From: steven@panix.com (Steven Cherry) Newsgroups: rec.climbing Subject: Tricams (was: What type of SLCDs should I buy???) Date: 31 Oct 1998 10:39:06 -0500 In <71eiiu$c9f$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> sulam@construct.net writes: >> "Any reasonable rack"? That's quite a statement. My initial rack had 5 >> tricams and 4 SLCDs, and currently I usually bring up 7 tricams and >> between 7 and 10 cams. Maybe I'm just not being reasonable but it hasn't >> been a drawback leading 5.9s in the Gunks, the Daks, and the New. >Steven, keeping in mind that we don't have as many horizontal cracks out here, >what's the set of tricams you'd expect to see on someone's rack? I have three >now (0.5, 1.0, 1.5) but haven't figured them out well enough yet to trust them >on lead, at least in camming mode, so I haven't figured out what sizes get >placed more often. Well, first of all, if I remember correctly (and I may not) the original poster didn't specify what area he was talking about. Richard made a blanket statement, which is why I mentioned the areas I was talking about... Anyway, tricams aren't just for horizontal placements. I place them vertically all the time, and I'm sure I've placed them in every area I've climbed in, including Seneca, whose cracks often very much like those at the Gunks except that where the Gunks are horizontal Seneca is vertical. To keep things simple at first, look for a crack uneven enough to get the tricam in and move it to where it constricts better. Fold the sling part down the track on the wide side and place it. In an ideal world the crack narrows downward (direction of potential fall) and the point goes into an indentation. Pin scars, such as we have in the Gunks and you would have in the Valley, are great for that. The unevenness of the crack can be quite slight, and the tricam doesn't have to "lock in" too much to be bomber, since the pull on the sling is almost always in a torquing direction as you move up. The one thing you don't want is to place a tricam in a slot that flares back or opens to an irregular pocket. That's when they open up in a way that the second can't reach in and work out. But actually, that's more likely to happen in a horizontal than vertical crack, to my (still somewhat limited) experience. -steven- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: geoffcj@aol.com (GeoffCJ) Newsgroups: rec.climbing Subject: Re: Tri-Cams Date: 5 Jan 1999 05:59:45 GMT I like tri-cams, I agree that they are inxpensive, light and bomber, but I don't know about quicker to place....I think I can almost always slot a nut or tosss a cam in faster that a tri-cam...and I find setting them in the camming mode (not just slotting them like a nut or a hex) to sometimes be tricky with only one hand. I tend to use them most in horizontal cracks when I've got a good stance. Geoff -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jnsingle@unity.ncsu.edu (James Neal Singletary) Newsgroups: rec.climbing Subject: Re: Tri-Cams Date: 5 Jan 1999 15:13:42 GMT "Chris Bemben" writes: >Just getting into trad climbing, loving every bit of it. Looking for >opnions of tri-cams in various conditions, pros and cons, that sort of >thing. Seem to be cheap, bomber protection to me. Lighter, quicker to >place and clean, easier to find on a full rack than other trad gear, so >they appear to be the way to go to me. Comments? To echo another poster, tri-cams take time me more time to place in camming mode than a spring-loaded cam, but I find them advantageous in two places: 1) very constricting cracks, in which nuts might fit, but would not make a big contact surface. Much of my climbing is on quartzite, and I find such cracks very often, placing from 0.5 to maybe 4 tri-cams passively, in preference to wobbling nuts or hexes, in such places. 2) pockets. Often TCUs and sometimes nuts fit into them, but on either nearly parallel pockets (where there is just a hint of closure on at least one side) or pockets with big openings (like solution pockets), tri-cams usually seem to fit better. I find such pockets in granite, quartzite and sandstone (about all I climb). Since they are light and cheap, as you point out, I find it worthwhile to carry several to compliment a set of nuts and small cams. When you are trying to build up courage to trust a cammed tri-cam, remember back to geometry class when you learned about the rule of moment arms -- the sling is relatively far away from the stinger, so most of the pull-out load is supported not by the stinger, but by the side with the rails near the sling, and you don't necessarily need a bomber restriction in front of the stinger in order to get a tri-cam to cam. Finally, tri-cams can give routes a sense of history, because they can get hopelessly stuck holding hard falls, becoming landmarks for cruxes as little pink and brown stripes of tat, waving in the breeze like desparate buddhist prayer flags. Good luck, and climb on! -- ______________________________________________________________________ James Singletary, PhD \\ NCSU College of Textiles \\ 2401 Research Drive \\ Raleigh NC 27695 \\ (919) 515 4399 \\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kai@dimensional.com (Kai Larson) Subject: Re: Tri-Cams Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 15:48:17 GMT Newsgroups: rec.climbing On Mon, 4 Jan 1999 23:07:34 -0600, "Chris Bemben" wrote: >Just getting into trad climbing, loving every bit of it. Looking for opnions >of tri-cams in various conditions, pros and cons, that sort of thing. Seem >to be cheap, bomber protection to me. Lighter, quicker to place and clean, >easier to find on a full rack than other trad gear, so they appear to be the >way to go to me. Comments? I love tri-cams. The smaller sizes are most useful. They tend to be less stable in the larger sizes. The little pink and red ones are probably the gear I place most often. I use all the sizes up to #2.5 a lot. For protecting larger stuff, I prefer camalots. Kai END