Tricams....anyone still use them?

I love Tricams and use them all the time. I was just wondering how other people feel about them? I don't see to many climbers with them hanging from their racks anymore. I remember when they were standard equipment. I really like the way they place in pockets and horizontal cracks....Well I was just wondering.
Robert

I don't leave the ground on a trad route without my handy pick tricam. I fricken' love that piece. Awesome for anchors in particular.

I always bring my tricams. I love them. They work in many places where other stuff won't. Probably my favorite piece to place.

I'm like Andy, I never lead without them, and it's rare for me not to place at least one pink (I have doubles in pink and red). I also like the new black .25. Tricams are the bomb.

JL

While I find them handy at times, I don't find them necessary. I haven't carried them in a while. I will carry them occasionally if I know there are a lot of pockets on a particular route/in a particular area.

--Marc

Tricams are my 'security blanket'. Before climbing Northcut-Carter on Hallets I bought a couple of extra pink, an extra red, and an extra brown.

Did you ever use the big ones before they were recalled?

Kevin Friesen wrote: Did you ever use the big ones before they were recalled?

Yes, I think they worked great. But my favorite ones are the small ones I really like the new sizes white and black. I'm like the rest of you I think the smaller sizes rock. I have 4 pink 3 red and 3 brown. I don't leave home without them.
If you look at the Camp USA web site the larger sizes are available again I might have to pick up one of each. When I get some extra cash.

My cousin has a set of the Viamont ones viamontgear.com/gear/tricam…
They seam to work really well. I think he picked up a whole set of them on ebay for $50 brand new.

I never climb a trad route without them!

I haven't seen the newer ones yet but I would always carry the first 3 or 4 Pink, Red, Brown and Blue. And then 6,7,8 Hexes for a nice range of passive camming pieces.

There is one climb in Eastern South Dakota at the Palisades a 5.8 as I recall. One climber told me it could not be lead because cams would not hold in the smooth parallel crack at the crux. I got on it to try it as a lead and sure enough the Red Camelot would not bite but a Blue Tricam seamed to lock in fine.

I learned to lead trad at the Gunks, so hell yeah I use tricams! The smaller sizes are indispensable there... I'm sure you could get by with regular cams only, but on average I'd place 2-3 tricams per pitch and one always seemed to find its way into my anchors.

Here in CO, I still use them, but not as often. I don't carry doubles anymore, for instance. The new black one is sweet. The white would probably be handy, but I don't consider it strong enough for free-climbing pro.

I remember someone loved them so much they sported the pink tatt'ed on their arm here on MP.

Love 'em! I carry double pink and red and singles up to #5.

I used to use tricams quite a bit back in NC and still carry them in the small sizes but found that I used them less as I acquired cams in those sizes. Still often use them in anchors though.

I never heard about this tricam recall. Anyone know what sizes and why they were recalled?

I learned to climb in the east in the 'dacks and the Gunks so I have lots of tricams and really like to use them. Something I've noticed since moving to CO is that people consistently laugh at 2 things on my rack, tricams and hexes. Hexes I can sort of understand but tricams are awesome. I'd rather carry a set of tricams and hexes then a double set of cams from .5-3, unless it's desert or GOTG sandstone.

I'm the total opposite. I'd much rather have a double set of cams and a set of nuts than have anything to do with a hard to place, hard to retrieve tri-cam. The mid-sized hexes are nice and sometimes I carry them however (though people probably say the same thing about those). Cams are so light now that the difference doesn't seem enough. I'm sure there are places with lots of tri-cam placements - I've just never been there.

Black and filed Pink rule the wasteland..be sure to add yer gunks style stiffener to these versatile little guys. They do take more creativity to place...perhaps a dying(or never acquired) art for some, but I never set sail without those two. They've been the money piece too many times to be denied a fixed place on the starting lineup.

Viva la Tricam!

Izza wrote: "I never heard about this tricam recall. Anyone know what sizes and why they were recalled?"

The following are about inspection notices for the brown and white sizes:

Brown:
CAMP USA has entered into a voluntary recall for 1.5 Tri Cams with visual cracks occurring from the pin housing area to the edge. We are asking all CAMP consumers who have purchased Tri Cams to inspect the Brown size 1.5 with a lot allocation of �2G.� The size can be identified through the description of each product, which has been permanently sewn to the webbing of each Tri Cam. The lot number can be identified through an etching on the side of each product.

White:
PRODUCT INSPECTION NOTICE CONCERNING C.A.M.P. TRI-CAM 0.125
C.A.M.P. SpA, in conjunction with all international distributors including C.A.M.P. USA, are releasing this inspection notice concerning the Tri-Cam size 0.125 (ref. 9230125) with batch numbers 01-07 and 01-08. We have learned of inconsistencies with the aluminum on a small number of units, which are identifiable via a hairline crack on the sidewall of the Tri-Cam near the pin.
The only product concerned by this notice is the Tri-Cam size 0.125, ref. 9230125, with batch numbers 01-07 and 01-08, which were only available after March 2008. Should the batch number be unreadable on the piece you own due to field use, please return to your local distributor, dealer or C.A.M.P. USA for inspection. No other Tri-Cam sizes or batch numbers are affected by this notice.

The recall was in '87 or '88 for yellow (I think), a wide crack size. I owned that size at the time-I was really disappointed to have to turn it in.

(Be careful of placing a tricam (larger sizes especially with a sharper point) too close to the outside of a crack. In a fall, the single point can fracture the rock.)

(I have accepted that I will lose the occasional pink if time or the route won't let me rap down to clean what a less experienced partner can't.)

Tea, I have never heard of a filed pink-what are the advantages and how much do you file?

Paul Hunnicutt wrote:I'd much rather have a double set of cams and a set of nuts than have anything to do with a hard to place, hard to retrieve tri-cam.

Placing or retrieving tricams isn't inherently difficult; like so many other things, it's an acquired skill, and unless you've spent the time to get the knack with tricams, you naturally won't like them.

Paul Hunnicutt wrote:The mid-sized hexes are nice and sometimes I carry them however (though people probably say the same thing about those).

Hexes are probably another acquired-skill sort of piece, and I haven't gotten there yet. But I'm working on it -- a bomber hex placement is very satisfying!

JL

saxfiend wrote: Placing or retrieving tricams isn't inherently difficult; like so many other things, it's an acquired skill, and unless you've spent the time to get the knack with tricams, you naturally won't like them.

I agree completely. I hear a lot of people whine about getting tri-cams out. I just don't see the problem. Just look at how they are set, think about how a tri-cam works, and boom - it is out. The only time I have had a really hard time with a tri-cam was after someone had fallen on one. But that is the case with a lot of passive pieces after a fall.

I have to back up the other guy who doesn't like Tri-Cams. When I was learning to lead I thoght they were cool and placed them all the time. Lots of them came out. I think you take a big risk when placing tri-cams in camming mode in vertical cracks on lead.

Then I learned they work really well as nuts. Since the sling is so floppy, they tend to fall back into the crack when you are cleaning them. For this reason they are harder than stiff wired nuts to retrieve. They are a good supplement for an anchor and can be handy in pockets and horizontal cracks where they are more secure than vertical cracks. For these reasons I will still carry a few on aid routes but prefer cams on free routes. They are also harder than cams to place with one hand. Even with practice, you just can't jam one as far into hard to reach places as a real cam.

Of course pink is legendary. I wonder how handy the new micros are.