Review by Tony Lourens
RRP: R1090
About four years ago, I went on a quest to find a set of micro cams to compliment my existing rack of standard cams. I played and fiddled with as many different brands as we have here in Cape Town, and in the end I went for Metolius’s micro Master cams and, truth be told, I have never looked back since. They have a really smooth and precise action, are super flexible and seem to sit better in shallow and/or uneven cracks. They did, however, appear a bit chunky, with that copper lug holding the cable in place, but nonetheless still topping the other micro cams in my search.
So, a few weeks back, when I was browsing around at CityROCK Gear Shop, I was delighted when I saw the new range of Ultralight Master cams. It seems that ultralight is all the rage these days. Gear is so hi-tech, that the only way to improve on anything is to shave off valuable grams, to make them as light as possible, which after all is every climbers’ nemesis – extra weight!
The basic design of the Ultralights is the same, but they have improved on a few important features: They replaced the chunky copper lug with a slender spring wire, swopped the thumb loop for a smaller thumb block, reduced the width of the colour-coded tape sling and made the core cable a tad longer, allowing for extra flexibility. All this has resulted in a weight-saving of 20%, which, considering we are talking about tiny micro cams here, is quite a substantial amount.
For avid Metolius fans, the Ultralight Master cams go all the way from # 00 to # 8 and are very competitively priced. Go check them out at your nearest climbing shop.
Specifications
10 sizes: # 00 to # 8
• Shark fin tooth pattern on lobes gives optimum bite in soft rock
• Slings are replaceable, and should be replaced every five years or earlier
• Colour-coded 11-millimetre Monster sling, thumb piece and trigger
• 20% lighter
