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Aya K
Trad climber
New York
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Dec 19, 2008 - 06:54pm PT
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Tricams = EPIC WIN!
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Nate D
climber
San Francisco
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Dec 19, 2008 - 07:59pm PT
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Use the smaller 2 sizes fairly frequently, esp. between granite plates, as shown in Tork's photo. Their triangular shape works well in these odd constrictions, whether vertical or horizontal.
OK, Tork buddy - on which route is the photo? Wish more of those tasty plate covered faces were sans bolts. Why can't people learn to use pro?
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perswig
climber
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Dec 19, 2008 - 07:59pm PT
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I'm with nature - that pic is just WRONG without the pink web.
You'll find double pink and red plus white through blue as needed on my rack most days. Someone (loomis) has it - leave the cams home occasionally and see how much they rule.
Be a shame to not cover 'em in the book.
Dale
Edit: Ha, bluey, sorry to disappoint. (Rumor has it Santa isn't real, either. Sucks, huh?)
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Dec 19, 2008 - 08:03pm PT
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Perswig, no offense, but I always thought you were a hot chick with an avatar like that.
Maybe I'm going gay or something...
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Dec 19, 2008 - 08:16pm PT
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Oh, Largo, you're missing out on one of the real joys of venturesome face climbing, and great tools for pin scars. Although I never carry them in the Valley except on aid, the smallest tricams (up to red) are truly fabulous in funky flares, pebbly cracks like Tuolumne and Gunks horizontals, sometimes the only piece that is secure no matter what else you've got on the rack. And great fun for your inventiveness in figuring out how to fit them in. Then there are those truly bizarre solution pockets in Power Dome at Courtright, frequently too narrow for a cam, and nothing else goes at all; only place I've used any tricam bigger than the brown one. And the eyebrows at Looking Glass. Also bet they're terrific in limestone - oh, forgot, always sport-bolted. Admittedly, sometimes offset wires are good in pin scars, but their size range stops just where tricams pick up. Plus, if the placement is secure enough (ha!), you can clip your aider way up close to the tricam and maybe it doesn't lever out when you topstep. Seriously, these babies are great, you owe it to readers (which includes me) to describe them and their multiple clever uses. Wish I had a picture of one brown tricam (in the camming mode between frozen crap-rock chunks) that we rapped off of, single piece, in an epic night-time storm retreat from Mt Temple. I tested the hell out of it, but the bottom line was, better to die quickly than slowly, and there wasn't a choice C on this exam question, or any other piece left that was big enough.
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Dec 19, 2008 - 09:44pm PT
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The bizarre holes of Power Dome...Courtright Reservoir...California...2008...
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Rankin
climber
Bishop, CA
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Dec 19, 2008 - 10:35pm PT
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Tri-cams don't get used much in the Western US, but are quiet popular in the East. Granite, limestone and the softer sandstones (like you find in the West) don't lend themselves to tri-cam placements.
They are very useful in a variety of conditions, not just in pockets. In NC, where I started climbing, tri cams are very, very useful. Especially in the eyebrow climbing of Looking Glass. They accel in flared horizontals where everything else seems shaky. All it takes is a dimple or nipple in there, and a marginal placement can become bomb proof. I recommend specifically the pink, red, and brown for everyday climbing. I like to carry these in the mountains. They weigh nothing, are quite versatile, and are much cheaper to bail off of than a cam.
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Crag Q
Trad climber
Louisville, Colorado
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Dec 19, 2008 - 10:47pm PT
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Tricams have mostly been a trick clean aid piece for me. However, when I was building my rack back in the day, they were an important component of the trad rack because I couldn't afford a whole set of cams. So, I think they are still relevant.
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apogee
climber
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Dec 19, 2008 - 10:50pm PT
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Pink, Red & Brown. Indispensable for anchors, esp. on long moderate routes where weight-bulk is an issue.
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GOclimb
Trad climber
Boston, MA
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Dec 19, 2008 - 11:06pm PT
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I carry them maybe 20 percent of the time. Much more in places like the Gunks. When I carry them, it's pink, red, and brown.
GO
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dec 19, 2008 - 11:11pm PT
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Slim Pickens:
'nuff said.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Dec 21, 2008 - 02:41pm PT
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For alpine and traditional mixed the TriCam is "f*#king awesome" because the beak will sink into ice and pressure-melt it when weighted meaning you can place them in icy cracks that a cam or hex would slip out of.
I normally take the pink, red, brown blue cragging (and use them on just about every route) but for the alpine will take more, the new black one up to the 2.5. Or any time you need doubles of cams take one set of cams and one set of tricams, half the weight!
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tinker b
climber
your local park
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Dec 21, 2008 - 03:45pm PT
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i used to take tri-cams into the mountains when i taught 22 day courses up there in the high sierra. they are light and versital. i was mostly setting up top ropes and fixed lines and with 6 nuts, 3 tri-cams, and 2-3 hexes, i could set up everything i needed to do (at times having three bomb proof gear top-rope anchors.) tri-cams were my favorite to place. and carrying them around for 22days was chill.
but as far as leading i can only think of a handful of times that i have used them. i used to carry them alot and then somewhere down the line i lost them and never bothered to replace them. when i do climb with someone who has them it is a 50/50 if i take them...usually it's in the mountains going light, because they are so light.
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Dec 21, 2008 - 05:08pm PT
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Tricams do tend to get stuck if placed either in a crack that's too close to parallel or is expando (like any passive piece). They clean great, even if weighted (not to say "fallen on" - are we about to see another of these threads "Falling - anyone still do it?"), from placements that flare strongly upward, or which rely on a large pebble or crystal or similar bump. Basically, fantastic in exactly the placements and types of cracks where normal wires suck. They do kind of melt into a bit of verglas but I've never, well, "weighted" one of those. The same principle applies to sandstone, probably more secure in cammed mode than SLCDs in really soft stuff.
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schwortz
Social climber
davis, ca
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Dec 21, 2008 - 05:57pm PT
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pink and red...usually only on the aid rack
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Dec 21, 2008 - 06:01pm PT
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Tricams do tend to get stuck if placed either in a crack that's too close to parallel or is expando (like any passive piece). They clean great, even if weighted (not to say "fallen on" - are we about to see another of these threads "Falling - anyone still do it?"), from placements that flare strongly upward, or which rely on a large pebble or crystal or similar bump. Basically, fantastic in exactly the placements and types of cracks where normal wires suck. They do kind of melt into a bit of verglas but I've never, well, "weighted" one of those. The same principle applies to sandstone, probably more secure in cammed mode than SLCDs in really soft stuff.
From your first sentence it sounds like you need a lesson in placement and cleaning of tricams, LOL.
I guess the main rule of cleaning tri-cams is, "if you can lift the tail, you can get it out.".
The way to REALLY get one stuck is to let the point and the rail tails touch one side of the placement. kiss that sucker goodbye, or beat it out. ( have one a friend did that with, it's conversation only now)
That's the only tri-cam I ever saw that could not be cleaned properly.
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Moof
Big Wall climber
A cube at my soul sucking job in Oregon
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Dec 21, 2008 - 06:13pm PT
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I only bust mine out for aiding (smallest 3 sizes) and when we do an all passive day (always a hoot). But, no, I haven't had them on my trad rack in years, and it's been years since any partner (except one dirt bagger with almost no cams) has had any on his rack.
Just too finicky, and, with the rare exception of funky holes, just no better than the equivalent cam.
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Thorgon
Big Wall climber
Idaho Falls, ID
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Dec 21, 2008 - 06:14pm PT
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I don't leave the ground without the "Pink" Tricam.. What is the deal with Royal's hollow carabiner? I have 18 hollow biners made by Chouinard Equipment, were they designed by Royal? Good thread like to hear what others climbers are using!
Thor
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Dec 21, 2008 - 07:44pm PT
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Thor,
imagine what happens to rope worn biners when the "groove" that results reaches the air in the middle,...
THAT'S RIGHT!
Your biners turn into knives!
Do I need to explain further?
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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Dec 21, 2008 - 07:58pm PT
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Largo:
Here's a tip I haven't seen on this thread:
In the smallest sizes, Camp white, through pink red, and brown, tricams are much easier to clean if you tape a wire stiffener along the length of the sling. When placed in camming mode, this allows you to apply "upward" movement to the rails while (if necessary) holding the stinger in place with a nut tool. Since these nuts/cams -- heck, whatchamacallits go in places my fingers can't reach, the stiffener is practically a necessity, unless the second is carrying two nut tools. Makes cleaning them in passive mode easier as well. Be sure to leave the sling floppy from below where it wraps between the rails to where it attaches to the head.
Before you put 'em in your new book, play around with this, and you'll see what I mean.
The sizes below pink, I generally reserve for funky/weird aid. Pink through brown go on the rack in Red Rocks. #5 and #6, despite what a previous poster said, are significantly lighter than the big cams in that range (due to their design using plate aluminum rather than the milled head of the smaller tricams) and thus have a cherished place on my ultralight backcountry rack. The #7 I rarely use, but again it is chosen before heavier SLCDs for the backcountry.
I usually carry the pink through the #6 (one of the yellows) in the car, at the very least, when on road trips of any duration.
Hope this helps.
Brutus
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