Just wondering, why do you use such small lobes with such small range?
I considered this design before, and realized, if you use really large lobes, and use the the full logrithmic spiral then you could get much much more range.

Today I redpointed the Guillotine Flake!!!

I had to climb 15 feet out horizontally from the last Anticam to where the flake became thick enough to hold a regular cam. Pumped out with new route wall grit under my feet, it was terrifying to get that cam in. There isn't a single foot hold until near the very end. Fifteen feet out from those Anticams put everything into perspective. I wasn't scared of that flake anymore, I finally had confidence in the anitcams, everything came together. I clipped that cam and knew I had it in the bag... 30 feet of underclinging later I just made it to the no hands rest and it was over. One year of dreaming, designing, training, preparation and stress. And it's done. WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!!!



and ya, you can actually watch the video tomorrow at http://www.arcteryx.com Bryan Smith with http://reelwaterproduction.com is busting out the editing tonight!

If webbing or rope is used there will be some small amount of stretch which will cause the cams on the rock to rotate until the stretch comes out. Not good! A wire cable could work better but it will be more difficult to bite into it with a cam.

and if a large impact fall force occurs you will never be able to create enough force on the cam to undo it. This is like hanging on a carabiner and tightening its lock screw and then unweighting it and trying to unscrew the lock... jammed!

but that said I still think it is worth trying your idea, maybe I can get around some of the points I talked about. I added your drawing to the forum, hope you don't mind. If you do I can take it off.

If you would like to see the Guillotine Flake getting an ascent (this week) with the Anticam check out
http://arcteryx.com
it will not be on The Seasons web site for another week.
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Here is a drawing by Andrew showing his 3:1 pulley idea. Thanks bro
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And what I'm getting at is that none of them will work as is for climbing.

I'm surprised you're not more enthusiastic about this given the homebrew cam competitions. How many of those have outdone what is already commercially available?

I had this design made a year go but the cable part on yours comes with bigger problem which i do not think you have figured out.

Right, not enough red arrows. Thanks, I'll get right on fixing that.

I watched the last one but want to see it in action - do any of the videos show falls on one?

It seems to me that it might be better to try an odd-leg calliper design with one straight arm that goes behind the flake and one bent arm that allows for some range. The symmetric design you just posted looks like it could leverage out on the flake if set wrong especially if the gap behind the flake is relatively small.

Odd-leg calliper:

I don't care if anyone else thinks the Anticam is useless, a waste of time or whatever... I'm highly motivated to see it develop. If your interested too then let's put our heads together. Otherwise I'm sure there are lots of forums and threads about stuff that might interest you more and if your writing here than your wasting your time right?

For those with constructive criticism thanks for your input, it's really fun sharing this adventure with you.

now back to business... I have googled and probed every possible previous invention and material handling device out there. I even used several types as a steel fabricator in my younger years. The point is there just wasn't any device that had the expansion range, one hand operation or was light weight enough to actually carry on a climb and if a easy modification existed I would of jumped on it right away. Why? Because the goal was to climb that pitch free.

As an inventor of rigging equipment I've come to realize that the best ideas are the most simple. When a simple idea is shown it seems completely obvious and people are always amazed that it had not been thought of before. But that's the crazy part, simple, well designed systems are the most difficult to invent and this whole process can be really frustrating.

Version 2 solved some significant problems and allowed me to climb a difficult pitch without too much effort spent on placing the gear. Considering this is it's first year of development and it's not a paid gig I'd say progress is being made...

In my next message I am going to show the tech drawings for version 2. What would be great is if anyone had insight into how to get around the need for the bar.

cheers
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