Bent Metolious Mastercam

Fell on a mastercam, bent the cable pretty good right where it meets the head. Planning on just bending it back and climbing on it, will this weaken the cable too much?

it will be fine. I have done that many times to all of my cams. next time try to place the cam so it is not perpendicular to the fall and this wont happen as much. aid climbing is another story. as long as the head itself isnt bent youll be fine.

I am no metallurgist but from your second picture it looks like the cable got pinched pretty good right were it meets the lobes. It's hard to tell but this could possibly weaken the cable. Most times when a cam stem bends you can just straighten it out by hand without much issue. It may never retract as smoothly anymore but they are usually still safe. I have bent back my orange mastercam before and it works like brand new still. My guess without actually inspecting your cam is that it is probably fine but you need to make that determination yourself. Otherwise you will never trust that piece. Personally I am not enough of a dirtbag that once I am suspect of a piece whether that be a sling or piece of gear I pitch it.

bend it back and make sure none of the wires in the cable have broken. Or take a fall on it in the other direction.

paul b...i like that you said "weaken it too much" understanding that the piece will be weaker...but by how much? Impossible to say. If you bend it back and none of the wires pop then I would totally trust the piece. Because of the hundreds of small wires in there you do get a degree of redundancy.

Even if the outside wires were popped I still think the piece would be strong enough to hold a reasonable fall...although you should retire the piece at that point.

Think of the diameter of that cam wire VS some small nuts that still have reasonable KN ratings. That cam wire is THICK.

If it were my cam, I would bend it back and continue using it.