Tricamuary Volume 3. The Year of the Tricam.

The tricam was invented in 1973 by Greg Lowe. Even though it was not commercialized until 1981, that means the venerable tricam has now been sending for half a century. In honor of this semi-centennial, and to increase the inclusivity of those living in geographies that make winter climbing a bit more of a challenge, Tricamuary Volume 3 is now: The Year of the Tricam!

Post your all-tricam sends here all year in celebration of 50 years of the tricam!

Partner and I put up a few routes over the weekend at Chickies Rock in Pennsylvania in honor of tricamuary. We did Main Street, The Library, and Witches Brew (both pitches) on tricams only. We ended up using the .125 - 4. Fun times

Witches Brew (p2)

Totally not sketchy double white tricam placement. Partner said one of the small tricams had a pin sliding out, so he used another tricam to smack it back in.

Cheers

Nice climbs A bit.

Here are the new to Tricamuary lines for me so far, all at North Table Mountain/Golden Cliffs. 

Ypsilon 9-, Retro-crack 9+, Love sex and the IRS 8, Raw Fish and Rice 10b, Unknown Crack (Right of the Virus) 10a/b, and on Superbowl Sunday, a retro trad climb of Alan's Seam 10a sport route. Here's Ypsilon.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of Raw Fish and Rice, but I remember placing two blacks at the roof. Probably another six or seven placements took it to the top.   

Here is a screen grab of the roof on Unknown Crack (Right of the Virus) from a video while being lowered. I sewed up it up and admittedly it got a little crowded under the roof. I opposed two tricams at the start to protect against a zipper, then placed two active pinks before a passive yellow #7. Seven more tricams from black to yellow #6 brought it to the top.

Below is Alan's Seam, a 10 sport route. There's a perfect cammed placement for a #5 with the fulcrum in a shallow pocket to resist the first piece rotation. A passive black near the second bolt, then purple, brown, brown and a passive #7 once you're over the little roof, finishing with a red. Picture credit to my boy (age 8).

Come on everyone, get your tricam on! We have a whole year to celebrate 50 years of excellent pro, where nothing else will go! 

If you don't have enough tricams to run a route on nothing but, and you happen to live in or are passing through the Denver area this year, hit me up. I'll bring the rack.

Trusty #7 on Agnostic at Devil’s Lake on a snowy day in April.

I should have taken photos. When I was in Vegas in… April? I climbed Tunnel Vision as a rest-day climb on just tricams. Until my climbing partner took them away. 

If you like tricams you should see this: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs2YgG9ridG/

and this: instagram.com/p/Cs_jGJpsjeP/

Tricams #6 and #7 on Fat Man’s Misery at Devil’s Lake.

took them off my rack in 2016 and haven't looked back. there is only one climb I have done in over 40 years of climbing where i can say that I really prefer a  tricam in one placement on that climb. its red BTW but the last time i led that pitch i did not have the tri cam and I survived... 

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

took them off my rack in 2016 and haven't looked back. there is only one climb I have done in over 40 years of climbing where i can say that I really prefer a  tricam in one placement on that climb. its red BTW but the last time i led that pitch i did not have the tri cam and I survived... 

did you take them off and shove them up your ass or?

never even thought of that but if you would like them to use as butt plugs I may be willing to sell for the right price. . otherwise they stay on my antique gear wall. 

I've had tricams erase numerous "mandatory run-outs" on both granite and volcanic. They're also better than cams for fragile flakes, as they increase the outwards force by 1.5x and not 2x like SLCDs. Not as good as hexes in that regard, but they're lighter and less annoying than those. 

Ricky Harline wrote:

I've had tricams erase numerous "mandatory run-outs" on both granite and volcanic. They're also better than cams for fragile flakes, as they increase the outwards force by 1.5x and not 2x like SLCDs. Not as good as hexes in that regard, but they're lighter and less annoying than those. 

Why choose between tricams and hexes when you can simply use both?

Andy Eiter wrote:

Why choose between tricams and hexes when you can simply use both?

*Intense TradDadGasm* 

Andy Eiter wrote:

Why choose between tricams and hexes when you can simply use both?

I don't climb hard, but this photo makes me climb hard.

PSA: Consult your doctor if your stacked tricam lasts more than four pitches. 

Andy Eiter wrote:

Why choose between tricams and hexes when you can simply use both?

Do you load the tricam or the hex or both in this configuration?

A highly improbable aid placement which held really hard bounce testing

Matthew Bell wrote:

Do you load the tricam or the hex or both in this configuration?

I only loaded the tricam, and it held as much body weight as I could manage to get on it.

And here’s my tricam tax:

I've been wanting to do more pitches before posting, but so far this year I've only managed to do 1 tricamuary lead and it was even back in January, but here it is:

B-1 5.2 at Joshua Tree done on January 6th, 2023 (I apparently buried all of them pretty deep in there)

I'd like to do more, but I haven't gotten the chance to do much trad climbing in general this season.

I know there are some ER workers on this forum. any patients ever come in  with that problem? A stuck tricam in the rectum that the 2nd could not clean?

Michael Creel wrote:

Don't do that! You'll never get them out.

You just need an experienced partner.   Preferably with a comfortable stance.

Michael Creel wrote:

Don't do that! You'll never get them out.

Brings new meaning to “nut tool”…