Climbing cam placement indicator

Abstract

A climbing cam having opposed cam members has visible indicia marked thereon corresponding to cam placement quality. The indicia are visible to the climber when the cam is placed in a rock and allows the climber to assess the quality of cam placement.

1 . A placement indicator for use with a climbing cam having opposed cam members, comprising: 
 visible placement indicia placed on each of said opposed cam members, wherein said visible placement indicia correlates to the quality of cam placement in a rock.    
   
   
       2 . (canceled)  
   
   
       3 . The placement indicator according to  claim 1  wherein each cam defines a rock-contacting surface and a side surface, and wherein the visible indicia are placed on the side surface.  
   
   
       4 . The placement indicator according to  claim 3  wherein the visible indicia further comprises a color-coded marking in which the color of the indicia correlates to the quality of cam placement in the rock.  
   
   
       5 . The placement indicator according to  claim 3  wherein the visible indicia further comprises a graduated scale marking in which the scale graduations of the indicia correlate to the quality of cam placement in the rock.  
   
   
       6 . The placement indicator according to  claim 3  wherein the visible indicia further comprises a color-coded and graduated scale marking in which the markings correlate to the quality of cam placement in the rock.  
   
   
       7 . The placement indicator according to  claim 4  wherein the color-coded markings further comprise a red zone, and yellow zone and a green zone.  
   
   
       8 . The placement indicator according to  claim 7  wherein each colored zone correlates to a predetermined portion of the rock-contacting surface.  
   
   
       9 . In a climbing cam having at least one pair of opposing arcuate cam members configured for contacting rock surfaces in a crack in a rock, the improvement comprising: 
 indicia on each of said cam members capable of indicating cam placement quality.    
   
   
       10 . The climbing cam according to  claim 9  wherein the opposing arcuate cam members are pivotally movable between a fully open position in which the cam members contact rock surfaces and a fully closed position in which the cam members contact rock surfaces, and wherein the indicia on each of said cam members defines a graduated placement quality scale extending from the fully open position to the fully closed position.  
   
   
       11 . The climbing cam according to  claim 9  wherein the indicia further comprises color-coded indicia in which the color of the indicia correlates to the quality of cam placement in the crack.  
   
   
       12 . The climbing cam according to  claim 11  wherein the color-coded markings further comprise a red zone, and yellow zone and a green zone.  
   
   
       13 . The climbing cam according to  claim 12  wherein each colored zone correlates to a predetermined portion of a rock-contacting surface of the cam members.  
   
   
       14 . A visual placement indicator for a climbing cam of the type having opposed cams, comprising: 
 indicia means on said cams for providing a visual assessment of the quality of cam placement.    
   
   
       15 . The visual placement indicator according to  claim 14  wherein the indicia means further comprises color coding means for providing a visual indication of the quality of cam placement.  
   
   
       16 . The visual placement indicator according to  claim 14  wherein the indicia means further comprises a graduated scale for providing a visual indication of the quality of cam placement.  
   
   
       17 . The visual placement indicator according to  claim 14  wherein the indicia means further comprises a color-coded graduated scale for providing a visual indication of the quality of cam placement.  
   
   
       18 . The visual placement indicator according to  claim 15  in which the color coding means comprises plural color coded zones including a red zone, a yellow zone and a green zone.  
   
   
       19 . The visual placement indicator according to  claim 18  in which each cam defines a rock-contacting surface, and wherein each colored zone correlates to a predetermined portion of the rock-contacting surface.  
   
   
       20 . The visual placement indicator according to  claim 19  wherein each cam further defines a cam side surface and wherein the colored zones are marked on the cam side surface.