Thoughts on omega pacific cams?

Idk I have two golds and the green never given me fits as far as placements go , the only thing I don't like about them is racking em , they tend to hang lower then I like , I fixed that with a small loop of 6 mill , now everything's peachy .

Btw I've seen every make of cam out there fail, bust a wire, tweek cables or break , even your vaunted C-4 black garbage cams, almost every case has been due to operator error .....................

so what's your point ?

I picked up all four just to round out my rack. Got one with my REI dividend, and the other three 30% off at Moosejaw. So the whole set of 4 for $240. Used them for the first time yesterday at Hawksbill. I am racking them on the back of my harness and using them for belays. I loved them, used all four sizes at one time or another. Yes, they are expensive and heavy. I also climb a lot of mixed routes, and I think they will be perfect for those where you only need a few pieces and maybe not sure what they will be. Would be great for a minimalist alpine rack too. Since mine didnt break yesterday, I cant speak to that. Careful placement is the key, and at belays stances are generally conducive to that. So far I like them.

I got a yellow OP link cam years ago, and have slowly filled out the remaining 3. I've fallen on the yellow (multiple times), the red and the green. Never had any problems with them. They weigh a little more, and as mentioned before, they aren't beginner pieces, but they've been a welcomed addition to my rack over the years.

I like my LinkCams a lot but, like all cams, they have their weak points.

What I like:
- Expansion range is phenomenal. I usually leave them on my rack 'til the last bit of a pitch and then plug them anywhere. Also great for belay anchors because they'll fit anywhere.

What I don't like:
- Not too psyched on the trigger arrangement. It looks hinky and fragile. I've tried really hard to break them with no success, but I have the 2nd generation cams. I think the reports of broken triggers mostly came from the first gen cams.
- I don't like the thumb pad stem. I didn't like it on the 2nd generation Camalots, I don't like it on the Dragons and didn't like it on the first gen Trango cams.

What I'm careful about:
- There is a known failure mode for these cams when they are placed in a bottomed out crack with an off angle pull. This doesn't allow the cams to rotate into the line of pull and puts a lot of lateral torque on the cam lobes which can break.
- I keep them clean. There are a lot of moving parts on a Link Cam and they need to be cleaned and lubricated on a regular basis.

While no cam should ever be placed in a bottomed out placement where it can't rotate to align with the force of the fall, the Link Cam lobes can break in this situation. Back when I had a cam test fixture I tested all the popular cams for this failure mode to see what was really going on. The crack was adjusted to fit the cam at 50% expansion, and one pair of lobes was blocked so that the pull came at 40º to the axis and the cam couldn't rotate. Sounds like death, eh? Well, it wasn't so bad. All the cams exceeded their rated strength. Beyond that, some snapped the cable off at the head swage, others bent at the head swage, ruining the cam and others simply kinked the cables, also ruining the cam. Surprisingly, the Link Cam was the strongest of the bunch before finally snapping the head swage junction.

So those were slow pull tests in a very controlled situation and nothing failed. But we have seen Link Cams fail in this situation so what was the cause? I'm not sure. The crack fixture i used was geometrically perfect with saw-cut parallel rock faces and calibrated to 50% expansion for each cam I only tested one cam of each model and only one size--red Camalot range. No rotation was allowed at all and, as far as practical, all four lobes were loaded equally. Perhaps the failed cams had an unweighted lobe. Maybe a bit of rotation happened before the can jammed up causing a shock load to the lobes. Who knows? The lesson is to place your cams carefully, inspect the placements and never trust your life to a single piece of gear. I see way too many climbers place cams without any consideration to load angle and direction of pull. While you can get away with this in Indian Creek where cams will always be able to rotate freely in the splitters, this isn't the case in most rock.

Be careful out there.

Climb safe,
Mal

^^^^^ Very helpful / informative post. Danke for providing some objective insight into the ever present OP debate.

The three biggest falls I've caught were on green and purple link cams. They all held perfectly, but you just need to know how to place them properly.

"They aren't beginner pieces"
"You just need to know how to place them properly"
"They're great, Ive never fallen on them"./

Wake up people. These are known pieces of shit that have failed many times, when used by people with decades of climbing experience. They aren't exploding because a bunch of n00bs ran out and placed them in obviously ridiculous situations.

In the real world, placements do no always allow for the perfect, ideal. When you face that situation, and you will if you actually get out and climb, do you want to risk you life, legs and ankles, with a known piece of shit that commonly fails under torsion that almost any other cam on the market would survive?

Not me. I've climbed with partners who had them. I refused to place them on lead, only sticking them on the back of the harness for potential use in the anchor and only then if a perfect placement was available.

Panic piece? You really want to fire one of these in, while in panic mode, not knowing or having time/energy to determine how well it's placed or not being able to see the placement, when you know it can fail if placed less than perfectly? Not me, G.

It's a genius engineering design that unfortunately is poorly executed for real use. Dangerous, junk. Buy some real cams.

Avoid them, unless they are free.

manky junkshow, too many moving parts

How many of the naysayers have whipped on them? ... Post em up !!!

We all know how THREE x4s behave when in poor placements

Stop using those as well?

;)

If you have a Go-Pro helmet cam and like it then you will love OP cams.

youtube.com/watch?v=BF0S8WS…

heres a few folks that climb with a go pro ... whether they use link cams is a different story

i bet they climb more than most people here though

;)

bearbreeder wrote:How many of the naysayers have whipped on them? ... Post em up !!! We all know how THREE x4s behave when in poor placements Stop using those as well? ;)

Obviously none of them. Anybody who has whipped on a link cam is no longer around to tell the tale.

Like all those people that die from dyneema.

Malcolm Daly wrote:I like my LinkCams a lot but, like all cams, they have their weak points...

While I stand behind my original evaluation of LinkCams, Mal presents a VERY objective analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. He also present examples of testing where LinkCams performed very well. Regardless of the cam, Mal also makes an awesome point: place your cams carefully and do your best to avoid trusting your life to a single piece of gear.

To me, LinkCams weaknesses are significant enough to outweigh their strengths. When I look at LinkCams I see a great piece of engineering with a lot of moving parts and abundant opportunities for failure. Placed perfectly, I am sure they work as advertised. However I believe that the complexity of the design and number of connections leaves little margin for error and results in a less durable product. YMMV.

Eric Engberg wrote:If you have a Go-Pro helmet cam and like it then you will love OP cams.

LOL, I agree

bearbreeder wrote: heres a few folks that climb with a go pro ... whether they use link cams is a different story i bet they climb more than most people here though ;)

Doesnt everyone in Squamish climb more than everyone else in the world?
;)

From Omega Pacific's Website. Emphasis on the section that reads "Be sure to anticipate direction of load"

Although Link Cams aren't necessarily more difficult to place than other cams, they do require careful consideration to avoid damaging them or compromising the placement. Link Cams should be placed carefully and deliberately, with a critical eye and the ability to assess a proper, solid placement. If climbers aren't experienced at assessing nuances of placements, instruction should be sought before using Link Cams.

Here are a few more pointers:
¡ Assess the overall placement for quality of the rock. Dense, solid stone makes for better placements, generally. Flaky, loose rock or expanding flakes should be avoided, whenever possible.
¡ Attempt to place cams so that there is maximum contact between the lobes and the feature, ensuring that the load is as equally distributed as possible between all four lobesets.
¡ Place cams so that they are neither "tipped out" nor "overcammed" as either instance can make the placement less stable or difficult to remove. As a general rule, deploy Link Cams so they are within 70% of their maximum range and 10% of their minimum, fully-retracted position.
¡ Clip a carabiner and a longer sling to the sewn sling on wandering routes or under roofs to prevent the cams from "walking."
¡ Be sure to anticipate direction of load, should you fall or weight the cam. This is particularly important with Link Cams, due to their unique construction. Since they are built using trisected cam lobes, Link Cams can become damaged%u2014and the placement may fail%u2014if a load is placed that makes the cam "shift" when a climber falls onto it. We are constantly researching ways to improve the strength and durability of Link Cams, but it is critical that Link Cams be placed with direction of load in mind. You should always place any removable protection with this principle in mind, of course, but Link Cams in particular should be placed so that the stem is aimed directly toward the ground and, when loaded, the position of the axle does not rotate during a fall or when bounce-testing. Although Link Cams' flexible stems can help "correct" a less-than-ideal placement, it is still important that the initial placement be made in proper alignment with anticipated load.
¡ Visually inspect every placement before relying on it! This is an excellent discipline regardless of which piece of gear you use, but with Link Cams, proper placement is crucial to maximizing safety and effectiveness. Placing a piece "blind" can often lead to an improperly-placed cam and may not be reliable. If a Link Cam is not able to be placed properly, in direction of anticipated load, select another piece.
¡ CE/UIAA certified and made in the USA

MJMobes wrote: Doesnt everyone in Squamish climb more than everyone else in the world? ;)

well maybe they just climb more than you ;)

ive been out 5 days the last week and will be out any 5+ days starting today

heres my partner following me up some easy multi last week ... and yes we placed link cams and didnt die to your great disappointment



dont hate or be a little personal attackah

just go out an climb rather than be a MP tough guy

ill say a prayer for you while im on the rock today

"dear lord please let MJMobes get out and actually climb so he wont be such a little whiny azzz pretending to be an expert on link cams when he owns none and has never whipped on one"

LOL

;)