3 C4 lobe severely bent

This past weekend I was climbing in Joshua Tree and took a fall on a #3 C4. The fall occurred approximately 45 feet up Pope's Crack, a 5.9 right-leaning crack.

The cam was placed in a parallel section of the crack, oriented 45 degrees down from the horizontal for a downward force. The cam was set far back in the crack, with at least 2 inches from the surface of the wall. A quickdraw was placed through the sling on the cam to reduce rope drag. All 4 cam lobes were engaged, and the tips of the lobes were parallel and aligned; the cam was not offset. As I climbed approximately 3 feet above the piece (i.e.: my waist knot was 3 feet above the piece) my foot slipped and I fell. My belayer gave a dynamic catch and I stopped softly approximately 12 feet below the piece.

Climbing back past the piece I noticed one of the inner cam lobes was extremely bent inward. This was quite odd to me as the cam was not placed in a flare or anywhere with a piece of rock to catch part of the cam. I backed up the piece with a #2 and continued up the pitch. Upon reaching the ground after rappelling, I noticed that the trigger wires no longer had good action on that inner lobe and required more force and 'stuck' if given normal force on the trigger.

Attached are several images of the cam. I'm posting this to hear mp's thoughts on this-experiences, strength, safety,warranty, bd, etc.

• *UPDATE** March 18

I have been in correspondence with BD. They have been polite, honest, and upfront, as I expected. I am sending the cam in and they will get back with analysis.

Under no circumstance in my post did I say that I "expected" black diamond to compensate me for the cam, that I wasn't lucky that it held, or that the cams should be more durable.

I agree with the posters who talked about the lobes being tipped out as evidenced by the nicks on the lobe. More to come from BD most likely..

Also, REI policy is really making the thread messy. Can't control the community, but I would love (and I'm sure others would too) to see some more discussion on similar past experiences.

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Warranty? no. you fell. It held. You're alive. Your knot 3 feet above the piece? 8 foot fall? Not a dynamic catch! At least six feet is free fall. Plus slack. Plus stretch. Should be more than 8 for sure.

Edit
Plus the scars on the lobes tell part of the story. One pair of lobes was clearly much more retracted than the other pair when the can took the load.

Greg-talked to my belayer, he said I was at least 12 feet below the piece-corrected it in the post.

kipp.fo wrote:Greg-talked to my belayer, he said I was at least 12 feet below the piece-corrected it in the post.

Sounds more like it. See my edit above.

Some pics of the blue lobes may be helpful too.

Greg D wrote:Warranty? no. you fell. It held. You're alive.

exactly. BD doesn't owe you anything. piece did it's job and judging by where the bite mark is on the bent lobe I'm surprised it held. trigger has a funny action? well look at the lobe, it's completely f**ked. Hang it up somewhere, be thankful, buy a new piece, have a cool story to tell.

yep you fell, it caught. buy a new one. but it looks like it was place perpendicular to the crack and caught a crystal that bent the lobe as the cam rotated with the fall.

Has anyone actually ever seen this happen before on such a small fall? It seems like BD should make cams more durable than 1 fall pieces.

Garret that looks like a very unique case. I have whipped on that excact same piece several times and mine has never bent or broken. When things like that do happen you thank BD for making a cam that held up to freakish twist and you hang it up in your bathroom shower or wherever and go guy a new one to replace it.

Garrett Harmsen wrote:Has anyone actually ever seen this happen before on such a small fall? It seems like BD should make cams more durable than 1 fall pieces.

In a perfect world the piece would've been reusable (actually in a perfect world he wouldn't have fell but w/e) but the world is not perfect, the gear is never perfect, and the rock is never perfect. If a climber doesn't realize that they walked away with their life and can only grumble about coughing up another $65 and feel someone owes them something then maybe climbing isn't for them. compare it to skiing ($100 lift ticket a day) or auto racing (try buying a set of tires every race).

It looks like it wasn't as perfect of a placement as you thought it was. First sign is how far down the lobes and how severe the rock marks are. The cam or at least that lob was pretty tipped out, remember tight is right.

Second sign is how shiny and new the cam is :). Just kidding. It held you, it must not have been as well placed as you thought, go buy a new one.

Send it into BD! it's worth a shot, although technically they probably owe you nothing since it really did do its job. they have replaced wires and slings for my old cams free of charge... they are cool guys so dont just assume that your shit out of luck.

Cheaper than a trip to the hospital.

Highly unlikely that this sort of thing is "defective" and lead to that. Much (astronomically) more likely that the placement was odd in some way. Not a craftsmanship or design issue - just something that happened.
If BD wants to send you a new cam, I guess they will (good luck) but don't expect much.

It's worth sending back to them, not for your own good, but theirs. They may have something to benefit from testing the hardness of the lobe in question, but chances are they've already broken some in a similar fashion in previous tests and already know why it warped. Give em' a call.

buy yr gear from REI ... its that simple ;)

send it back to BD ... let them decide what to do ...

if you fall enough youll blow out cams and nuts eventually ... i blew apart 3 of em last year ...

bearbreeder wrote:buy yr gear from REI ... its that simple ;) send it back to BD ... let them decide what to do ... if you fall enough youll blow out cams and nuts eventually ... i blew apart 3 of em last year ...

And what exactly is REI going to do?

Although rare, its not completely unheard of. I have a friend who bent the lobes on a #4, not nearly as bent as your piece though. I think he still uses his.

johnthethird wrote: And what exactly is REI going to do?

theyll replace it no questions asks ...

waiting for the coming rant ;)

dont like their policy dont shop at REI =P

Bearbreeder wether that is a troll or not that is a pretty stupid outlook. I use Rei's policy to return things that don't work. You are talking about abusing it because it is there. That is pretty stupid.

J Hazard wrote:Bearbreeder wether that is a troll or not that is a pretty stupid outlook. I use Rei's policy to return things that don't work. You are talking about abusing it because it is there. That is pretty stupid.

no thats life ... REI knows people take things back regardless ...

if you dont like it tell REI to change their policy or dont shop there ...

but then chances are that youll just whine on the internet about it and not actually write em a letter about it ;)

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