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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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You have many valid points tradman and argue your view with passion. You might have swayed me against taking the time to really learn my tri-cam placements.
But also, I don't think this was a thread about "which is the more valuable piece, SLCDs or Tri-cams?"
Arne
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Rankin
Social climber
Greensboro, North Carolina
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Nice job tradman! Too bad you had to defile the route with fixed hardware. Maybe if you had placed a pink tricam you would have had the courage to run it like a real climber. kidding...kind of... ;)
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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There are placements in granite, for instance pin scarred pockets, that won't take a cam but that a tri cam works bomber in. I don't use them regularly myself, but a friend of mine always has them on his rack and has showed me placments with tri-cams where I couldn't get in a cam or stopper or my piece was marginal, and his tricam was bomber in the same placement. So I am a believer...
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lars johansen
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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Pink and red for Courtright.
lars
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Would have been a solo without the two bolts. i have soloed the lines on either side of the arette hundreds of times but always wanted to get out on the Arette proper...
Yes, if you look long and hard enough you can find tricam specefic placements yet 99% of the time they are not needed. Additionaly so far every rout that a guide book has suggested that tricams were needed we seem to get up just fine without useing them. I guess the only real reason I harp on this is because the tricam crowd is so full of themselfs and certain that tricams are the best thing since the invention of beer..... I poke simeler fun at Telle skiers and I do not even own alpine boots. I just realize that the telle turn is totally ineficient and wears out your knees faster than a career in the NFL. Modern telle boots and bindings with shaped skies turn so easily with an alpine turn it is insane. The telle crowd struts arround like they are king of the hill and so cool their beer freezes when they touch it. they even seem to think that I am cool because I wear the same boots as them.. weird sh#t man.... I love sking, it is like breathing to me and telle sking is just sking. it's as easy as breathing. do not see whAT the big deal is. Grade 5 water ice on the other hand is some pretty darn RAD sh#t ;)
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Tele skiers? Its kind of funny how serious they take it, but the proof is in the pudding on the hill when a tele guy thinks hes really moving and tearing it up, I always have to go by him like hes standing still, throwing a roostertail on the poor guy for added insult. Thats the way you handle the tele skiers. But Tri Cam users are not tele skiers, different breed entirely.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Totally with you on the tele turns.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Same idea studly. they are climbing the same piece of rock as everyone else just slower cause they are useing tricams instead of SLCD's and they think they are super cool for fiddleing with those little widgets ;)
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Bill Mc Kirgan
Trad climber
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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I think .25 (black) to 2 (purple) are most useful. Above size 2 they seem a bit wobbly.
They are great in horizontal cracks; however, as others have pointed out so are SLCDs.
The best modern application for Tri-cams is limestone pockets.
Here in Iowa I do not (yet) lead on gear, but I do mock* aid climb to get a feel for what placements hold the best. I've learned that tri-cams are very reliable in pockets.
* mock aid = bounce testing with top rope protection
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rhyang
climber
SJC
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I haz teh tricamz
Courtright Reservoir, Power Dome
Whether or not you need them vs. some other piece of pro really depends on what other pieces of pro you actually have on hand :) Sometimes saving your cams for later and fiddling in a nut or tricam makes sense. Sometimes you've got no cams left in that size.
I find it a lot of fun to place obscure pieces of gear on easy terrain, just for practice. One time I was in Tuolumne with a partner who had a bunch of tricams .. I placed a couple of them in opposition as my first piece, instead of placing a cam, just for the fun of it.
Ha !
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rurprider
Trad climber
Mt. Rubidoux
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Been using tricams since they became available. People either love them or hate them. They're quite easy to place with one hand with practice. The larger sizes are too heavy, but doubles or more of the red and pink are indispensable in areas like Courtright, the Gunks, and Joshua Tree.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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They may work for you yet they are not indespensible as many others do the same climbs without them.
If tricams were actually cheap I would buy the argument that they are a good way to bulk up a rack for short money but those suckers are wicked pricy these days....
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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I'll show this thread to my brother, Greg, the inventor of Tri-cams, as well as the original spring-cams (pre Friends). I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it. The arguments pro and con never seem to change!
-Jello-cam
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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The reason to use tricams is not because they're great pieces of gear, it's because cool climbers use tricams, and you're not cool if you don't use them. That's really the whole story. All of the other stuff is just intardnet bullsh#t.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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That is exactly my point. It's all about being cool and has very little to do with the actual climbing experience. Jello, not dissing you bros gear just busting on the folks who think they are extra cool for useing them...
Like i have repetly posted i do use the red and pink but I am well aware of the fact that I am not extra cool;)
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cintune
climber
Midvale School for the Gifted
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The pink and red are for poseurs. All the really cool climbers use the brown and bright blue ones.
But cool and anti-cool aside, they're just brilliant little purpose-built chunks of metal.
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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tri-cams are the coolest sh#t imaginable for pin scars: functional, light, cheap.
and as for the 'pine: well ...
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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btw, nothing beats a number 9 hex welded into an icy crack
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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No problem, Trad, and no offense taken. Your opinion is your opinion and you are more than welcome to it! Truth is, on rock routes I used to rarely carry more than a few of the smaller Tri-cams. On mixed rock and ice in the mountains however, the situation was reversed. I always carried more Tri-cams than slcd's because they could be relied upon in wet, snowy, or icy cracks. In those conditions slcd's are prone to unexpected and catastrophic failure. This has led to several documented tragedies.
-MixedJello
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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I do agree with you on that one Jello. That point has a chance to dig in. Still would not want to fall if there is ice in that crack...
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