How do you store cams in a backpack while hiking to the crag?

Over years of climbing I have found the #2.5 #3, #3.5 friends, #1 and #2 Camalots are the most prone to having the trigger wires broken by my packing habits.

Don Ferris wrote:It's also great for deadening the sound of hexes.

If the hex doesn't sound like a cow bell is it really a hex?

THis is actually a very good question. If you strive to get by with the simplest, lightest, most nimble pack (which anyone who climbs in the mountains or off the deck will appreciate), you need to pack your cams with much more thought than most folks who commented above.

I clip 3-5 cams of similar sizes (with biners on each individual cam) to a seperate free "racking" carabiner. Your rack should end up as several even, tidy bundles that you can grab by the stems and place horizontally in the bottom of your pack. Racking like this is especially important to protect the floppy stems on Aliens and X4's.

For 4" and bigger cams I clip a carabiner through the lobes at full compression so they take up less room in my pack. Usually I end up securing 5's and 6's on the outside of my pack with compression straps on my Cilogear 30L worksack.

Moreover, if i'm walking a long ways with cams on my harness, I'll rack the larger cams (#2BD and greater) on the back of my gear loops through their LOBES instead of sling so they don't get snagged and bounce all over the place.

Cheers,
B

Pavel Burov wrote: I use 3x3 method...