Just back from a Utah Desert trip including a couple of IAD Big(ish) Walls. One of my purple Lnk-Cams took a bit of collateral damage to its trigger wires (after a pretty heavy duty workout). Back in UK on Thursday, in the post on Friday and back on my harness the following Thursday (six days later) looking as good as new - all for barely a tenner plus P&P. Thanks Matt and team at Needle Sports for the amazing service!
Also kudos to the under-rated Link-Cam. These have been my go-to mid-range cam since they first came out but never really went mainstream (and the company folded recently). They have an incredible range (which of course comes with a couple of cons in terms of weight and complexity) - people either love them or hate them.
My own appreciation reached new heights after a clean aid ascent of the iconic Moonlight Buttress; a thousand feet of climbing of which 75% follows a continuous tips-to-fingers crack system. I took some beta from Mountain Project and clipped a purple link-cam into each adjustable aider (yes, I've got two sets) and simply leapfrogged my way up like some "Edward-Cam-Hands / Inspector-Gadget" cartoon figure (pausing every 20 to 30 ft to leave a piece of pro - usually a WC superlight / offset). We took a fairly light rack but still barely used half of it, so any complaints about the weight of the link-cams is pretty irrelevant, and the speed (sub-12 hours with potential rain forecasted) could have been a real game-changer.
Trip report for MB here https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2022/09/10/moonlight-buttress/ and the less famous, slightly trickier and equally stunning Prodigal Sun here: https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/2022/09/13/prodigal-sun/
Cheers, Dom
