up El Cap, you have to engineer your way up the wall with the tools you've got in front of you. We like to aid climb with cams that have a thumb loop, giving us extra inches for top stepping and plenty of room to clip our daisies, ladders, etc. We also like aiding with cams with rounder lobes, that often fit better into pin scars, and with cams that come in offset sizes, which are absolutely critical to a clean aid ascent on Yosemite Valley granite.
The Totem Cams are our favorite cams for aid climbing by a long shot. They're like the Swiss army knife of cams. Totems have two plastic stems that join in the middle, allowing you to load two lobes at a time for more holding power in shallow, bodyweight placements, or you can load both sides equally like a regular cam. Because both sides operate independently, each Totem size essentially functions like an offset when you need to protect flaring cracks. Additionally, their narrower heads fit in more placements than traditional-style cams, and their flexible stems make them great for pin scars and shallow vertical placements.
Aid climbing in Yosemite is where it's at! You'll need offset cams or Totem Cams to protect the pin scars.
Credit: Matt Bento
The narrow-headed Fixe Alien Revolutions are also an excellent choice for aid climbing. Their stems are very flexible, they have a thumb loop, are incredibly light, and are available in offset sizes.
The Metolius Ultralight Master Cams are tough enough to stand up to the abuse of aid climbing, but they lack thumb loops and our testers unanimously agree that cams with thumb loops like the Black Diamond Camalot Ultralights, Z4s, and the Wild Country Friends are better for aid climbing. While the DMM Dragonfly cams are very small, flexible, and have thumb loops, they currently don't come in offset sizes and therefore are slightly less valuable for big wall missions. Aid climbing prowess accounts for 5% of a product's overall score.
Dakota Soifer cleaning cams and trying not to get blown away while seconding the wild and airy third pitch of Idiot Wind, Sundance Buttress, Lumpy Ridge, CO, on a day when the 40 mph winds sure didn't make us feel like we were in the smartest place to be!
Conclusion
Purchasing a set of climbing cams is an expensive investment, so you want to be sure you pick the ones that will work best for you. While we think our recommendations will guide you well, it can also be helpful to climb on a friend's rack and to try to gain experience with different camming devices before purchasing for yourself. If you only have a few cams, then having the same style and brand is usually advantageous. On the other hand, if you have multiple sets of climbing cams, then a diversity of types can also help cover all your bases. We hope this information has been helpful in your purchase, and happy climbing.
