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timpanogos
Mar 22, 2004, 3:23 AM
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My wife bought me a set of Splitter cams for Christmas - From what I had read in threads here - I was not to thrilled - but did not want to say anything to her - I keep them.
Well today I took them out to a beat out splitter crack - put away your SO babies and try these babies!
I keep backcleaning the two smallest ones - and used the first 3 sizes where aliens did not have a chance. They were bomber pieces.
I submitted a picture of a placement with the 2nd size - I'll link it when it's approved.
check it out!
Chad
Edit, added picture here
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=28175
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lambone
Mar 22, 2004, 3:54 AM
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realy? I thought they kinda sucked...oh well...
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timpanogos
Mar 22, 2004, 4:08 AM
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Well let me know what you think after you see the picture.
The crack was one after another scars like this and it ate these cams up.
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dirtineye
Mar 22, 2004, 6:57 PM
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Love my splitters. YOu may not need em all the time, but they do go where nothign else will. Narrow shallow placements often can be protected with splitter two cams.
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bflank
Mar 22, 2004, 6:58 PM
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The 2cams have been bad-mouthed by far more experienced trad climbers than myself, but I use mine regularly and have had great results. They behave a bit differently than a TCU or an FCU, but in a lot of places I've found them to be bomber gear. Also they carry well on the gear loops.
As an engineer, the concept of force on directly opposing cams rather than offset cams makes intuitive sense. I've taken some falls on my yellow 2Cam (although not s full on whipper) and it has held solidly.
Anyway my $.02, but I've only been tradding for a few years now, so I'm still learning.
B. Flank
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bandycoot
Mar 22, 2004, 7:02 PM
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That does look pretty bomber! Cool use for a unique piece of gear.
Josh
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rrrADAM
Mar 22, 2004, 7:10 PM
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Review from various members of the site:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/articles/view.php?ID=101
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epic_ed
Mar 23, 2004, 4:11 AM
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You mean to tell me that you couldn't slam a Hybrid Alien into that spot? :shock:
I'm a self-confessed hater of the Splitter Gear 2-Cams. I has a full set for six months and used them aiding and trad climbing. Only once did I find a spot where I felt the placement was bomber -- and then it proceeded to rip when I moved up on it.
I think a cam hook would have also worked very nicely in that spot. Any chance you tried one there? Or was realty a little different than it looks in the pic?
Ed
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timpanogos
Mar 23, 2004, 4:42 AM
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Ed,
Nope on the hybrids.
Aliens would contact all lobes if the stem was on a 90 to the wall - but it would never hold.
You could go for a 2 lobe placement with an alien :shock:
If you still have yours - I'll buy your 3 smallest ones!
Chad
edit - add note on cam hook
I was told by a local to forget the cam hooks - so I did not have them on me. I'll take them next week and check this out - I have yet to do any cam hooking - I thought about this as I climbed - the scars seemed to wide, and the inbetween was too narrow. I don't know - I'll try next week.
on this note - you cam hookers - I assume that a cam hook wants to fit fairly tightly in the crack - i.e. you would be considering a KB or smallest LA's in place of the cam hook - sides evenly parallel not pin scar shaped?
Only time I've jumped on a cam hook was that wide/thin pika - it was in a tight parallel crack - This was my very first aid fall - it popped.
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epic_ed
Mar 23, 2004, 4:51 AM
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Nah -- sold 'em on eBay for a sandwich and a bag of chips.
:mrgreen:
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lambone
Mar 23, 2004, 5:36 AM
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http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=28175
Nope on the hybrids.
Are you kidding me? Hybrid aliens were made for that shiznit...Yellow/Green I believe, or maybe Yellow/Red, hard to tell...all lobes bomber...this is C1 by the way.
"on this note - you cam hookers - I assume that a cam hook wants to fit fairly tightly in the crack - i.e. you would be considering a KB or smallest LA's in place of the cam hook - sides evenly parallel not pin scar shaped?"
Nope, that pin scar is perfect for the big cam hooks. Not tryin to diss you here Chad, but you gotta start tryin this cam hooking stuff, once you dial it in it's a huge benefit.
The splitters may be nice trinkets, but I'll take two sets of Hybrids over them anyday. Maybe since Hybrids are not available they might be an ok substitute. I'm glad you like them, everyone has their own favs. I still hate Tri-cams, but some would never climb without the pink one...
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bigwallfun
Mar 23, 2004, 5:49 AM
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do you ever use stopper? :lol:
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timpanogos
Mar 23, 2004, 2:17 PM
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No joke guys - I have two sets of hybrid aliens on my rack, plus one set of regular aliens. Yes, like everyone else, I grab for the hybrid first time, every time. And once again - these scars WOULD NOT take an alien.
Look here:
http://www.splittergear.com/2cam.html
Notice their two diagrams with the traditional lobe placement verses the splitter. Now double the width of the upper traditional lobe diagram – as it’s only showing two of the 4 lobes. As I stated somewhere - I could have jumped on two lobes of the alien (I've done that before)
The bottom diagram is almost identical to the my placement pictured – other than the diagram is actually deeper than my placement – my two cam lobe is flush with the outer wall on the right side!
As for using a stopper – actually this crack liked offsets – I think I dropped one stopper shaped nut in the whole thing – it was one of the larger ones (#2) up higher where the crack opened up!
The bottom of this pin scar would have been looking at a #3 to #4 brassy offset – this would not even take a waist weighted daisy check from the rounded nature of the bottom.
Geeze guys, this is a super close up picture – notice the stem on the 2cam – notice the trigger laying flat on the rock, notice the gauge of the wire – the bottom of that scar is smooth and round as a babies butt.
Lambone – if that’s a C1 placement – I’d hate to see your C3!
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sparky
Mar 23, 2004, 2:37 PM
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I got the little purple guy, WOW! It has saved my ass on lots of stuff,it'll fit in almost anything. I also have a red one (similar size to #2 friend) and it's true that it won't walk at all, it may shift with the rope but it'll shift right back to the same spot if you weight it. I'm going to finish off the set when funding become available!
Imagine this--a Splitter Cam with the range of the aid only Zeros, that'd be crazy.
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bigwalling
Mar 23, 2004, 3:12 PM
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In reply to: Lambone – if that’s a C1 placement – I’d hate to see your C3!
That looks pretty bomber to me. C3 is ussally a string of bodywieght placements where you could fall kinda far and get hurt. Besides rateings are for the danger not really the placement.
Cam hooks work in tons of stuff. I use them because they are fast. They work is medium size stopper placements, not just where pins go.
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timpanogos
Mar 23, 2004, 3:29 PM
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yes, you guys are right - this was one of the most "bomber" placements on the lower 2/3rds of the crack - so yea, I guess that it was my C1 relative piece - relative to dropping a 16kn 2" cam in a drop it and run placement.
I think you are right, how do you rate a singular placement? Maybe two sets - before/after placing:
before:
hard
tricky
not bad
easy
after placed
useless
scary
marginal
good
bomber
A nut in that placement in this picture - easy/useless
piton - tricky (tied off so's maybe stacked)/marginal
head - not bad/good
alien - easy/scary
2cam - easy/bomber
cam hook - easy/ I don't have any experience here
cool part - I have this pitch fixed - I'll try TR - cam hooking the whole thing next weekend - oh boy, more pictures!
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lambone
Mar 23, 2004, 5:18 PM
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In reply to: cool part - I have this pitch fixed - I'll try TR - cam hooking the whole thing next weekend - oh boy, more pictures!
Yeah, thats fun stuff...don't bring any other pieces!
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tedc
Mar 24, 2004, 9:44 PM
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In reply to: A nut in that placement in this picture - easy/useless piton - tricky (tied off so's maybe stacked)/marginal head - not bad/good alien - easy/scary 2cam - easy/bomber cam hook - easy/ I don't have any experience here
Z3orZ4 Friend - Straight in - easy/ (good to bomber)
This is the one place where they shine over Aliens.
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timpanogos
Mar 24, 2004, 10:21 PM
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Hey, I've got zeros - sloted them like you said - dandy - but decided the 90 degree bend was not such a good idea? humm go for it next time eh?
Do they recover their shape, and springs work ok after you get off them?
Chad
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tedc
Mar 24, 2004, 10:55 PM
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In reply to: Do they recover their shape, and springs work ok after you get off them? Chad
http://www.frontier.net/.../Zero_vert_crack.jpg
That is the whole reason for the stem/head design; and the whole reason I own a set. I wouldn't bounce it, but yea they come back pretty well. Plus it's an aid piece. If you are not willing to trash it don't use it. I've never fallen on one like this but WC swears that they hold and I don't think you could ask for better rock to try it on.
P.S. Don't take a grounder just to test a placement. I'd TR the thing.http://
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timpanogos
Mar 30, 2004, 3:22 PM
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Ok, a few more notes on these splitter two cams.
Here are some pictures of the cam that gave way on me. This is the smallest splitter two cam.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=28908
Notice in the above picture a few things –
1. looks like point of contact (twisting smear) was upper right – not much contact there.
2. I had placed the spring in! Thinking back on this, I did this will all my placements on this cam. This may be a big mistake, I will always try and place these spring out first from now on in shallow pin scars – the spring is just wasting potential contact space in the back of the scar.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=28909
Once again, most of the contact was on the outer lower edge – which is now smeared off. Might not have taken the fall if I would have turned is cam around.
I knew it was a marginal placement – but it waist bounced hard.
One other experience/warning with this cam – When I was doing the traversal to the Serpent flake – it was a downward flaring flake in expando – actually a tricky traversal for placements. Anyway, there was a good pocket that slotted a medium sized 2cam very well. As it was weighted and expanded a bit, the 2 cam rolled – so, these do seem to have a tendency to roll - it was a traversal move - pulling an angle on the piece.
Might not have been a good example here however, because of the expando – to give you an idea – I got one of my zeros stuck way up out of trigger reach – shoved it way up fighting to get it out – I took my largest leeper cam hook, stuck it upside down on the flake, stood on it and my cam fell out! :shock:
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lambone
Mar 30, 2004, 4:11 PM
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Thanks for the analysis...
Just curious, do you take a full photo documentary after every fall you take? If so I think you should post them all on this web site, along with detailed descriptions of how each cam was placed. I think it'd be educational.
So, last week you loved that cam, but now your not so sure eh? The "twistng smear" just isn't doing it for ya?
FYI, "waist bouncing isn't a real bounce test. Its ok for an intitial test, if your peiece is really high, but you should allways do a real bounce test also. Just a tip...
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timpanogos
Mar 30, 2004, 5:04 PM
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It's my understanding that you should not bounch the heck out of cam placements? not like a nut.
Do you aggressively bounch your small cam placements?
Chad
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lambone
Mar 30, 2004, 5:06 PM
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YER GUNNA DIE :twisted:
Yeah, otherwise you end up taking factor two falls onto the anchor.... :roll:
Why wouldn't you? Afraid to make your cam ugly...? Better learn how to test placements properly before jumping on a route like WSR...IMHO. 8) Or be sure to bring a couple extra memory cards for your digi cam, cause yer gunna need them.
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