code & rock

It’s weird isn’t it? You buy a few nice new shiny cams (or tech friends etc) and you can’t wait until you get out on some nice rock to use them and get rid of that never been used look! After a few trips your cams are looking a bit more used and hence you have entered the sweet spot. The sweet spot consists of when your cams are nearly new but don’t look it thus giving you the assurance of climbing with rock solid cams (providing you place them correctly) but not having that new noob look about them.

So you continue to climb with your cams and because you aren’t just a fair weather climber some of these trips are climbing in… absolute sh**t storms! You return from your most recent trip and notice that the action on a cam or two isn’t exactly what you’d call smooth and then you notice one where the units aren’t even snapping back after you pull them.

Now is the time to clean your cams!

This is the scenario I found myself in recently. At the beginning of 2012 I had a check over all my climbing gear and noticed that a few of my older DMM 4CUs weren’t operating as smoothly as I would like and one was even sticking. If a cam is sticking like this do not use it to climb with. I hope it’s obvious why.

I thought I’d put up a quick blog post detailing what I did to get all my cams running smoothly (mostly) once again.

The problem

Here’s a video of a stuck cam before I fixed it. It demonstrates one of the issues where cam lube can help. You certainly wouldn’t want this happening while your hanging from a few finger pumping out on real rock.

What you need

• A stuck or gunked up cam/tech friend
• A tooth brush
• Some cam lube. I’ve heard some people say one can use something like WD40 and I’ve heard some people say you shouldn’t. I think sense I’ve spent £40 – £50 per cam that I don’t mind another £5 for some definitely safe and made for the job cam lube, so I’d recommend using metolius cam lube or another climbing brand’s stuff.

First step – the swishing…

Before applying the lube to your cams you want to get as much gunk (defined here as dirt and anything else that could be clogging up the cam) as possible out. From searching around I found most people recommend getting a saucepan of water to just before boiling and then swishing your cams in it while there being worked. Once swished, take the cam out and work it over with toothbrush to dislodge any stubborn gunk, then once you’re happy swish it once more in the water. When swishing your cams do try hard to just submerge the head and none of the rest of the cam.

Once you’ve swished as much as you can swish place the cams on a towel or hang them up (I used a cloths horse) to dry completely. I left mine for an hour or so.

Second step – Lube…

Once you have nice dry cams again it’s time to add in the main ingredient. Take your problem cam and tube of cam lube and nudge a decent amount into and all around the moving parts of the cam head and axles while working the cam. It’s best to do this in a comfortably warm room as Metolious recommend it be above 5 degree Celsius. Once your happy with the amount of lube you’ve applied and the (hopefully) smoother action of the cam take a clean rag and wipe of the excess lube from the device. Once done you can leave the cam on the towel or hanging to allow the lube to dry and form a nice barrier to any further gunk.

Third step – Check and check again

When you’re happy the lube has dried give all the treated cams a really good working over al the while thinking to yourself ‘Would I be happy trusting a fall to this cam when the sh*t hits on rock’? If the answer is yes then well done job done. If you are even unsure or the answer is no then you will have to try another cleaning session and if the same result presents again then it is probably a good idea to retire that cam. I know they cost quite a lot and you may be tempted to hold on to it but in rock climbing you need faith in your gear or it’ll mess with your head so let it go.

Moving forward after your cleaning session it is important to store your cams correctly. Keep them nice and dry and not exposed to any chemicals etc. All the normal rules that apply for most climbing gear applies here as well.

Before I wrap up below is a video of the gunked up cam shown in the above video after it has been cleaned and lubed, but before I wiped off the excess. I’m happy enough with the action to take it back out onto rock with me.

Other guides

I hope you get all your cams in good working order. If you need more guides I found the following two sites very helpful.

http://www.highinfatuation.com/blog/how-to-clean-cams/ &
http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/how-to-cam_care.html

Happy climbing!

richard@richardjohnashe.com