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Boots And Pants

Reviews

6

Move over BD, these are the new standard in SLCDs

From a little company in Spain comes one of the best, if not THE best, SLCD on the market today. Totem takes the best points out of all of the cams on the market and wrap it up in a neat, quirky package that isn't just gimmicky, but extremely functional.

First think you'll notice is that these guys look weird; different from any other cam out there. Wires connect all the parts together, with only a very short stem and axle present. This gives the cam flexibility beyond the offerings of anything else. They are so flexible, I've often found it unnecessary to add a quick draw to avoid walking. The wires also allow you to directly load two out of the four lobes. While this has little application in the free climbing world, it's a great selling point for aid climbers, making two lobe placements much more secure and balanced.

The cam head is where the magic happens. Made out of 6061-T6 aluminum, the head is softer than most others on the market. 6061 is the same material that CCH Aliens were made out of, and the "softness" of the aliens has been praised as one of their strong points. This material bites the rock and seats better than the harder materials used by other manufacturers, giving the placement a very secure feel, even in marginal conditions.

The shape of the head is also obviously different from anything else out there. It is the narrowest on the market (narrower than aliens or TCUs), making those shallow placements a breeze. The lobe shape has been specifically designed by Totem's engineer to apply fall forces to the rock in a different manner than traditional lobe shapes. This design not only works better in all situations, but absolutely excels in flaring placements. There's a 6 page PDF document on the Totem website explaining the science behind their lobe design in comparison to others (pages of mathematical proofs included), so check it out if you don't believe me, or are just a nerd like myself. I've had the distinct pleasure of testing this theory out myself by taking a few falls on the Totems, a 40 footer on a purple being the biggest, and the fact that I'm here writing this is a testament to the fact that they do indeed work!

There are currently 5 sizes available and they range from small fingers to small hands size. Color coded to match the #1 and 2 (blue and yellow) mastercam sizes, and purple-green-red (.5, .75, 1) BD C4 sizes. Makes grabbing these and finding the right size pretty easy.

There are a few drawbacks to the totem cams:
- They're more expensive than your standard go-to brands and their distribution network is still kind of small (although it's growing), so finding them can be somewhat of a hassle. Prices were raised in the middle of 2013, and MSRP is 79.99 USD. That being said, if you order 5 cams off of Totem's website, they knock the price down to $60 each, so they become more in-line with the rest of the SLCD price offerings. Backcountrygear.com is also a distributor and often has 20% off coupon codes you can use to make these more affordable.
- They rack kind of funny. Not a huge deal, but they lay "flat" on your leg instead of perpendicular like C4s and the like. Not an issue when you have a full rack on your harness and are climbing anyway, but some people are weird about that sort of thing, so it's worth mentioning
- They only come in sizes up to 1! I wish they would make larger ones. Maybe someday in the future!

All in all, these are the best cams I have used, period. I've put about 200+ pitches on them this season and I'm incredibly impressed with their performance. I'm so impressed with these that I've completely sold my rack of BD and Metolius cams in these sizes to replace exclusively with Totem cams. Yes, that's right, THESE ARE BETTER THAN C4s! Watch out BD; as Totem grows you're going to have a hard time keeping that #1 spot!

6

Move over BD, these are the new standard in SLCDs

Pros
Lightweight
narrow head
direct lobe weighting
excel in flaring cracks
Cons
They rack large
price
Distribution network somewhat limited

From a little company in Spain comes one of the best, if not THE best, SLCD on the market today. Totem takes the best points out of all of the cams on the market and wrap it up in a neat, quirky package that isn't just gimmicky, but extremely functional.

First think you'll notice is that these guys look weird; different from any other cam out there. Wires connect all the parts together, with only a very short stem and axle present. This gives the cam flexibility beyond the offerings of anything else. They are so flexible, I've often found it unnecessary to add a quick draw to avoid walking. The wires also allow you to directly load two out of the four lobes. While this has little application in the free climbing world, it's a great selling point for aid climbers, making two lobe placements much more secure and balanced.

The cam head is where the magic happens. Made out of 6061-T6 aluminum, the head is softer than most others on the market. 6061 is the same material that CCH Aliens were made out of, and the "softness" of the aliens has been praised as one of their strong points. This material bites the rock and seats better than the harder materials used by other manufacturers, giving the placement a very secure feel, even in marginal conditions.

The shape of the head is also obviously different from anything else out there. It is the narrowest on the market (narrower than aliens or TCUs), making those shallow placements a breeze. The lobe shape has been specifically designed by Totem's engineer to apply fall forces to the rock in a different manner than traditional lobe shapes. This design not only works better in all situations, but absolutely excels in flaring placements. There's a 6 page PDF document on the Totem website explaining the science behind their lobe design in comparison to others (pages of mathematical proofs included), so check it out if you don't believe me, or are just a nerd like myself. I've had the distinct pleasure of testing this theory out myself by taking a few falls on the Totems, a 40 footer on a purple being the biggest, and the fact that I'm here writing this is a testament to the fact that they do indeed work!

There are currently 5 sizes available and they range from small fingers to small hands size. Color coded to match the #1 and 2 (blue and yellow) mastercam sizes, and purple-green-red (.5, .75, 1) BD C4 sizes. Makes grabbing these and finding the right size pretty easy.

There are a few drawbacks to the totem cams:
- They're more expensive than your standard go-to brands and their distribution network is still kind of small (although it's growing), so finding them can be somewhat of a hassle. Prices were raised in the middle of 2013, and MSRP is 79.99 USD. That being said, if you order 5 cams off of Totem's website, they knock the price down to $60 each, so they become more in-line with the rest of the SLCD price offerings. Backcountrygear.com is also a distributor and often has 20% off coupon codes you can use to make these more affordable.
- They rack kind of funny. Not a huge deal, but they lay "flat" on your leg instead of perpendicular like C4s and the like. Not an issue when you have a full rack on your harness and are climbing anyway, but some people are weird about that sort of thing, so it's worth mentioning
- They only come in sizes up to 1! I wish they would make larger ones. Maybe someday in the future!

All in all, these are the best cams I have used, period. I've put about 200+ pitches on them this season and I'm incredibly impressed with their performance. I'm so impressed with these that I've completely sold my rack of BD and Metolius cams in these sizes to replace exclusively with Totem cams. Yes, that's right, THESE ARE BETTER THAN C4s! Watch out BD; as Totem grows you're going to have a hard time keeping that #1 spot!

Ushba

Liberty Mountain
Liberty Mountain Ushba
4.32

In Soviet Russia, Nut Tools You

Pros
Light
wide hammering area
Cons
It's a bad spoon...

It's titanium (oooo ahhh).
It's light.
It's strong.
The end has ample area for you to strike you hand on, unlike a bunch of other nut tools.
It's made in the motherland.

Best of all; it doesn't come with a stupid leash.

Nano 23

CAMP
CAMP Nano 23 Full View
2.58

Light, but lacking

Pros
Light
it won't kill you...
Cons
Action
small
it'll drive you insane...

The action on other CAMP biners (especially the photon) is wonderful, but it's disappointing that the action on the nano sucks so hard that it renders this biner almost useless. The gate is very stiff and takes a large amount of force to open it fully, and while it's heavy handed, it's not consistent in the force needed to open the gate either. Push hard at the start, then you have to really crank on the thing from about halfway to fully open. Given that the action on the other microbiners on the market (Metolius Mini), it's obvious CAMP did a terrible job designing and implementing the gate spring on the nano.

On the positive side; they are pretty great for racking. Small, very light, and they come in a "rackpack" full of colors to color coordinate your cams. Since I don't have to fully open the gate to get the biners on and off my harness, I don't mind the shitty action. They're slightly cheaper than their Metolius brothers too.

I prefer the other sub 23g biners out there to the nano. The gate action is just so horrendous that it kills them for me. Good freaking luck trying to clip a rope into these while you're pumping out. Let's not even talk about using these on ice climbs with gloves on.

If my partner would pull out a rack of these on draws, I wouldn't let him take any. If he insisted, I'd beat him with them.

Use them for racking; or beating some sense into climbers who use these to clip into ropes.