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Tips for removing stuck cams

Original Post
DannyUncanny · · Vancouver · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 100

I've had a couple experiences with retrieving gear lately, and thought I'd share some tips for after it is definitely beyond the realm of easy removal:

Make sure your partner has some clue what they are doing. Most common mistake I've seen is a follower with no experience. It doesn't come out easily so they just randomly wiggle it in whatever direction it can wiggle until it doesn't wiggle any more, then they yell that it's really stuck good.

Check if each lobe can move. Look if they move when you pull the trigger. If it doesn't stick your nut key in there and push it. If a lobe is actually completely stuck, then that is your main problem. Focus on making that lobe move.

If each lobe can move, even a little bit, then just slowly work the cam back out the way it went in. Pull the triggers, prod it along with the nut key. Resist the urge to take the easiest path, take the path to freedom. You can keep some pressure on the trigger putting a hair elastic around it and tightening that against the stem loop. Some pods are like puzzles, the cam can only come out at exactly the right angle at exactly one direction.

If one or more lobes is not moving at all, try spitting water on it. Depending on the rock, it can help. Try torquing the head around a little bit. It can grind off a bit of rock or aluminum. If that doesn't work, consider a well targeted kick to the back of a nut tool, placed right at the point of contact.

Carry a folded up wire coat hanger. It's super useful. Extended fully you can grab things fallen deep into the back of chimneys. Folded in half you can get a hook on each side of a trigger for a cam deep in a crack. V-threader, radio antenna, back scratcher too.

Jason Maurer · · Colorado · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 790
Stuck Cam??

This it what my Russian friend swears by!!
Brian · · North Kingstown, RI · Joined Sep 2001 · Points: 804

In sandstone (think Red Rock) take a mouthful of water from your hydration tube and spit it on the rock around the cam. Works every time.

Cor · · Sandbagging since 1989 · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 1,445

Call me

Jason Maurer · · Colorado · Joined Jun 2009 · Points: 790
Cor wrote:Call me
When all else fails and WD-40 won't do it....
csproul · · Pittsboro...sort of, NC · Joined Dec 2009 · Points: 330

Several years ago I was climbing after an ice storm in NC. We were climbing at Sauratown and I had brought a couple of brand new C4's. My partner proceeds to get a new #1 C4 stuck on its first outing. He tries to get it out, I try to get it out, he tries again...nothing doing. He lowers down, packs a bunch of ice in a water bottle and goes back up. He puts ice all around the lobes, waits a couple minutes, and it comes right out.

I've also been able to get gear (had been stuck for a little while) out on a cold morning.

Dobson · · Butte, MT · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 215
csproul wrote:Several years ago I was climbing after an ice storm in NC. We were climbing at Sauratown and I had brought a couple of brand new C4's. My partner proceeds to get a new #1 C4 stuck on its first outing. He tries to get it out, I try to get it out, he tries again...nothing doing. He lowers down, packs a bunch of ice in a water bottle and goes back up. He puts ice all around the lobes, waits a couple minutes, and it comes right out. I've also been able to get gear (had been stuck for a little while) out on a cold morning.
Canned air works great for that. Turn the can upside down and is super cold.
slim · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2004 · Points: 1,103
J1. wrote: When all else fails and WD-40 won't do it....
and if that doesn't work, just post on MP that you lost half your rack on bastille crack/cat in the hat/high e/etc.... and that you want it back.....
teece303 · · Highlands Ranch, CO · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 596

Patience. Two hands. Yer noggin.

Kenan · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2010 · Points: 1,237

The key for me is to have 2 devices that can extend my reach to the triggers and/or lobes (i.e. 2 nut tools or a nut tool and a wire coat hanger as mentioned above). Every time a cam has been difficult to retrieve for me, it's been because it walked into a position where I could barely get my fingers to the trigger or lobes.

Mark Hudon · · Lives on the road · Joined Jul 2009 · Points: 420

I've found that those nut tools with a little hook on the end are good for grabbing a lobe and closing it further.

Abel Jones · · Bishop, CA · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 576

a cam placed close by and weighted sometimes opens up the crack a bit especially in thin flakes and weird chunky features.

slim · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2004 · Points: 1,103

i once knew a guy who placed a cam above a fixed piece and weighted his cam. as he was beating on the fixed piece, his cam blew out and he fell on the fixed piece. whoa!

Devin Copeland · · H-Town · Joined Jul 2013 · Points: 0

Something that can work sometimes in parallel cracks is to clip the piee to the belay loop and stand up above it, thus rotating it out of the spot it was jammed in.

The Blueprint Part Dank · · FEMA Region VIII · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 460

Rather than a second nut tool or coat hanger, the wire loop of a stopper can grab a cam trigger quite nicely.

Glenn Schuler · · Monument, Co. · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 1,330

None of these tricks are needed if you have The Booty Clapper.

Matt N · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 415
The Blueprint Part Dank wrote:Rather than a second nut tool or coat hanger, the wire loop of a stopper can grab a cam trigger quite nicely.
Nice - I finally learned something from this thread. I'll have to remember that one.
Alex Rogers · · Sydney, Australia · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 40
The Blueprint Part Dank wrote:Rather than a second nut tool or coat hanger, the wire loop of a stopper can grab a cam trigger quite nicely.
Useful, thanks
Noah Haber · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 78
The Blueprint Part Dank wrote:Rather than a second nut tool or coat hanger, the wire loop of a stopper can grab a cam trigger quite nicely.
Also skinny slings work nicely for this. You can even get one sling around both sides of the trigger wire, freeing your other hand.

Also, avoid yanking on the trigger. Broken trigger wire is a good way to make a stuck cam a whole lot more annoying to retrieve.
Scott O · · Anchorage · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 70
csproul wrote:Several years ago I was climbing after an ice storm in NC. We were climbing at Sauratown and I had brought a couple of brand new C4's. My partner proceeds to get a new #1 C4 stuck on its first outing. He tries to get it out, I try to get it out, he tries again...nothing doing. He lowers down, packs a bunch of ice in a water bottle and goes back up. He puts ice all around the lobes, waits a couple minutes, and it comes right out. I've also been able to get gear (had been stuck for a little while) out on a cold morning.
I bootied a C4 off Tenaya peak last weekend by packing snow around it.
DuncanKL · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 0
Abel Jones wrote:a cam placed close by and weighted sometimes opens up the crack a bit especially in thin flakes and weird chunky features.
Does this worry anyone else? I guess you should probably do whatever you can to remove what sounds to me like a terrible placement, so the next gumby doesn't come along and take a whipper on the "fixed piece" and blow out a chunk of rock.
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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