The barely discernible ABC on one of these cams stands for Advanced Base Camp, an American based company who were keen to compete in the market for camming devices in the 1980’s. They got this particular type of cam made in Korea and marketed them as Spider Cams, the first one appearing in 1989. Metolius is another US based company which began life back in the 1980’s when a guy called Doug Phillips started making climbing gear and decided to name his company after the nearby Metolius River. Another American, Ray Jardine, had invented the revolutionary ‘Friend’ in the 1970’s and everyone was trying to capitalize on the cam revolution without falling foul of Jardine’s patent. The Metolius version was the Three Cam Unit (TCU) which became quite popular with American climbers. The one we have here in our collection seems to be an early version and along with the Spider Cam, once belonged to Charlie Fowler – his initials are on the Metolius Cam. Charlie was a friend of our founder member, Mick Tighe, and the photo opposite shows Charlie on a trip to the Island of Mingulay with Mick in 1997. Sadly, Charlie died on a mountaineering trip to China in 2006.