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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Before cams I carried a single set up to blue. Now they live a quiet life of almost complete retirement in the bottom of my pack, since cams work as well almost all the time as far as I can tell.
Tricams tend to get fixed when fallen on hard, and then become an extreme eyesore, as well as blocking the placement of other pro while being worthless as fixed pro once the sling weathers. Even when not fixed, they are more often time-consuming to remove, and so slow down the ascent and piss off the second.
Every now and then I encounter a hole or a very shallow horizontal and wish I had one of the tricams resting comfortably in my pack, but it doesn't happen often enough for me to bring them out of retirement for general use.
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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What Tri-Cam Sizes are Most Useful?
Actually none of them. They all suk! Worst gear ever. So fidgety and unstable and the colors are so mundane...
I suggest you send them all to me. I will see that they get dealt with properly.
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PellucidWombat
Mountain climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 2, 2011 - 09:21pm PT
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But I like having them mixed in with my chocks! I don't even notice they're there until I decide I want to save my smaller cams for a harder section :-)
Since I'm pretty well set on red & pink I'm wondering if I should bother going smaller or larger (besides my 1 black one).
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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The new black .25 is almost better than the .5 pinky. I use two of each most of the time. And I use the new white .125 more often than the larger sizes although the red is good too. If you climb at Courtwright the black .25 are mandatory.
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Dos XX
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Pink. I've got one old-school pink, and one modern-day version.
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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I seem to place pinks and reds most often, usually carry doubles on those and a single brown and purple. Don't have any of the new micro sizes. Love 'em - esp. good in opposition at belay anchors. Me and one of my partners have an ongoing "best pinky placement" competition.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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if i wanna zipper 3 cams out of a crack, which ones should i use?
stick to free climbing, less hassle
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PellucidWombat
Mountain climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 2, 2011 - 10:44pm PT
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I don't get the whole 'hard to clean' thing. I've never had a problem cleaning them beyond sometimes needing both hands, and lately my partners have reported having an easy time cleaning them once I've told them how they are removed (NOT like a nut you fool!)
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Philo, You only say that because you are in love with tricams and love is blind. I have had 29 years of practice and i can effin gaurentee you that I can slam in a cam faster with less effort than a tricam. Micro cams with narrow heads made these things completly irrelevent. they only exist because of an irational cult following. that being said i do have a pink and a red on my rack. Both booty recoveries;)
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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That's interesting considering I have a lot of tri-cams, some of which still have price tags on them and others look like they've been beaten with Thor's Hammer.
From a Gunks perspective, 0.5 & 1.0 are the best sizes, IMO. However, I find use for the slightly bigger sizes on occasion, 1.5 & 2.0. Then the rest of the sizes get virtually no use until I get to the biggest two, which have a place on wide cracks, fist+.
When I climb on Cannon Mtn (NH), The bigger sizes are always along in the pack.
YMMV.
EDIT: I don't own any of those new fangled really small ones. My snausage fingers don't play well with small things.
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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Micro cams with narrow heads made these things completly irrelevent. they only exist because of an irational cult following The only thing irrelevent is your view on tri cams, these things rule for certain pods that nothing else will fit in, in horizontal crack they frekkn kill it and to just supplement a rack of single cams.
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Wormly81
Trad climber
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I have a partner who carries some of the big tri-cams in the winter for mixed climbing. They work great in the back of big icy cracks where big cams wouldn't.
Doesn't carry any in the summer except when we are light and fast in the mountains.
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ExtraBlue
Ice climber
the ford VT
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Purple and Blue!
I know some people love the smaller sizes, but I find that I place the purple and blue ones the most. LOVE THEM
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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pink, once you get it you'll find a spot for it on almost every pitch you climb.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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I agree with the winter alpine use. What I do not agree with is all the hype about how great they are. they are decent at times and crappy at times. Not super hero statuss that some tend to give them. If you took them off my rack I will get by just fine. Steal all my SLCD cams and It will suck big time. 99% of the time an SLCD will be faster and as secure or more secure. Less than 1% of the time nothing else will work but a tricam but most of the time you know that in advance unless you are doing an onsight FA
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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pink, once you get it you'll find a spot for it on almost every pitch you climb.
Agree.
John
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Matt M
Trad climber
Alamo City
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.5 through 2 are the most useful. As others have pointed out though, I find there are times and places where they are useful and others where they stay home. It's all very region and climb dependent. Places that have lots of horizontal placements or funky pods tend to favor the TriCam. While you can get pretty efficient at placing them one handed they are not a "PUMP PIECE". You still need to place them with some care and "set" the placement; not easy to do in some cases. While you certainly can find uses for them on a pitch, I most frequently would bring them for anchor building on climbs that tended to have long pitches that took a lot of gear. I'd plug cams in when needed and have the 4 TriCams along to help build an anchor. In this way, you and your 2nd would be at a stance and the TriCams easy to place/remove.
I found I NEVER used them in the PNW. The combination of mostly vertical cracks and flared pin scars seldom allowed the TriCams to be useful. Squamish in particular. All those flakes and cracks always seemed to be a bit flared. Hence my love of off-set Aliens there...
I still have my set and use them but nearly as much as my earlier days where I had to to supplement my rack. Now I have plenty of cams and tend to use them more.
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mojede
Trad climber
Butte, America
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This thread needs pics...
A light rack to lead with
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Ok just for the sake of argument ( and reality) I will go back to my origional staement. Stick to my guns so to speak. Tricams are essentualy irellevent in this day and age. You may use them if you wish but you do not have to use them. Pleease spare me the gunks horozontal and solution pocket argument as 99% + of the time an SLCD will fit those placements. I have a red and pink on my rack and my #1 partner and summer ropegun has only tried to place one once in the 13 years we have been climbing together exclusivly on my rack. We have Never been turned back by a lack of tricams despite the sometimes dire warnings of the guidebook that tricams are a must. If tricams vanished from the face of the earth this instant the standards of clean free climbing would not change one iota.
Tricams are a cult following. There is nothing wrong with that. It is harmless and fun. Just don't kid yourself into thinking that the world revolves arround the pink tricam ;)
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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PS, pink tricam = orange TCU & 4CU powercam Also Red alien and green HB certainly BD and WC have one as well..
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