Shallow Cams

[Note: Totem no longer make Basics, and are now being made by Fixe and Aliens (US).]

No, shallow cams are not cams that stare at themselves in the mirror, but cams placed in cracks that won’t accept the full width of the unit. The narrowness and shallow depth of the crack mean that 25% of the cam may not fit, sometimes even 50%. To an untrained eye this can make the cam look either unplaceable or dangerously weak.

With a little thought, it’s often possible to place a cam that is completely secure in a crack that only accepts 75% of its width, and in some cases a placement can be solid even when it looks like half the cam is hanging out.

The key thing to remember is that a cam has two orientations: a wide orientation and a narrow one. If a cam feels unstable one way, it may become solid when flipped over. This is most noticeable with units like a Tricam or a 3CU.

Think of a cam as a triangle. The outer cams form the base, and the two central cams form the point. Many shallow cracks, especially in corners, have a broad face on one side and a shallow face on the other. Place the cam so the outer cams are against the broad face, with the central cams touching the shallow side.

If the crack is very shallow, you may find that one of the central cams is not touching the rock at all. Don’t panic. While this isn’t ideal, three engaged cams can still give effective protection, with the unit effectively behaving like a TCU.

As you’d expect, the narrower the cam—such as Aliens or Totems—the greater the chance that all lobes will engage, or that the cam will still provide useful protection in very shallow placements.

The Totem has an additional advantage in that it can be clipped to just two lobes. While this is not as strong as using three or four, it can still be effective in situations where nothing else will go.