You both sort of have a point. Metolius cams do rotate and get stuck easier in my opinion. My cams are aliens in the small sizes and BD larger, like most folks out west. That said, Metolius cams are bomber, and if I got them free I would sell my old stuff and happily climb on those silly U Stems.

Hey all,

Just breaking into the world of trad climbing and was wondering what size and brand of cam you would recommend having/ having multiples of.

Thanks.

You should buy what you like, as everyone else has said. But I think you specifically SHOULD NOT buy doubles of the same brand. I don't care how much you love Brand XX, there are subtle differences between cams such that a different brand may provide a better placement. Especially in the smaller end of things. I carry both Metolius units and Aliens in the inch-and-under range, and can't count the number of times when one brand will fit so-so, but the other brand will give a perfect placement. Green Alien is between blue and yellow Met, Yellow Alien is between yellow and orange Met, red Alien is... (You get the idea)

hmm, I'm going to disagree with you, but only because I've got aliens, which everyone knows are the best small cams. The situation you describe, where one brand fits better than another, is a minority situation. I would rather have the best cams for most situations.

Most of the difference you cite aren't that big anyway. blue metolius basically is green alien (with less range.) Ditto yellow alien and yellow metolius. I think that orange metolius might be a different size, maybe same as grey alien (which I don't use anyway because it's unnecessary.)

everyone prefers different stuff .... much of what is said on the RC about what cams one should or should not use is pretty irrelevant in the real world ... a much better source is the supertopo reviews, at least they do actual comparisons ...

Thanks for all the replies. I iinherited a number 5 and 4 bd c4 and went ahead and got the 3 2 1 bd c4s when i get paid again im thinkin c4 .3 .4 .5 and .75 thoughts?

Good advice, I have two sets of bd stoppers 4-13. I like to play around at the crag on the bottom just placing gear to get use to it. Any other things I can do to become more comfortable with placements etc..

But I think you specifically SHOULD NOT buy doubles of the same brand.

Definitely get the .5 and .75, below that I'm a little undecided. If the new production of Aliens works out I think I would lean that way but, the .3 and .4 C4s seem fine.

I don't really like the .3 and .4 C4s. I find them to be the widest of all the cams of that size and also that cam width suddenly becomes more of an issue in that range.

Doubling up on the same brand means that you only need to learn one set of cam sizes. Adding a brand with slightly different sizing can open up more placement opportunities but you also have to learn how to spot them. For easily protected routes it's not a big deal but as the routes get harder to protect small differences can become significant especially in the small gear sizes. This includes passive gear.

So for those sizes what would you recommend in there place?

i don't like them as well in granite- they definitely have wider heads than anything else in that size. But I love them in sandstone, because they have wider heads than anything else in that size.