As so many others have already pointed out, this thing is great for belaying and rapping. A bit on the heavy side for general purpose use. I would recommend one per rack! It is my favorite belay biner.

I have both the Tuolumne & Yosemite supertopo guidebooks. They are the best guidebooks I have and I have quite a few. With all the beta they give you for a route, including required gear, it almost feels like cheating.

Knowing that I have owned 3 pairs of Mythos, one would expect a higher rating than a three. However, the mythos have a serious durability problem compared with other shoes that I have owned (madrock, 5.10, boreal) For some reason the bottom of the shoe always delams near where the big toe and the arch meet. On one of the pairs, I believe it is called the rand (portion of rubber that runs along the top side of the shoe) is all coming off after perhaps 6 months of hard use. I will probally notify La Sportiva. You may ask why 3 pairs? 3 reasons: 1. the first pair was returned to REI due to the delam problem. 2. Got a great deal on the third pair. 3. they are comfortable as all hell and work pretty well.

My son got me one of these babies for fathers day, what a great kid! The camming action on the supercam is as smooth as silk, probally due to the kevlar wires. The build quality is outstanding. I like to carry this cam to supplement my rack. Because of the large expansion range, it can act as a double for two cam sizes (ie. #1 & #2 camalot) The cam seems very easy to place. In fact it was used on almost every pitch this weekend past.

One thing that caught me by suprise: My son cammed this beast near to the very smallest part of its range. After visual inspection I thought the cam was a goner . I gave the trigger bar a little extra squeeze and the cam popped right out. I guess my fear was based on the old school mentality of overcamming standard range cams.

Since I already have two full racks, I 'm guessing that I will have to wait until Christmas to get another supercam. Hint, hint whipperboy!

I downgraded from 5 to 4 biners. After useing the supercam for 2 months, the kevlar string is prone to slide which causes the lobes not to return to an even expansion. This is only a minor nuissance that can be fixed by pulling the cam lobes out manually after the cam gets into this state.

When used properly, these things rock! I rack 10 trad draws + 2 revolvers (on a dogbone with a keeper to keep the pulley in proper alignment) + 1 QD. Stategically placing these things on long wandering routes really cuts down on rope drag. I would say more than just extending a runner. I wish to emphasize that you do need a keeper to keep the pulley aligned. I think some suppliers sell them this way.