Omega Pacific Link Cams

[Klimber]

Has anyone tried them? I love the range, probably will bump my #1 Camalot as my favorite gear to place.

[fenderfour]

They are neat. They need more maintenance (cleaning) than other cams. There are none of the speculated shortcomings of the design (increased walking, the flaccid lobes sticking, etc..)

[catbirdseat]

Friends who have them seem to like them. I borrowed red and yellow cams to lead Tangled Up in Blue at Vantage, and they seemed fine. The placements were as stable as Camalots.

 

The high price is holding me back from actually buying them. I've been buying Camalot C4s lately.

 

Here's a thread on rockclimbing.com about the cleaning issue. Apparently, some of the first cams released had lube that was too light. They've since switched to a heavier lube that does the job.

 

http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1358188#1358188

 

Some more info- scroll to third page:

 

http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewt...w=&start=30

[selkirk]

I've got a yellow one (#2) and love it. Every now and then I find placements for it where literally nothing else would go, and of course the range if cool. That said I don't think it's worth having a full rack of them. They're a great way to make sure you've got a second cam in any given range instead of having to carry a full set of doubles (or triples) when you might only need the 2nd or 3rd piece once or twice. So I would say once you have your basic set of cams (or double set) 1 or 2 might be a good addition.

 

Downside is that they're kind of heavy, and expensive.

 

On the widest placements I can see how they might walk just a bit, but further retracted it is the more stable it becomes.

 

(Mine's on a season and a half and I haven't had to clean it yet. So it's on par with my other cams for tending to gum up.)

[goatboy]

Considering their impressive range, I would say that they're really surprisingly LIGHT....

 

I am buying a few more #2's.

 

The #2 is MUCH more useful and recommended than the #1, however. The #1 may not be worth the price.

[catbirdseat]

Can you explain exactly why the #2 is so much more useful than the #1?

[fenderfour]

Because the #1 doesn't get much smaller than the #2.

[catbirdseat]

I think the main reason is the #2 covers the entire range of both Camalots #0.75 and #1 and even starts to get into #2 territory. That's the meat and potatoes size of any rack.

[fenderfour]

Why did you ask the question if you planned on answering it yourself?

[catbirdseat]

I had to study the relative sizes before I could see the answer. Now that I have, I think I'd like to buy one.

[fenderfour]

One is good, two is better, three is too many

[OlympicMtnBoy]

I borrowed mountainmatts #2 link cam when we were up on Green Dragon. I found it surprisingly useful as a large offset on some of the big flaring cracks near the top. You can place em in a flare and have decent contact on both sides. It looks a little funky but held my bouncing well. It worked fine for normal placements too but I didn't see myself carrying one that often. It probably has a place, seemed solid anyways.

[goatboy]

True, true -- the other reason the #2 is mo' betta is because the range of the #1 is very tightly limited --in other words, the difference between "usefully cammed" and completely overcammed seems very tight to me. Whereas the #2 has a huge range of useful placements.

 

The one thing I fear about Link Cams is that once placed in an overcammed position, they would be VERY difficult to extract, more so than a regular cam...which can already be a bitch. Reckon that's the price you pay for so many camming surfaces....

[fenderfour]

They might be easier to remove - you can get hold of the floppy cam lobes and work directly on the stuck section.

 

I will try to get mine stuck and report back.

[counterfeitfake]

I never placed one while climbing, but when I placed it on the ground I thought it was gonna get stuck.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Colt45 and I confirmed on eldorado that they are in fact a bitch to clean if overcammed. The key is just practicing with them and not placing them in overcammed situations unless the situation exceptionally dire. Personally I like red and yellow.

 

FYI -

 

#1 Omega -> 0.82-1.7

 

#2 Omega -> 0.98-2

 

.5 C4 -> .85-1.1

.75 C4 -> 1-1.3

1 C4 -> 1.3-1.7

2 C4 -> 1.6-2.1

 

So both link cams span 3 C4s. The nice thing about the #1 link cam is it spans some hard sizes from off fingers to thin/tight hands. The #2 uses much of its range in the bomber jams sizes.

[counterfeitfake]

So what is the real selling point of the link cams anyway? They cost twice as much as a C4 and have 50% more range. When are you going to put these on your rack instead of some traditional cams? Do you want to do this on an alpine climb? Or would you plan to use one to supplement a full set of other cams?

 

They just seem like a novelty, fiddly and expensive to me. And the plastic wigs me out.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

For my current standard rack, they work really well. In the mid range sizes, I use C4s .75-2, a red TCU, and the two link cams. It is nice because while they serve as doubles for the 1 and 2 C4s, they also nicely fill the size from red TCU to .75 camalot. This effectively gives me 4 pieces in the ~.75 camalot range if the need arises. My typical strategy is to place the camalots first and save the link cams for higher up the pitch or for the anchor. I think they also make sense on easy alpine climbs with a very short section of crux climbing.

[goatboy]

I like them as a supplement to a light alpine rack -- youi can carry a few cams with vast range for an easy route....

 

I also like them for routes that might require doubles of a certain size.

 

If gear conservation is a concern, then I try to place nuts first (least flexible), then Camalots (some range) and save the link cams for the end or the anchor (most range for remaining pieces).

[bstach]

Save your money. Buy more hexes.

[tradclimbguy]

I have found these to be very nice on alpine routes. You can bring two or three of these cams along and not worry about the size from 0.75 - 2. However, the weight is a downside for sure. There is something to be said for good ol' hexs.

[MarkMcJizzy]

 

 

 

 

 

[ken4ord]

Alright Mark, what the hell is the story?

[letsroll]

yes what is the story?

[fenderfour]

Looks like the unpeened pin recall. Pretty old news