At the shop, we get asked almost every week what's so special about Totem cams, and the explanation is genuinely interesting. So we decided to film it, and write it down too, for everyone who asks. Here are our five reasons why so many climbers prefer Totems, plus a sixth one that has nothing to do with climbing but that we think matters just as much.
1. They're much narrower than a Camalot of the same size
Take a Totem and a Camalot from the same range and put them head to head. The difference is obvious: on the Totem, the four lobes sit much closer together, so the whole head is considerably narrower. In practice, that means it fits into pockets, pods and short constrictions where a conventional cam of the same size simply won't go. On rock like the limestone around here, full of pockets and cracks that open and close every few centimeters, you notice it on every pitch.
The width of classic cams and Camalots is actually an advantage in the larger sizes, where it adds stability to the placement — mainly in the perfect parallel cracks you find in granite and sandstone, where a wider head isn't a penalty.
2. They're fully flexible
The Totem's stem is made of four thin, flexible cables, with no rigid section between the head and the sling. You can place it in a horizontal crack, a pocket, or any awkward spot, and the cables bend without levering on the head. A cam with a rigid stem, or a short flexible section, working in those same placements loads sideways, can deform permanently, and can walk the cam into a less stable position. The Totem works well in every direction and walks less than a stiffer cam.
3. It can be placed on just two lobes (aid climbing only)
For aid climbing, the Totem is designed to work with only two of its four lobes engaged. This is especially useful in shallow cracks where a better placement isn't possible. For that, it has a dedicated clipping point for each pair of lobes, separate from the sling below — and that's the point to clip, not the sling.
The strength each pair of lobes can hold is half the kN rating given for normal use, so between 3 kN for the black and 6.5 kN for the orange. On top of that, working on only two lobes reduces stability. So this use is strictly for aiding — for holding body weight. It is not protection. You should never fall on a Totem placed on two lobes.
4. The truly revolutionary part: direct loading
This is the fundamental difference, and the one fewest people know about. On a classic single-axle cam, or on a double-axle Camalot, the force of your fall travels down the stem to the lobes' axle. The axle pushes the lobes against the rock, and it's the friction at the contact point that does all the holding work.
The Totem is built differently. The cable doesn't run to the axle: each pair of lobes has its own cable, which attaches to the lobe itself, on the side opposite the one that touches the rock. When you load a Totem, you're not pulling on the axle, you're pulling directly on the lobes. And because the pull point sits on the opposite side from the contact point, the load itself acts as a lever, helping the lobe rotate and expand against the wall, which increases its holding power.
This is what the brand calls direct loading, and it's covered by a US patent from Mikel Apezetxea and Iñaki Xabier Zabala, US 7,014,156, filed in 2002 and granted in 2006. To make it work, the Totem's lobe carries a second logarithmic spiral, running inside a groove you can actually see on the lobe.
One number for the data-minded: because of this geometry, a Totem grips the rock between 5% and 10% harder than a conventional cam under the same load. That's an advantage for holding power, but it's also worth keeping in mind on fragile rock.
5. They hold in flaring cracks
This reason is really a consequence of the last one, but it deserves its own point because it's the one climbers appreciate most on the wall. Every cam has a limit angle for crack flare: the point beyond which, no matter how hard it squeezes, there's no equilibrium left, and the force needed to hold it climbs toward infinity. That limit is exactly the geometric angle of its lobe. On a conventional cam, with 13.75° lobes, the crack can flare at most 13.75° per wall, about 27.5° total. The Totem has 20.35° lobes, so its limit is 20.35° per wall, more than 40° total.
Worth saying plainly: neither a conventional cam nor a Totem actually reaches that angle in practice. They pull out well before that, because the squeezing force skyrockets and tends to infinity at the limit angle. What matters is the margin: at the same flare, a Totem sits much further from its limit than a conventional cam, which is why it holds in flares where a classic cam has already popped.
And here's the interesting part: a conventional cam with 20° lobes would actually be a bad cam, because it would grip much less. The Totem can get away with it because direct loading makes its 20.35° lobe behave, in terms of grip, like one between 12.5° and 13°. In other words, it grips like a normal cam and still has a lot more margin in flaring cracks.
Bonus: made in the Basque Country by a cooperative
This sixth reason has nothing to do with climbing, but we think it matters just as much. Totem Cams is made in Euskadi, in northern Spain, and the company is a cooperative. In an industry where most of the historic brands have ended up owned by large conglomerates, a European, cooperative manufacturer with its own patent that changed how a cam is designed is a rarity we like to support. One note for the curious: that patent expired in June 2022, and four years on, nobody has released a direct-loading cam yet. When Black Diamond's double-axle patent expired, clones took five years to show up. We'll see.
That said, it's unlikely to happen fast: Totems are considerably harder to manufacture than most cams, and they already have a loyal customer base that wants to support the project.
If you want to see them in person and compare heads against a Camalot, stop by the shop in Sisteron. And if you already use them, tell us in the comments which placement they've saved you on.