Day 26 - Jargon Alert!

Lifesaver

I woke up this morning determined to go to work, then quickly realised that I still feel really quite rough, so had to knock work on the head, again...

Having spent the morning feeling nauseous, for no discernible reason, the afternoon has primarily involved my right eye streaming and streaming from a mildly intense (is that even possible?) headache. 

I've still got this cold, and my streaming eye also seems to make my nose run...I've polished off another box of tissues today, almost...

Still, the arrival of the little beauty above gave me something interesting to peer at through blurry eyes.

This is my 50th Birthday present from my friends and colleagues at work.  

They don't know this yet - it came in the form of a mystical parchment from the depths of the Amazon(.co.uk).   Using the dark magic power of t'interwebs (wizard that I am), I brewed potions, wrought spells, conjured spirits of the cyberworld, and transmogrified it into a perfect piece of climbing gear.

My 50th was (well, would you look at that!) 26 days ago, but I was prohibited from buying any climbing gear until after Xmas.   Anna subscribes to the odd notion that you can have "too much gear", and that "maybe you don't need 2 of everything".

I don't know where she gets such propaganda from - is she not aware of redundancy?!

Still, respectful partner that I am, I duly waited until late last week to work my magic. 

This piece of equipment is about as complex as climbing gets.   It's commonly known as a cam, and cams come in many shapes, sizes and colours.

There follows an unreasonable amount of information about this device and its use.  For those who aren't interested, there's a TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read) at the bottom.

This was made by a welsh company based in Llanberis.   It's sold as a DMM Demon Cam, size 0.5 (red).

Technically, it's a Spring Loaded Camming Device, or SLCD, most often called a cam, and sometimes a friend, which was the model name of a popular early example made by Wild Country.

Friend seems somewhat apropos, as the primary purpose of this piece of gear is to save your life!

Further, it's quite a feat of engineering - and comes with an appropriate price tag.  This one (a fairly small example of a relatively inexpensive model range) has an RRP of £45, although to be fair, you can always get them on sale for just over 2/3 for that.

Close inspection will reveal a marvel of detail and design, and given its stated purpose, I'm happy for it to be over-engineered and over-priced!

At the business end (the left in the photo), there are 2 pairs of opposing cams.   The central bar is the trigger, which when pulled, rotates the cams on their axles, making them narrower.   When the trigger is released, the cams open to their widest position.  

When trad climbing (a style of climbing most commonly pursued in the UK), there are no bolts or pitons permanently attached to the rock.   Indeed, damaging or changing the rock in any way is seen as unethical, and is widely frowned upon.   Leave No Trace!

Consequently as you climb to any height, you must protect yourself by placing bits of gear into appropriate cracks in the rock.  Usually, wedge-shaped chocks (known as nuts or wires) are wedged in (whodathunk?), before clipping your rope through the karabiner (the metal oval with the gate opening, in the right of the picture).

However, if a crack has parallel sides, then a wedge will fall out.  In these cases, a cam can be inserted into the crack.

When weighted, (should you fall off, for example), the pull on the device is converted through 90deg to an outwards push.  In other words, the more weight you put on the cam, the harder it will try to expand.   This makes it a very safe form of protection.   

This cam, for finger cracks, can safely hold at least a tonne, more than 10 times my weight.  There's lots more physics involved, to do with shock loading, stretchy rope and a variety of other factors...but the point is, this is a strong piece of kit, and might save my life one day.  

All that needs to happen is for me to go rock climbing, climb higher than a few metres, find an appropriately sized crack, insert this cam, clip my rope to the 'biner, carry on climbing, get a little more height above the cam, and before finding an opportunity to place more protection, fall off the rock. 

It could happen!!

And if it does, my (hopefully attentive) belayer will brake the rope, which will weight the cam.   The cam will "grab" the rock and not let go, and my belayer will catch me before I suffer the injury (not to mention the ignomy) of a dangerous ground-fall.

And then, good friends and colleagues, you will have saved my life!

Thank you... :-)

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot:

TLDR; Climb, Insert, Fall, Catch...Yay, thanks!