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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Aug 23, 2012 - 11:24am PT
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This piece was 100% solid where nothing else would go.
And this piece is just picture perfect.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Aug 23, 2012 - 01:43pm PT
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I guess that every key is perfect for one lock.
In some locations Tri-cams are the ticket.
My bet is that the harshest critics are the least skilled in using them.
Gotta wonder why it took the better part of a decade to get them on the market. Greg let me play with prototypes in Eldo in September, '75.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 23, 2012 - 01:45pm PT
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Tri-cams definitely make some placements viable that would otherwise not be.
I carry double .5s, a 1 and 1.5 along with wired hexes to a #5 because I like to keep my selection of wires and small cams intact for the rest of a pitch and dump these down low on a pitch and at the belays whenever I can.
If your webbing starts to get crispy then you can easily refit them with webbing.
Most sewing shops won't close the loop for you due to liability concerns but they have no problem laying down a box tack and letting you tie the knot. The box stitching shown gives you the stiffness and control that is useful when maneuvering them around.
Tri-cams work where nothing else will...so I carry them.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Aug 23, 2012 - 02:42pm PT
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Haha, after poo-pooing them, I had to use a tricam for the first piece to protect against a groundfall from a tricky move.
Williams told me I'd want a tricam, so I took a pink and red with me, but secretly decided I'd get a cam or nut in. But no way, the horizontal crack was shallow and flaring. I don't think you could get a cam to even stay in place there, much less hold a fall. But I got the pink and red in together next to each other and they were solid (bounced on them later out of curiousity).
This does highlight the fact that there are places tricams will go that non-users won't even recognize as protection opportunities. A lot of times it doesn't matter; you can protect somewhere else nearby with cams or nuts, but sometimes a tricam really is the only thing you can get.
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philo
Trad climber
Somewhere halfway over the rainbow
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Aug 28, 2012 - 02:19pm PT
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Don't leave stance without them.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Aug 28, 2012 - 05:06pm PT
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I carry a red and pink. been useing them for 30 years but do not consider them nessicary by any streatch of the imagination. I bootyed a brown last week but will most likly sell it. Have not had to place a brown in over 20 years so why start lugging it around now? Never not gotten up a rout that was described as Tri cam esentual yet. Sea of holes is perfect example. First time I did that I left the tricams in the pack by accident. the next time I brought them and forgot to use them ;) the time after that i made a point of finding tri cam placements just for shits and giggles....
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Gilroy
Social climber
Boulderado
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Sep 18, 2012 - 04:31pm PT
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Try to put a camming device here. full admission - part of a 3 piece belay. Butt solid.
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thebravecowboy
Social climber
Colorado Plateau
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tricams offer a cheap sub for a cam and work well even in vertical, parallel-sided Wingate cracks.
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jabbas
Trad climber
New River, AZ
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Mount Lemmon taught me well about Tricams and thus two .5's and Two number 1's sit upon the rack of the unknown !! They live with my nuts and make me larger !!
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Aeriq
Social climber
Location: It's a MisterE
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Oct 20, 2018 - 05:16pm PT
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Oct 20, 2018 - 06:39pm PT
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never been clipped, but still strangely satisfying to place
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two-shoes
Trad climber
Auberry, CA
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Oct 20, 2018 - 07:57pm PT
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I usually have the .5, 1, and 1.5 on my rack. I've been using these since the mid 1980's. They can go where nothing else will. Love them in pockets, pin scars, horizontals, and the solution holes that we tend to find up here at Courtright Reservoir. These things can save your ass!
I once led the whole East Buttress of Whitney with a rack of .5 to #4 Tricams. 8 cams total. I pre-slung every piece with a shoulder length runner, with just one carabiner each. This made for a very light, and versatile rack. I led on 9mm double ropes, and brought my two followers up in tandem.
In about 1988, I was attempting Tobin's Dihedral, at Dome Rock, in the southern Sierra. I took an unexpected, and what should have been only about a 15' fall onto the largest #7 Tricam. I had been up about 40- 45', and, I mean to tell you, when that rope became taught that Tricam blew asunder! (These were the old riveted models that they had used, in the larger Tricams). The rivets shot out of that Tricam, and they ricocheted down the crack, then the broken body of that Tricam slammed me up side the head! The only thing between me and the ground was a tipped out #4 Friend. My trusted belayer, the late Bruce Price, caught me just a couple feet from the ground, having first pulled a good arm load of rope in. Bruce, who felt like an older brother to me, looked me sternly in the eyes and just shook his head. He never did like the looks of the larger bodied, plated aluminum Tricams, and just plain didn't like.
I sent a photo of the Tricam into Climbing magazine with an explanation of what had happened to it. After a few phone calls later, this caused a recall on all larger bodied Tricams. Lowe/Camp drilled out all of the rivets, replaced them with screws, and then sent them back out to their owners. Since then, I've never trusted anything other than the hot forged, smaller bodied ones. After a few years, I noticed that Camp started making them with riveted ones again! I have no idea if I just had a defected one, or what?
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doughnutnational
Gym climber
its nice here in the spring
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Oct 20, 2018 - 08:35pm PT
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Wow two shoe I can't believe you didn't lawyer up after that experience. You could have been a rich man now instead of a humble cobbler.
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two-shoes
Trad climber
Auberry, CA
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Oct 20, 2018 - 09:46pm PT
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The world is made mostly of humble beings. I guess, I was just cut out to be a humble being. Don't know what else I can say Mr Doughnutnatl.
xCon, I've found a lot of good placements for those small Tri-Cams, in those flared cracks, down there in J-Tree, you bet!
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Oct 21, 2018 - 05:49pm PT
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I have seen a broken pink. the roll pin busted right out of the hole.... Took them off my rack 2 years ago to lighten things up climbing in the tetons. they never made it back on.. Nothing like a teton approach to help you make those hard decisions about what is nessicary and what is not....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Oct 21, 2018 - 06:13pm PT
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Tri cams and offset nuts and cams have their uses but the need for them is so limited they never make their way on my rack unless I am climbing a route that specifically calls for them.
Regarding tri cams working well in pin scars...time is short and I avoid climbs that sport pin scars even the ones that (go figure?) get five stars in guide books.
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Aeriq
Social climber
Location: It's a MisterE
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Oct 21, 2018 - 06:53pm PT
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I just ordered bumper stickers!
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