First in Flares

These cams were introduced last year, but we hadn’t used them extensively at the time of our last Gear Guide and wanted to report on our findings. Plus, since the middle of last year, Colorado Custom Hardware’s Alien Hybrids have been very difficult to obtain, making the Metolius Offset the only one you can find outside of Ebay. By pairing two different sizes of Master Cam lobes in a four-cam head—and keeping that head narrower than the vast majority of other four-cam units—Metolius has created a tool that fits superbly in pin scars, pods, and flaring cracks. This makes offsets a must for aid climbers who want to go hammerless. The six Offset Master Cams span a range from about 0.3 inch to 1.3 inches—i.e., pin-scar territory. But don’t think of these solely as tools to dig out of the gear closet for big walls. We found them perfectly adaptable to free climbing and suitable to a wide range of rock types, though we especially liked them on the rounded cracks and shallow seams of Boulder Canyon granite. For anything but perfectly parallel cracks (e.g., Indian Creek), we reached for them just as we would any other cam—by turning the cam to one side or the other, we could always optimize its placement. And when a crack flared radically, we were far happier with the result than we would have been with a traditional unit. As with Metolius’ regular line of Master Cams, the cam lobes are connected to the trigger with Kevlar cord instead of wires; these prevent kinking to maintain smooth lobe movement, and we detected no damage after fairly extensive use. One small Offset Master Cam bent sharply under the head after two falls in the same placement, requiring a vise and pliers to restore it to proper shape. But otherwise, testers felt these cams were burly tools that could be indispensable on some climbs, and will be useful on many.