I started climbing just as wild country friends were coming onto the scene. Being young and mostly terrified, I was keen to adopt new fashions, despite some suggestions that they were not ethical by some of the narrower minded older guys. Now, I have never been someone to let the dinosaurs eat my future and the subsequent years I have owned over 100 separate devices across all of the major brands, save Totem. On Totems, it seems that every time I get up the courage to invest, the shops are sold out. However, it is fair to say, I am a cam guy.
In the early years the standard sizes made by Wild Country (friends) were 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 in rigid stems. There would be collective purchase schemes, whereby you would buy the ones your mates didn't have and as time-passed we maybe had doubles in a couple of sizes. These were game changers for most climbing scenarios, save for Ben Nevis in winter, where I carried friends up more than 200 times and can only recall over placing one, high in Tower Gully. Creag Meagaidh was not much better. However, certain rock types would eat them up and you had to go very sparingly in placing them, so as not to run out six feet off the ground.
As I amassed some cash, so did I amass more cams. The introduction of flexible friends by Wild Country in 1988 was a huge step forward for irregular and horizontal cracks, albeit we were into the 1990s before they became mainstream. Flexible, or wire-stemmed friends, also allowed for smaller devices to be made, which again made a very big difference.
One memorable friend experience for me was on the Ben Arthur, the Cobbler, where I had set my sights on doing Recess Route in winter. A summer back-rope sole reccy taught me that the key moves would be through a feature called The Fold, which I reckoned would be well-protected by a Wild Country Friend #4, which was big for the day. So, I went out and bought one. On reaching the wide crack below the crux, it was full of verglas ice, which meant a wet sock would have been about as much use as my expensive custom runner. I still have it in a box somewhere.
Things improved further with the introduction of the single stem, Black Diamond Camalots (cams) to the UK in the early 2000's. These really became the benchmark against which all others are viewed, especially in lightweight form. The lightweights are perhaps not as durable, but I am not really aid-climbing and would gladly buy a new set if I wore them out. The introduction of the smaller X4s, then Z4s also stepped the game up further in terms of head size and stem flexibility. Z4s are now my go too micro cam.
Both Wild Country and DMM now sport models similar to Camalots, with the same size and colour coding. The key difference is use of dyneema in their slings, which allows DMM to offer extendible slings, which make a huge difference for me. In usage, I find little difference across all of these brands. They are all excellent.
One other brand that has recently made it into the gear pile is Fixe, which now own Aliens Cams. The small Aliens are super-light and the mid-sizes incredibly good on Alpine style climbing, where their weight and size range works well. They are super-light and while I doubt they will last forever, they are amazing in peg scars in both standard and offset form.
That just leaves the Totems, which are mythical and sitting here writing this short article has whet my appetite for owning a full set.
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