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start raining during lead

ben jammin · · Moab, UT · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 852

Well I can tell ya that if it's on Astro-Dog and your one pitch below your gear at the two boulder bivy, your going to spend a night shivering and cuddling on an awful sized, and sloping, ledge.

jake 356 · · worcester · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 0

Not sure how good in real life it will work but I have heard on slab like Whitehorse and the like a pair of socks inside out over your shoes will give ya a bit of traction in the rain.

germsauce Epstein · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2010 · Points: 55

"Yer gonna dry" amazing... Jim.Dangle... amazing. response of the week.

BirminghamBen · · Birmingham, AL · Joined Jan 2007 · Points: 1,620
jim.dangle wrote:Yer gonna dry!
Keep climbing.

Or....

Downclimb.
slim · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2004 · Points: 1,103
Ryan Kempf wrote:Oh this is good. @ slim circa 2010 "stranger answer.... but yes, water does decrease a cam's holding power as it generally reduces the friction between the lobes and the surface of the crack. water in a sandstone crack is even worse, as it it decreases the strength of the sandstone." You are correct sir, but water is not a very good lubricant to decrease the friction coeficiant with. Now if it were raining KY.... My answer woulkd be different. Go aid climbing in the rain. You will find cams still work just fine.
while i'm impressed with your thread stalking skills, i'm not sure what you mean by "oh this is good". you say this as if i am contradicting myself, which i am obviously not.

my IT guy says you also googled "how do cams work". hope you learned something. but, apparently you aid climb in the rain, which is pretty hard core.
Ryan Kempf · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jul 2011 · Points: 371

Just thought that old thread was funny slim, the KY quote came from there too. Your statements are consistent as well man, but trying to equate a slippery descent to the physics behind "how cams work" (damn IT guys see all) is kind of a stretch. The forces are nowhere near the same. Water may be enough to halt your free climbing endeavors for the day, but your gear should still work. I mean you may not want to take a winger on your top piece, but you should still be able to safely retreat or make upward progress depending on the situation.

Tell you what man. Let’s go do something on Hallett, snows melting and were bound to get rained on up there. Then we could have a spirited debate mid route, now there’s a good story.

slim · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2004 · Points: 1,103

but you have to admit, looking through that thread, the folks that have a good understanding of how cams work stated that water will decrease the cam's holding power. which is direct contrast with your original statement. which is why i called you out.

also, what do you mean by the forces are not the same? when it comes down to it, the adhesion limit is governed by only a few things - normal force, tangential force, coefficient of friction (dynamic coefficient should also be considered for a cam tracking out), shear strength of interlocking components, and compressive strength of the contact patch areas. again, you are throwing out a vague generalization that isn't correct.

you back pedaled early by saying i was correct, but that you would be worried if the lubicant was KY, not water. Now, you are back pedaling further by saying that you might not want to take a whipper on your top piece. if you originally said that water has no effect on cams, why are you now saying that you might not want to take a whipper on your top piece? you sound like you are losing confidence in your original statement (and you should be). sorry to hammer you like this, nothing personal, but when someone makes a statement like your original one i have to try to set the record straight. your original statement leads to running into college kids at the crag, urging their buddies upward while saying "don't worry, i read on the internet that cams are totally safe when it is raining...."

lucander · · Stone Ridge, NY · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 260
bearbreeder wrote:g if you arent climbing in the rain sometime in squamish, you arent climbing enough ;)
Spent a month there last year - guess I didn't climb enough.
bearbreeder · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 3,065
lucander wrote: Spent a month there last year - guess I didn't climb enough.
no you didnt ... not if you only climbed during the dry season =P

heres my partner going TO the crag a few weeks ago up here ... we climbed while it was snowing/hailing/raining ;)

climbing
Russ Keane · · Salt Lake · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 392

Bump-- Interesting thread.

Particularly the discussion about whether cams lose their effectiveness on damp/wet rock.

I suppose it depends on the type of rock, and the amount of wetness, but also I kind of feel that maybe the cam function has nothing to do with whether the rock is wet or dry.

Would love some finality to this question.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Trad Climbing
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