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Broken cam pic

This pic is of a broken yellow WC flexi friend. The cam was placed in a vertical bottoming out shallow crack. The cam was placed at 90 degrees to the rope running vertical. It had no opportunity to be able to rotate and it seems that when the load came on the cam during an 8 metre upside down whipper the stem was simply torqued out of the main body housing the axle of the cam.
Broken cam.jpg
Broken cam.jpg

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John Davis 06-Jan-2003 23:50
this is the 2nd old model WC #1 flexifriend I've seen broken in such a way - a friend managed to take a whipper (~10m) onto a pretty much identical placement (shallow bottoming crack that stopped the cam being able to rotate) here at Castle Rock about 4 years ago, breaking it in pretty much the same spot (head unit/cable junction just at the point where the cable swage ends).

Again it was a case of 'well given the placement something had to give' - later model WC flexis _do_ have a beefier head unit at that point, but even then I think it'd simply move the failure point elsewhere on the cam (probably break the axle).
Phil Box 22-Oct-2002 21:16
Mayhaps it could have held if it were oriented as you state. Of course they weren`t expecting a fall and they were certainly making upwards progress using the cam as pictured. I`ve got some of those new splitter 2 cam units which if used in this placement would make any discussion moot.
A5iswhereitsat 14-Oct-2002 06:18
Do you reckon the cam would have held if it was aligned vertically with only 2 cams inserted into the shallow crack? Since the cam 'failed' as placed, it may have held the same load when half inserted?
Obviously this would not be optimum, but is often done in aid climbing where supporting bodyweight for upward progress till better pro is available is the go ...
Phil Box 08-Jul-2001 23:22
It was mentioned on rec.climbing that if the orientation was horizontal there would be a certain amount of rotation available to the cam and indeed the shaft would more than likely go over an edge thus further attenuating the possibility of a similar occurance.
We had just that event occur on a climb at Heifer Creek near Toowoomba when Grant climbing an overhung sandstone crack placed a reasonably large cam in a horizontal crack just before topping out, when he cranked on a boulder at the top and it started moving he pushed away from it thus causing him to take flight. He whipped down to be arrested mid flight by this cam whereby the cams stem creased over the edge. It pulled him up in a hurry and the cam did it`s job but it now has a permanent mark in the stem.

...Phil...
Guest 02-Jul-2001 23:41
Do you think this would not have happenned if the cam was place in the direction of fall rather that perpendicular to rope? But, what if the crack was horizontal, you could get the same kind of shear force on the stem in that case (depending on geometry of crack and placement) - the cam should be able to handle that right?
Karen
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