Although most U.S. climbers generally talk about 2-4 companies who sell cams, and racking their brain they can come up with 6, there’s actually an astonishing 18 companies who sell cams.

Fun Cam Facts

• Valley Giant makes the worlds largest cams. They only make two, a 9″ and a 12.” Not surprisingly, those cams are the heaviest on the market.
• Metolius makes the most cams, they have 45 different models (and more on the way).
• The lightest cam is Wild Country’s Zero Friend 1. It weighs a scant 25 grams!

Technical Note: The most proper name for a cam is Spring Loaded Camming Device (SLCD). Its shortened version, cam, is a broader term that can also include tricams. In this article I use cam to mean SLCD’s only.

Brands that sell Cams (SLCD’s) you can compare on WeighMyRack

• Black Diamond – Camalot, Camalot C3, Camalot X4
• Climb X – X-Tech
• DMM – 3CU, 4CU, Dragon Cam, Demon Cam
• Fixe – Alien Cam, Alien Hybrid Cam (yup, CCH’s remade)
• gear4rocks – 1axle Cam, Link Cam, 2axle Cam, 2axle Link Cam
• Metolius – Ultralight TCU, Ultralight Power Cam, Ultralight Offset TCU, Master Cam, Offset Master Cam, Ultralight Fat Cam, Supercam
• Omega Pacific – Link Cam
• Totem – Basic Cam, Totem Cam
• Trango – Splitter Cam, Flexcam
• Valley Giant -Valley Giant
• Wild Country – Zero Friends, Helium Friends
• Wired Bliss – TCU, Quad Cam

We’re currently working with Liberty Mountain, who distributes KONG’s Slim Fit cams, to get those on WeighMyRack. We’ll update this post when that happens.

There are brands that sell cams that are not yet on WeighMyRack because we’ve been unable to get all of the technical specs for the cams. If you have technical specs for the following brands, please let us know–it could help us get more cams online!

Note: All of the cams below are not distributed in the US, which makes it much more difficult to get translated specs.

• CAMP – Air Cam
• Climbing Technology – Anchor Friends
• Rock Empire – Comet, Flexor, Axel, Pulsar
• Salewa – Buddy Rock Clamp

A few cam notes:

• You may read about Splitter Gear selling cams. That company no longer exists, although Trango has picked up their patent and the guy that designed them started working for Trango awhile back. Trango now sells the cams as Splitter Cams and Flexcams.
• We’re not actually sure what the story is about Cassin’s Joss Cams, other than they’re no longer available.
• CAMP Jet Cams have also been discontinued by the manufacturer.
• The patent for CCH (Colorado Custom Hardware) Alien Cams (small flexible cams mostly used for big wall / aid climbing), was bought by Fixe-Faders. They acquired all the machinery and knowledge to produce the same cam, and do so today, keeping the same cam name.

This is just the beginning! In future posts we hope to talk about the history, use of, and difference between all the cams on the market.

If you have more cam information, or want to share your experiences with cams, please share in the comments area!

Tags:  Black Diamond Equipment Cam CAMP CCH Climb X Climbing Technology DMM Fixe gear4rocks Kong Metolius Omega Pacific Rock Climbing Rock Empire Salewa Totem Trango Valley Giant Wild Country Wired Bliss