Hey just wondering if anyone was worked with these aswome looking cams yet? They look really great and arnt to badly priced in the USA I wonder if we can get them here? Any one comes across them in the shops please let me know they so freaking light!

we are now the official distributors for Metolius in South Africa.
having said that we haven't brought any TCUs in yet.
yes their price is excellent but i have climbed with them and still prefer Aliens for small sizes and BD Camalots for larger sizes, so i decided to hold off on the TCUs. i am currently evaluating the new Metolius Mastercams to see if they are any good.
but if you want the TCU we can bring them in for you, SA retail price VAT inc. would be R600.
robert from cityrock.
go check them out at http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/tcu.html

i have a normal tcu, have 3 cam lobes only ie lighter but less stable. big plus is that they are narrower that 4 lobe cams and therefore easy to place in pods; holes etc. on a good placement you can take any size whipper you like it will hold.

I have a couple of both the TCU's (regular) and a couple of the normal power cams. I really like the Metolius cams in the small sizes, up to size 3 (orange). I prefer camalots for the bigger sized cams. The units have all performed really well and are easy to place stable and hard wearing. I got the power cams dirt cheap through a friend who was in the States so try and sort something like that out.

The new master cams look cool for small placements

_________________
Open hand, open mind...

Hey,

These are great in narrow placements and have been surprisingly useful where other pieces of gear just would not fit.

I prefer camalots for larger sizes and aliens for the really small sizes though (i rekon for these small placements it is probably a good idea to have more metal in contact with the rock) I would get these in sizes 0.5 to 1.25

In the last year I have taken some "proper" falls on various pieces. Nuts are always the best if you have the where-with-all to place them. I have had two failures of the smallest BD tricam with aliens then taking the fall. I have taken a whipper on a black alien, and a green alien and a red.

I have never liked Metolius tricams. They are too rigid and unstable. I watched the movie the "sharp end" and saw some dudes place a small metolius tricam on some R rated route in Eldorado Canyon. I thought, OK, if these guys are using them then they must be good. The placement seemed pretty good. The leader falls off and the cam pulls out and all that saves him from entering the pearly gates is an old blade peg,

So my prejudice against them remains. The newer mastercams seem great but I doubt that I would replace aliens with them. Never had an alien fail......They are not sophisticated cams but are extremely elegant in their simplicity and their reliability.

Have a set of the Metolius Power Cams which I've climbed on for some time and have been happy with them. However I picked up a new set of the Metolius Master Cams and they are GREAT; longer stems, fiber wires, slimmer profile. They are great. In fairness I haven't climbed with any other single stem cams (C4s, C3s, Flex Cams etc.). But if you had to choose between the Power Cams v Master Cams....definitely go with the Master Cams. As for the TCU's they are only marginally slimmer than the Master Cams and 4 lobe cams are more stable.

Anyway, hope that helps.

zb.