UKH

Martin McKenna was a fan of the previous version of the Camalot, so how does he rate the recent updates?

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In reply to UKC Gear:

i understand the theory behind you saying you needed to extend with a quickdraw more often. But in practise you were already a camelot user....

so are you extending more than previous camalots?

OR are you assuming cams with extenders don't need a quickdraw?

Is there a third option? do you climb with another rack? do you find that dragons extend enough to not use a quickdraw?

these are honest questions, but I will admit to reading the article as if you were assuming this part as opposed to climbing routes multiple times with differing racks and actually making a quantitative statement. Apologies if i'm being overly pedantic

In reply to yodadave:

Our family rock is a set of (old) C4s and Dragons (both roughly from purple to blue). Smaller cams are a mixture if aliens, C3s, and Master cams (older model).

I don’t recall extending the C4s more than fiddling around the Dragon slings. Simply cause almost all the time if I need to extend a normal QD is not enough and then even the a Dragon would require and extender.

granted as per the review the new C4 has even shorter sling. Now would this make a difference, I can’t comment.

In reply to yodadave:

Hi Dave,

No, the sling is slightly shorter but basically if you need a quick draw for the name c4s youd need it for the old as well. The quick draw comment was in comparison to extendable sling cams like the dragons where extending the sling often means you dont require a quick draw. Personally I've never really liked the extendable slings as I find them very faffy, especially in winter when they can freeze.

In reply to UKC Gear:

I've been (mainly) using the C4 cams for about 15 years. I like the way they handle and I've never experienced them failing unless it was a really poor placement. However I'm a bit skeptical with the new stiffer stems. This may not just increase "walking" of cams, but it might also result in the gear popping out of shallow placements. A shorter loop is further increasing the forces from a dangling rope. A friend of mine had a very serious accident (using BD Ultralights) instead of the (older) normal C4s. Even though he was falling onto his gear many times before that and all! the cams held, on this occasion every single one of the Ultralights came out and resulted in him decking the floor. I was wondering whether the new cams have a stem that is equally rigid and might have the same implications.

In reply to UKC Gear:

The trigger keeper on the 5s & 6s is a superb addition when carrying multiple sets on long offwidths as it keeps things nice & compact & helps to avoid clutter.