SummitPost.org

Fell on a #1 mastercam seemingly well-placed in a horizontal crack on sunday and it pulled. Broke my arm. Wondering if it had anything to do with this issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYuzVMWljo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeNr8CbiTzE

chase

Was there any physical damage to the cam itself?
You should send the cam to Metolious to get their take, I am sure they will want to get on top of this.
Hope you recover quickly!

T Sharp wrote:Was there any physical damage to the cam itself?
You should send the cam to Metolious to get their take, I am sure they will want to get on top of this.
Hope you recover quickly!

I have done this....Metolious is not too excited about getting to the bottom of this issue in my opinion. I no longer climb on Metolious cams.

catullus wrote:Fell on a #1 mastercam seemingly well-placed in a horizontal crack on sunday and it pulled. Broke my arm. Wondering if it had anything to do with this issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYuzVMWljo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeNr8CbiTzE

chase

Bottom line, I would not get caught up with youtube garbage. Just another tool for forum squatters. Leave that stuff to the "internet climbers"....I had a bad personal experience with master cam failure, sounds like you did too...prob enough to look at other brands. BD and Omega is what I am currently using for my rack. Climbing can be dangerous and you are alive, thats what counts. I gave Metolious a chance to figure it out, their response was not satisfactory. You might want to give them that same chance. Good luck with that arm. Cheers.

Dow Williams wrote:BD and Omega is what I am currently using for my rack.

How are you liking the link cams Dow ? I've seen several accounts of them breaking in certain kinds of placements, so I'm only using them as anchor pieces, or when I feel reasonably sure about the direction of pull.

Sorry to hear about the broken arm catallus -- hope you heal up soon. I'm curious to know what climb you were on and where this happened ..

rhyang wrote:How are you liking the link cams Dow ?

Unless you are climbing long, hard and sophisticated trad routes, I don't see the need for owning them. They are expensive, weigh more and require more precision in placing. I use them all the time.

Would like to make a detailed response, but typing slow with one hand =)

rhyang wrote:Sorry to hear about the broken arm catallus -- hope you heal up soon. I'm curious to know what climb you were on and where this happened ..

Was trying to climb Mounty on Capitalist Crag in Clear Creek Canyon, but I think I was off route.

Dow Williams wrote:I have done this....Metolious is not too excited about getting to the bottom of this issue in my opinion. I no longer climb on Metolious cams.

Is that just MasterCams, Dow or all Metolious cams?

Then to the OP, you never did answer if there was damage to the cam! Was it a cam failure or was it a placement failure?

Hey Chase, hope the arm heals quick! I do think it's important to know if there is any damage to the cam though. Let's remember, pulling a piece and "cam failure" are not the same thing. Still, these are tremendously useful discussions, so thanks for bringing it up!

No significant damage to cam. Heads pretty scraped up, but guess that could be expected. Was ~85% retracted in nearly perfectly parallel horizontal crack with good contact on all heads. Guess "failure" in title is a bit misleading, but it's not a tiny cam (#1 mastercam), and I'd expect it to hold given percent retraction, contact, and parallel-ness. Makes me think the bending could have pulled on the trigger wires (you can simulate this by hand).

Chase, heal quickly.

IMHO all cams are suspect. Those little bastards pop out sometimes.
Did you deck? Or just go longer than you expected?

Guyzo wrote:Chase, heal quickly.

IMHO all cams are suspect. Those little bastards pop out sometimes.
Did you deck? Or just go longer than you expected?

Decked. Had two other pieces in but I guess they were too low. Lucky to only break an ulna and metacarpal.

Guyzo wrote:IMHO all cams are suspect. Those little bastards pop out sometimes.

Yah... that's fair. Too bad... had a bomber nut in below it, but guess it was too low...