Leeper vs. Pika

[Sol]

I've had the privledge of entering the beautiful world of cam hooking on a few recent trips to Index. I was borrowing a set of pika cam hooks from a friend, now i want my own. when searching for such devices online I came across the leeeper cam hooks which appear a little differently: rounded off sides rather than straight. can anyone recommend one brand over the others, or offer me some pros and cons of each? While were on the subject of specialized aid trickery, anyone use peckers or toucans? They look kinda interesting, kinda sketchy, any thoughts?

[willstrickland]

frosty_the_tradman said:

While were on the subject of specialized aid trickery, anyone use peckers or toucans? They look kinda interesting, kinda sketchy, any thoughts?

 

I've used Toucans and Auks (the beak sized version of the toucans, which is what I think your asking about)

 

They are sweet, particularly in sandstone. I've hand-placed the toucans a few times, but only in a seam in a dihedral and on a couple of angling cracks where the camming action of the bent stem really cams hard. They don't seem quite as durable as regular (BD) blades though. In general on normal placements they seemed to shift less than regular blades or beaks in soft rock, but then again, maybe I was just more experienced by the time I added those to the rack. A blade shifting after you've been on it for a while is a pants-loading experience, especially when it keeps happening.

 

I own the leeper cam hooks in the smallest through the next to largest size. The medium ones seem to see the most use, and I have pairs of that size. I do find all the sizes to be useful though. I've never seen the Pika camhooks so can't comment.

[Lambone]

Check out the Pika cam hooks that are curved to fit Angle pin scars perfectly. They work great. You can see them on the Pika Web site, and I got mine at Marmot in Bellvue.

 

Peckers are for when the shit gets real thin! They work better than Rurps because they sort of act like a hook, and you can get the tip into tiny placements. People also use them for hooking on top of blown out copperheads.

 

Never used Tucans...